Boğaziçi academics turn their back on appointed rector on day 100 of protest

Academics protesting against Melih Bulu who was appointed rector to Boğaziçi University continued their protest on the 100th day.

The academics turned their back on rectorate building as they have done every weekday for 100 days.

A statement made on behalf of all academics joining the protest stressed that they aim not only to reject a rector but also to point out the potential damages which will emerge in consequence of appointments to public researching universities which are institutionally autonomous, transparent and accountable.

The statement included the following:

“While defending those already belonging to us, to the public, to the society, we get our strength from 158-year tradition of Boğaziçi and its practice as a public university for the last 50 years. Whenever we came here as a student, a lecturer, a worker, a graduate or an individual of Turkey’s society, we turn our faces to a comprehensive, inclusive and enriching institutional memory and conscience which is deeply penetrated in every cell of this institution; not to rotten and unrealistic promises and threats. While doing this, we get strength from the future when we will embark on an effort to repair our home which has suffered devastation and damage.”

“In our university, all managers and coordinators of all units, faculties and institutes must be assigned with elections. The managers of Institute of Social Sciences and Institute of Science and Technology, whom we elected through democratic ways, must be assigned immediately. While ending the 100th day of our vigil, we repeat our usual demand: Once again, for the 100th time, we demand resignations of appointed Melih Bulu, Gürkan Kamburoğlu, Naci İnci, Fazıl Önder Sönmez, as well as that of Selami Kuran who was appointed to the Law Faculty that was founded overnight and of Muzaffer Eroğlu who has been commissioned,” concluded the statement.