I would like to bring to the attention of this list the following website for perusal and possible 
further discussion on this list:
http://www.od-group.org/taxonomy/term/18 

I quote: 

CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM SOCIOLOGY STUDENTS AT MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY

Please sign our petition:

We, a group of students of the Sociology Department at Moscow State University, have asked the 
department's administration to improve the quality of teaching, stop force-feeding us with 
ultranationalist propaganda, and ensure acceptable conditions of life and study. In response to 
our demands, the administration has stepped up repressive measures: friends who were 
distributing leaflets have been arrested by the police; individual students have been threatened; 
and the dean's office and a servile student's committee have written a letter to the rector 
(president) of the university asking to clamp down on any unapproved student protest actions, 
campaigns, or meetings on campus. All this is part of an attempt to muzzle us and create a wall of 
silence to conceal the dramatic state of affairs at the department.

In recent years, lectures at the department have become ever more insipid and formal exercises. 
The administration has cut the number of seminars and practical classes. We are allowed to take 
ever fewer course units in neighboring disciplines. We are hardly ever given the opportunity to 
attend talks by outside lecturers. Exam questions are limited to the contents of a textbook 
authored by the dean. The dean's office has distributed a brochure to all students which 
approvingly quotes the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," blames Freemasons and Zionists for the 
world wars, and claims that they control US and British policy and the global financial system.

Studying conditions at the department are unbearable. There are not enough lecture halls, and 
there is no ventilation. The building is stuffed with video surveillance cameras which the 
administration uses to track suspect students. Factory-style turnstiles have been installed at the 
entrance, and the security guards act rudely toward students. We have no library of our own.

We demand that the curricula be changed, competent teachers be invited, students be informed 
about foreign exchange programs, the rude security guards be dismissed, the rigid gating system 
be abolished, and a minimum of basic amenities be provided.

We are seeking a public meeting with the dean and rector. Our main objective is to improve the 
level of teaching and obtain acceptable working conditions for students, but also for the 
department's faculty, some of whom have expressed their support for us.

Details about the situation at the department and our demands, as well as press reports and 
letters of support (mostly in Russian), may be found at www.od-group.org 
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