President appoints new rector of Boğaziçi University ignoring academics opinion

President Erdoğan has appointed Prof. Mehmet Naci Inci as the new rector of Boğaziçi University.

Inci has been the rector ad interim since Prof. Melih Bulu was dismissed by Erdoğan on 14 July after months of protests by students, academics and professors.

Prof. Inci was himself among the main targets of the protesters. In a vote held after Bulu’s dismissal, Prof. Inci and Prof. Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, the other vice-rector, both received a negative vote from the academics (95 percent and 93 percent respectively).

Seventeen rector candidates were determined in the vote attended by 83 percent of the school’s academic staff.

Releasing a statement after Inci’s appointment, Boğaziçi academics said it showed that the university’s will was disregarded. “The struggle we started against the appointment of Melih Bulu on January 2 by saying, ‘We don’t accept, we don’t give up’ was not only against the appointment of a person from outside the university. The main points that we did not accept were that the rector’s appointment process was carried out without addressing the relevant committees of the university, by disregarding the will of the institution and in a non-transparent manner.  After Melih Bulu was dismissed as the rector, we held a vote of confidence for all our professors who had announced their candidacy on July 30.

The results of this vote are clear: While it was decided to support 17 academics, two deputies of Melih Bulu did not get a vote of confidence.”