[spectre] (fwd) Istanbul Bilgi University VCD: Sued and Sacked

Thu Jan 13 14:30:08 CET 2011

Do not stirr in a pot full of shit, unless you exactly are knowing  
what you are doing and be prepared to bear the consequences.

Do we need to feel sorry for these 'academics' who overruled their  
integrity by letting pass such a mundane and evident research  
regarding investigations in the porn industry as an academic field of  
interest without taken the necessary precautions about its discutable  
premisses as suited for an academic study in the field of Visual  
Communications and should not it be part of the curriculum of the  
Sociology or International Affairs faculties?

Just because of the Bologna regulations there is a lot of private  
capital invested in a bunch of so called universities without a  
properly established and formulated academic ground to build upon

Is this not an example of the happy failure of a neo liberal attack on  
academics and should not we be content with its failure?

Andreas Maria Jacobs

w: http://www.nictoglobe.com
w: http://burgerwaanzin.nl

On 13 Jan 2011, at 14:04, Andreas Broeckmann <ab at dortmunder-u.de> wrote:

> Subject: Istanbul Bilgi University VCD: Sued and Sacked
> From: Ahmet ATIF AKIN <atifakin at gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:06:25 +0200
>
>
> Dear Collegues,
>
> We'd like to inform you about the recent developments regarding our  
> former department and the executives.
> On the 3rd of January 2011 we are sacked and sued by I™stanbul Bilgi 
>  University, with the head of the department and the program coordin 
> ator. The accusation is evaluating a senior project with sexual cont 
> ent.
> You may follow the issue from some international press as well.
>
> http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=response-to-porn-scandal-by-istanbuls-bilgi-university-violated-academic-freedom-protesters-say-2011-01-10
> http://www.aolnews.com/tag/bilgi%20university/page/2/?rsnph=&sfanph=
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12142630
> http://www.tepkivecagri.com/
> http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=is-bilgi-a-8216for-profit8217-university-2011-01-11
> http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/World/20110111/1664721.html
> http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,738616,00.html
>
> Also university put a charge on the prosecution now and now we are  
> dealing with the legal issues and lawyers not to be sentenced on  
> legal court.
>
> Attached you will find a document with detailed logs of the event  
> and our final comments.
> Finally, also we would lie to assure you for our future  
> collaborations not under the name of Bilgi but with the same people,  
> know how and the spirit.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Prof. Dr. Ihsan Derman
> Ali Peks¸en, MA
> Ahmet Atif Akin, MSc.
>
>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> We would like to inform you about the recent situation at the Visual  
> Communication Design and
> Photography and Video Departments in Istanbul Bilgi University.
>
> In the academic year of 2009-2010, one of our Photography and Video  
> students proposed a
> video project with a sexual content based on the premise that  
> amateur porn movies are often
> professional productions which simulate the look of amateur,  
> individual and/or homemade
> movies. He produced the amateur looking movie with sexual content  
> showing the backstage of
> the set at the end of the movie proving hat there is professional  
> production equipment and crew
> behind it. The final project submitted was found unsatisfactory in  
> terms of conceptual statement
> and production quality, thus the student failed the course.  
> Following semester he received a
> grade D (pass on probation) and graduated on account of cumulative  
> GPA.
>
> Six months after the student's graduation a Turkish weekly magazine  
> named Tempo published
> an interview regarding this thesis project and then mass media  
> attention followed. On the
> evening of January 2, two days after the Tempo report, with the  
> instruction of the Rectorate,
> the General Secretariat forced students and academics to leave their  
> offices in the E1 building
> escorted by security guards. Access to the building was blocked and  
> the university's technical
> team changed the locks of all offices, laboratories and studios in  
> the building without any
> consent or prior notice. No state police officers were present  
> during the university officers'
> invasion. At the same time, department websites and students'  
> servers were shut down. The
> Dean's office sent an e-mail announcement that the office locks had  
> been changed and staff
> working in the E1 building may not enter the building without any  
> further explanation.
>
> On January 3rd, the Rectorate sent an e-mail to the academic staff  
> announcing that three
> instructors were dismissed from their posts based on the Tempo  
> magazine report and that a
> criminal complaint about them had been lodged with the Prosecution  
> Office . Names of the
> dismissed staff were not mentioned in the e-mail. They are Prof.  
> Dr. ?hsan Derman, Head of the
> Visual Communication Design Department, Ali Pek?en, Coordinator of  
> the Photography and
> Video Program and Ahmet Atžf Akžn, Project Course Senior Coordinator 
> . None of the instructors
> were given an explanation by the university administration, nor the  
> right to defend themselves
> before or during the incident. The following day, the police were  
> involved in the situation, their
> offices were searched, and computer hard drives were copied.
>
> We believe that in an academic environment, research topics should  
> not be restricted. The
> duty of an academic advisor is not to censor the subject of the work  
> but rather to assess the
> said topic within the related research field and to guide the  
> student to contextualize it. Dismissal
> from university, moreover prosecution can never be legitimized and  
> excused in the context of an
> independent academic environment.
>
> Today as we are confronted with a business mind not only merely  
> disregarding academic
> careers and the personal rights of academics, who invested their  
> time and knowledge in
> hundreds of students, but also violating the fundamental principles  
> of a university founded on
> the premise of 'freedom of knowledge', we invite you, as freinds and  
> the institutional partners of
> Istanbul Bilgi University and the Visual Communication Design  
> Department to support us in our
> case.
>
> It is impossible to think this occasion is independent of the neo- 
> conservative trend in our
> country. As the academia is forced to challenge in between higher  
> education council in Turkey,
> Bologna Process in Europe, and neo conservative finance  
> capitalization of Istanbul we are
> concerned to see more of these ocaasions in the near future.
>
> ______________________________________________
> SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
> Info, archive and help:
> http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
>