By Justina Poškevičiūtė
April 1, 2013
With the anxiety surrounding finals, coupled with the joy in completing another challenging round of classes, the end of a semester always brings a stressful but exciting mix of emotions to student life at CEU. It’s hard to escape this mix of energies that flies around the CEU campus - but this spring, there is a new kind of energy around the CEU library in particular. Most CEU students who have been studying outside the library over the last few days have seen posters that are hanging all around campus - with slogans like “Guard Your Guard” - and a similar open letter and petition has been making the rounds on Facebook as well. I sat down with Emily Daina Šaras, the current President of the Student Union here at CEU, to learn more about the open letter and petition published by our student government last Friday.
POŠKEVIČIŪTĖ: For many students at CEU, the circulation of this open letter and petition has come as a shock - and many don’t fully understand what is at stake here. What is the very essence of the issue at hand?
ŠARAS: Simply put, this initiative is a student-led protest that is rightly concerned about the recent release of a CEU security staff member from her job. We were informed that the one female security guard on staff - known to all for her friendliness and willingness to help others - has been dismissed from her position. The reasons for her release are still unclear. Students want faculty, staff, and administration to know that we are looking to CEU, an institution that promotes dialogue, transparency, diversity, and equality, to reconsider the practices by subcontracted companies under the institution’s employ. The case at hand has caused a lot of students to wonder about the practices of age and gender discrimination - which we learn to investigate and critique within our CEU coursework - and whether or not these practices might be at work in companies that CEU partners with or employs.
POŠKEVIČIŪTĖ: I understand. How has the CEU Student Union taken action on this issue? Are there other forms of protest happening at CEU as well?
ŠARAS: Members of the Student Union Board, together with several passionate students from the Sociology, Gender Studies, and History departments, worked together to craft an open letter that encapsulated our concern. After the Board voted on the final draft, the letter was signed, stamped, and distributed. The letter went public online, and was delivered to key members of the CEU administration in hard copy form. While a petition was started online to amass a large amount of signatories that agree with the Student Union letter, signatures were collected in hard copy form specifically on behalf of restoring the job of the employee in question, which were delivered to the CEU Rector. Students are also working on this advocacy project in working groups outside of the realm of CEU Student Union’s operation. These groups will continue to work together over the coming weeks on the many facets of concern involved with this project.
POŠKEVIČIŪTĖ: Why should CEU students - and the greater CEU community of alumni, professors, staff, benefactors, and administration - be compelled to take action? What can they do to help?
ŠARAS: It might be a trite saying, but it’s true: here at CEU, we should practice what we preach. Or in this case, teach. Many students, including myself feel especially empowered by our new knowledge and understandings of how to be critical of the systems and institutions around us after only six months of coursework. Those of us who know, love, and appreciate the CEU security staff - and the many other workers at CEU that are employed through subcontracting - should take a moment to sign our petition. This will help to ensure that the administration hears our call to investigate the terms of employment of CEU’s subcontracted workers. And for a more immediate, short-term goal - we hope our petition puts on pressure so that the worker in question can return to her job at CEU.
Please consider signing our open letter and petition here - http://chn.ge/11UF29e We hope that you invite your friends, fellow students and alumni, and other members of our CEU family to sign as well. Those who want to be involved with the student working groups can request membership on the “CEU Action Group” forum on Facebook. For more information, visit our petition at the aforementioned link, or contact the CEU Student Union Board at studentunion@ceu.hu.
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