ODTÜ targeted because of polarization in Turkish society, says rector
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
'We have been telling people all along - we believe that liberties are part of university life but people should refrain from violence in their demonstrations,' says Rector Acar, speaking in his office on campus. DAILY NEWS photos, Selahattin SÖNMEZ
Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) is being targeted because of its independent critical stance, according to its rector.
“When you have so few people voicing criticism, you become an outlier.
We are not doing anything different than what we have done in the past 50
years,” said Professor Ahmet Acar on the recent contention linked to the
municipality’s controversial urban development plans that have drawn a strong reaction not only
among the university community but also among those living in the area.
The
dispute pits ODTÜ against the government authorities, making the university a victim of the polarization in Turkish society, according to Acar.
How do you position ODTÜ? What does ODTÜ mean to you?
It is difficult to express a concept in a few words. It’s an out of the
ordinary model for the Turkish education and research environment. From the
very start, ODTÜ meant a different approach to education: to raise society’s
future citizens, not only the required man power for industry or economy, but
training future leaders for modern society. ODTÜ meant to also develop critical
technology as required by societial needs. Our university has been
indispensable in the development of very critical organizations in different
sectors, ranging from electronics to defense, from banking to construction and
chemical industries.
From the 70’s onwards when our first graduates started to assume important
positions in society, the “ODTÜ Impact” was felt. Today, maybe with the
exception of the medical sector, we see ODTÜ graduates in very influential
positions, not only in Turkey but abroad as well.
What is ODTÜ’s philosophy, if we are talking about raising future citizens?
ODTÜ means independent inquiry; it means asking questions. You should have the
mental set up to ask your own questions, and conduct independent research to
seek answers or solutions. When you are scientifically-minded you don’t take
anything for granted. After all, science is a culture of doubt. ODTÜ is about
asking for the best, and working to make the best happen, whatever it takes to
reach the best solution. It is a search for excellence as such.
Where do you place it worldwide?
It is an internationally-recognized and respected institution with a very
strong regional impact. It is one of the main partners of all research and
higher education institutions abroad when it comes to this geograpical region -
Eurasia and the Middle East. We have students from 100 countries. This is the
reason we are placed in the 51-60 band of the top 100 “World Universities by
Reputation” by Times Higher Education, a highly-respected British instituiton
that functions as a global authority on higher education.
Lately however the university has been in the headlines, obviously
not because of its academic performance. What’s going on?
This is not the first time we find ourselves in a clash with authorities. ODTÜ
has always remained independent and autonomous. We had problems with the
military regime in 1960’s, we had problems with rightist governments, social
democrats, and the military regime in the 1980’s, given that we spoke our mind.
This is what a university should be all about. ODTÜ is a large community: we
have 27 thousand students, 5,000 academic and administrative staff, 110
thousand plus alumni. People would inevitably have different political views,
but they also speak their mind. So what has happened here is that some of our
students and faculty members have reacted to recent developments, and the basic
call is for the improvement of the democratic system, enforcing internationally
accepted democratic standards and the promotion of individual rights. There
have been calls on different issues such as reforming higher education law, for
instance. Everybody seems to think that the current higher education law needs
to be reformed, but nothing is being done about it. These calls for enhanced
liberties and a more democratic society inexorably produce a view that this
university is against the current government. We are a university – we are not
for or against any political party. If we live in a democratic society, people
should welcome harsh criticism and protests coming from academia.
Although you said the university has people of different points of view, it
is however believed to be rather left-leaning.
There are people among the ODTÜ family, I am sure, who have voted for the
current government as well as against it. There are cabinet ministers, many
high-level civil servants and politicians from different political parties
among our alumni. It is not easy to label one large community as for something
or against something. The perception may be there because there are so few
institutions or even academics that are willing to criticize. When you have so
few people voicing criticism, you become an outlier or out of the ordinary. We
are not doing anything different than what we have been doing for the past 50
years.
But has ODTÜ been very vocal in its criticisms? Has it been a focal point of an open
opposition?
