CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM SOCIOLOGY STUDENTS AT MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY

www.od-group.org 

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 formal and
insipid. 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.

How can you help?

If you support our demands, please send us an e-mail ([log in to unmask])
stating your name, institutional affiliation and position, or leave your
details at our web site, www.od-group.org. Please write to the dean and the
rector to express your concern, in any language, with a copy to our address.
We also ask you to spread this letter widely among your friends and
colleagues and ask them to support us. Any advice on how best to achieve our
objectives would also be greatly appreciated.

Moscow State University Press Secretary: phone +7-495-939-36-67; fax:
+7-495-939-22-64;
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]; 
Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University: phone
+7-495-939-10-00; fax: +7-495-939-01-26; 
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]; 
Vladimir Ivanovich Dobrenkov, Dean of the Sociology Department: phone/fax:
+7-495-939-46-98; 
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]; или [log in to unmask]; 
Administration of the Sociology Department: e-mail: [log in to unmask]; 
fax: +7-495-939-46-98.


What is happening at Moscow State University’s Sociology Department

We, students at the Sociology Department, are protesting against our
studying conditions and the administration’s despotic behavior. In the
spring of 2006, a first attempt to discuss the issue of students’ access to
the cafeteria with the dean’s office was met with a refusal to talk and
outright threats. So we took matters into our hands. On February 28, 2007,
friends from other universities came to distribute information leaflets in
front of the department building. They were immediately arrested by the
police. This was followed by more threats and a smear campaign by the dean.
Student representatives were asked to report on “unreliable” students, and
the officially-sanctioned students’ committee “spoke out” in the name of
all students, asking for the troublemakers to be punished. It has become
clear that the administration is trying to use any available means to muzzle
us. The reasons are obvious: this is an attempt to conceal the unbearable
studying and living conditions at the department.

Here is a description of the state of affairs at the department, compiled
from observations by students and faculty.


The curriculum is unbearably tedious, and teachers are not allowed do to
anything about it.
The “education” at our department is purely fictitious.

In recent years, lectures at the department have become ever more formal and
insipid. The administration has cut the number of seminars and practical
classes. We are allowed to take ever fewer course units in neighboring
disciplines. Exam questions are limited to the contents of a textbook
authored by the dean. Both students and faculty are put in a straitjacket of
formality and incompetence.

*	Over fifteen recognized scholars have been forced out of the
department in recent years. They have been replaced with young, incompetent
careerists.
*	Staff teachers are not given the opportunity to conduct research and
discuss it with their students. Instead, the administration forces them to
stick to useless textbooks.
*	No contemporary scholars are ever mentioned in the courses. Students
are not kept up to date with current work and debates in sociology.
*	Practical classes are taught by mediocre recent graduates rather
than experienced researchers.
*	The curriculum is full of absurd topics, including even religious
education.
*	No outside lecturers are invited to speak at the department. The
administration is doing everything to keep students from acquiring practical
research skills and knowledge about interesting developments in sociology.
*	The administration keeps visits by international scholars secret and
is blocking exchange programs with foreign universities.


Conditions at the department are reminiscent of a barracks.
*	Classes start as late as 2 pm and run until late at night.
*	The building has no ventilation. Students and teachers choke in the
cramped lecture rooms.
*	When professors are five minutes late, they are reprimanded like
schoolboys.
*	There is a rigid system of attendance control that contradicts the
spirit of an institution of higher education.
*	Severe penalties are imposed on students (even doctoral students)
who take up a side job to support themselves.
*	Recalcitrant students are humiliated, intimidated and labeled
“sexually defective losers.”
*	The administration asks students to report on “unreliable” fellow
students.
*	The dean has ultranationalist brochures distributed at the
department and forces students to attend their authors’ lectures.


The teachers keep silent, because most of them have open-ended contracts,
and are not even given a copy! We, however, have nothing to lose.

