No Guards or Repression at Croatian Studies - Current Events - Croatia

Only a few students gathered at the plenum, because most students attend classes at that time. Only 5 students interrupted classes.

ZAGREB, CROATIA - “There are no security guards at Croatian Studies or any repressive measures! The only repressive measure that is being carried out at the faculty is the handful of students who are impeding most students from normally attending classes. Today exactly five of them tried to disturb classes, but the classes were held. The students want to attend classes and exams, and that is the will of the majority” said Jelena Jurisic, the pro dean of the Croatian Studies faculty in Zagreb. This was a response to media headlines that the faculty board hired security guards to stop student protests at the faculty.

The students stress that they want the constitutionally guaranteed right to education at all levels – undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. They also stress that the Bologna system does not allow the so called eternal students to exist, which was presented as a problem and obstacle in achieving free education.

Only a few students gathered at the plenum, claims pro dean Jurisic, because all of the other students attend classes at that time. The so called plenum, she says, is not recognized by the faculty board or her, and according to her there are legitimate bodies where it is appropriate to decide on the next steps towards a concrete agreement.

“We respect the decisions of the Senate, because we consider that the methods of blocking classes and interrupting other students does not lead to anything. The faculty has supported the demand for free education since the beginning, but we call for gaining concrete solutions in reasonable ways, and not with blockades” concluded pro dean Jurisic.

At today’s press conference at Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, students from the Croatian Studies faculty will get an opportunity to publicly talk about the violation of student and human rights at their faculty. However, despite the student rebellion fading away throughout Croatia, the students from the Faculty of Humanities, which is the alpha and omega of the protests, are persistent in their methods, and are into their third week of blocking classes.