-----Original Message-----
From: Qualitative research in the Former Soviet Union
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Armbruster
Sent: 15 March 2007 18:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Moscow Sociology Students - Call for Support
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to draw your attention to a website of sociology students at
Moscow State University.
They have posted an appeal for help:
http://www.od-group.org/node/114
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
The students also report the following:
http://www.od-group.org/taxonomy/term/18
The department does not invite outside sociologists to give classes v
neither academic scholars nor market or survey researchers. Instead, most
lectures are given by staff teachers. To quote a
student: ?Lectures on business administration are given by someone who has
never worked as a manager even at the lowest level, and has no idea how
private companies function. He is a religious fanatic and is convinced that
-In Russia, a woman can never become a full-fledged manager.- The
administration does all it can to keep outside teachers away by offering
them a fee of 260 rubles a month (10 US dollars/7.5 euros/5 GBP).
The administration does not inform students about visits by international
scholars. Students at the Sociology Department were the only ones at the
university who did not learn about a visit by the social historian Michelle
Perrot. A visit by well-known sociologist Piotr Sztompka was kept secret:
the department-s administration and a few -select- faculty members met with
him on a Sunday behind closed doors.
Instead of improving the quality of teaching, the administration tightens up
discipline. Attendance control used to be at teachers- discretion; now the
administration forces them to hand monthly attendance reports personally to
the vice dean, Sergei Trofimov. In addition to the security guards, the
administration has installed turnstiles, as if the department building was a
high-security military installation. The department building is literally
stuffed with surveillance cameras. The security guards and the vice
president (in person) ?hunt for latecomers v both students and teachers. A
student reports that ?even professors who are five minutes late are made to
provide a written explanation, not to mention students. The administration
exacerbates this atmosphere of total control by constantly bullying and
threatening students and teachers. Students bold enough to criticize the
administration are often accused of lying, bad manners, over-assertiveness
and even sexual inferiority. A student reports:
?Sergei Trofimov constantly humiliates students. He is unable to solve any
problem without bossing them around. He is incapable even of communicating
with them: he either shouts or threatens them with expulsion, usually
without even understanding the issue at hand. In one known case, a female
student who protested against the turnstiles was forcibly dragged through
them by the security guards.
The dean-s office has distributed a brochure entitled ?Why is the Russian
Land being -cleansed-?, whose authors blame Freemasons for ?starting the
world wars and initiating the creation of the atomic bomb and claim that
?the Zionist lobby - dictates US and British policy, is in charge of the
global financial system (including the issuing of dollars), and practically
controls all major mass media and telecommunications, call Russia ?the
Righteous Country and the USA ?the Beast Country, and quote the ?Protocols
of the Elders of Zion as a reliable source.
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