Our demands:
1.	Introduce courses taught by professional sociologists recognized by
their peers: scholars with an interdisciplinary outlook who collaborate with
Russian and foreign research centers, as well as professionals working at
successful private agencies.
The students will draw up a list of teachers they would like to see invited,
and expect the administration to offer them acceptable fees, as has been
done at sociology departments at other universities.
2.	Invite recognized foreign sociologists from international
universities and research institutions.
The administration must also inform students of visits by foreign scholars,
and organize seminars open to all.
3.	Provide detailed information about foreign exchange programs.
This information should be posted publicly on notice boards in the
department building. There should be open competitions to select students
for participation in these programs.
4. Use up-to-date research-based scholarly books and articles by Russian and
foreign authors as part of the curriculum.
These, rather than second-hand textbooks, should make up at least 40-50% of
the curriculum.
5.	Get rid of the turnstiles and the rude “special” security guards.
Regular (and polite!) security guards are sufficient to ensure security at
the department. The turnstiles and internal passes are humiliating to
students.
6.	Dissolve the servile official students’ committee, students’ union
and students’ commission. Hold open elections to choose student
representatives in the department’s administration.
7.	Arrange a public meeting between students at the sociology
department and the dean, Vladimir Dobrenkov, as well as the Rector of the
University, Viktor Sadovnichy, to discuss the situation at the department
and our demands.


We need your support!

If you support our demands, please send us an e-mail ([log in to unmask])
stating your name, institutional affiliation and position, or leave your
details at our web site, www.od-group.org. Please write to the dean and the
rector to express your concern, in any language, with a copy to our address.
We also ask you to spread this letter widely among your friends and
colleagues and ask them to support us. Any advice on how best to achieve our
objectives would also be greatly appreciated.

Moscow State University Press Secretary: phone +7-495-939-36-67; fax:
+7-495-939-22-64;
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]; 
Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University: phone
+7-495-939-10-00; fax: +7-495-939-01-26; 
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]; 
Vladimir Ivanovich Dobrenkov, Dean of the Sociology Department: phone/fax:
+7-495-939-46-98; 
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]; или [log in to unmask]; 
Administration of the Sociology Department: e-mail: [log in to unmask]; 
fax: +7-495-939-46-98.


Details (in Russian) may be found at our web site:
www.od-group.org



A few facts about the Sociology Department:

u	In recent years, fifteen recognized scholars have been forced out of
the university, including Professor Vladimir Nikolayev, one of the few
Russian experts on the Chicago School and translator of Robert Park, Everett
Hughes, Alfred Schütz, Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman; Professor Elena
Kukushkina, a well-known expert on pre-revolutionary Russian sociology;
Professors Youliana Tolstova and Oleg Ivanov, experts in the mathematical
modeling of social processes; Professor Vyacheslav Shtcherbina, a leading
theorist of organization sociology and consultant to a number of large
Russian companies; Professor Andrew Degtyarev, a well-known Russian expert
in political sociology and member of the International Sociological
Association’s research committees on Political Sociology and Urban and
Regional Development; and Professor Helen Shestopal, a well-known social and
political psychologist and vice-president of both the International and
Russian Political Science Associations.
u	Experienced and well-known teachers have been replaced with young
careerists promoted by the dean. They freely acknowledge their own
incompetence: “I am very surprised I have to teach this course. I don’t
have much of a clue about it. But we’ll find something to talk about…”
u	Irrespectively of the subject, the lectures are full of
never-changing clichés. To quote a student: “Every lecture starts from
scratch: we start with a definition of what sociology is about and stop at
the third page of the textbook. At every lecture, we ask ourselves: ‘Is
this really what the social sciences are all about???’” In some cases,
faculty members refuse to teach a class because they find it unacceptable
simply to read out chapters from a textbook as they are told to.
u	Staff teachers are not given the opportunity to conduct research and
discuss it with their students. The administration asks them to teach
full-time and literally takes away any outside research grants they are
awarded. As one teacher witnesses: “Obtaining a research grant through the
department means that you have to do unpaid extra work. The grant money is
transferred to the department and ends up in other people’s pockets.”
Teachers must keep quiet about this if they want to keep their posts.
u	The department does not invite outside sociologists to give classes
– 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).
u	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.
u	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
– 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.”
u	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.
u	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.

The situation at the department has been deteriorating for several years.
Unless we act now, our “education” will be reduced to a system of
denunciation and public West-bashing.

Please support our struggle for a decent university education!