Montag, 25. Mai 2009

OCCUPATION IN LEIPZIG!

On the 15th of April students in Leipzig started to occupy a building of the university.

The reasons and topics of the protest are manifold: the introduction of tuition fees in other federal states and the threat this poses for free access to higher education, the introduction and realization of Bachelor/Master and overcrowded curricula and seminars are also discussed, the partially failed implementation of the transition phase for the old, still ongoing studies, the decline of solidarity among students and other protagonists of universities due to growing competition, precarious employment at the university and in student every day life, not supplied premises and the lack of a self-managed student area, the promised but still reduced mobility, the current MA/BA educational system, the increasing tendency of school-like university education, the economization of universities and commercialization of the campus, not least for the idea and in this regard the possibility of a better education system for the whole of society are precisely those reasons that can be considered as the causes for this protest. They are discussed, analyzed and systematized.

We are aware of the complexity of the problems that have been raised by our motives. That is why a deeper reflection of the overall context becomes necessary. Not only smaller problems, like course registers, but also larger processes in terms of their content, as for instance the realization of the Bologna process, will be addressed during our protest. Therefore, it becomes self evident that this protest does not constitute a loose conglomeration of societal problems and mutual recriminations. It rather can be seen as a chance for a productive understanding, commentation and action. As a deliberately communicative, peaceful, grass-root, and public protest, it constitutes an attempt to face problems in a critical and reflexive way. In this manner, we reject overhasty recriminations and claims inherently.


We will take time and room as long as we need it!