Some people would like to see ODTÜ as a symbol of opposition, some see it as
the target that should be fought against. ODTÜ is a university; it is not a
political party, it is not the mechanism of a political movement. I think this
is one phase of our democratic development that we need to go through. Our
society is now very polarized, unfortunately. People in traditional societies
would use some authority as reference, to make their decisions rather than
asking questions themselves, doing independent assessments, and coming up with
individual decisions on crucial political or societal problems. People in a
typically traditional society tend to select a leader to lead them, listening
to him or her in order to advise them as to what is right or wrong. In a
traditional society, this behavior tends to reinforce polarization, and
increased polarization consolidates your side of the fault-line. In this
polarized environment, you need easy symbols and targets. This is what I talk
about when I say ODTÜ has become a symbol for a group of people. And another
group have set ODTÜ as a target, (saying) this is the source of our problems,
this is the symbol we have to deal with.
So you are telling me ODTÜ is a target due to polarization among
society and also due to its independent stance.
Yes. There may be a higher proportion of people with leftist views in the
university, but it does not mean we do not have faculty members or students
with different point of views. There are also people close to the current
government; they have a very easy life on the campus, and that’s part of the
freedom in the university environment. We have many projects that are going on
with many government organizations, as well as private firms. It is not as if
the university is not collaborating with the ministries.
But I have heard that ODTÜ has been denied funding, project approvals,
faculty appoinments?
This is true. We are one of few Turkish universities that can compete
internationally. If you look at universities in Europe, Russia, and Iran, for
example, all these countries have developed extraordinary measures to support
universities that can compete internationally, and particularly with American universities.
In contrast here in Turkey, because of the increasing number of new public
universities, the current administration has decreased its funding, at least in
proportional terms, of the more established universities to support the newly
established ones. This has of course taken a toll, although we are not talking
about absolute reductions in our budgets.
We also have had difficulties in getting faculty slots. Even though our student
numbers, our research activities have reached the highest levels to date, the
number of our faculty members has remained stagnant. This is the general
background, but during last year we had extra problems in getting approval for
new faculty appointments from YÖK (Higher Education Board). For example, an
applicant had waited for more than 3 months to gain approval, until she
accepted a position at Stanford University.
So recent incidents are not about some urban planning schemes but they are
rather politically motivated.
Recent incidents about the new roadway have been very much mishandled. This is
a roadway the university has approved for the last 20 years. Part of the
problem is that this road was not built during the last 20 years, during which
time a whole new neighborhood has developed. Residents now resent the fact that
a major roadway is being built in their neighborhood.
What we said is that “ok, we are legally bound to approve this roadway. But
there is widespread opposition; the university administration is not the only
affected party. Talk to all the stakeholders, explain the project, listen to
the complaints. Maybe there could be some modifications to the project in order
to reach a compromise.”
Unfortunately the municipality’s approach was far from it, and the project
became a major political issue. The resistance and clashes continued. But the
municipality moved in as a night-time raid on our campus and started building
the road without waiting for the due process.
What is the due process since you had already given your consent.
For the past two years, we have been negotiating with the Ministry of
Environment and Urbanization, and we thought we had reached an agreement on our
master plan, which includes this roadway. Based on this understanding, we
submitted our proposed master plan to the Ministry last May. However, the Ministry
approved the plans with some major modifications. The legal procedure involves
the announcement of the plan’s approval and a month’s window of opportunity for
all relevant or possible stakeholders to raise their objetions, if necessary.
The decision is not final until the period for raising an objection to the
project expires.
The period will expire on the 4th of November; however, the municipality moved
in on Oct. 18, during the religious holiday. They started construction, which
is not legal. Secondly, they cut down more than 3000 trees, at least 630 of
which that could have been moved. This is a very serious violation of national
forestry laws. We are talking about cutting down trees in a forest area,
certified as a natural site. Even to move one tree, you need to get the
permission of the Ministry of Forestry. Instead, all the trees were cut down
overnight. We had prepared an area on campus for these trees to be replanted.
We have taken the case to court, and filed complaints with the Interior Ministry.
It is also not the first time the university has experienced problems with
the municipality. As ODTÜ sits on 4000 hectares of land; many think the
municipality is after the last remaining green area in Ankara.
That’s definitely the case, and the current mayor has made no secret of the
fact that he would like to get his hands on the university’s lands, especially
the Eymir lake. Six years ago, he condemned 45 clusters of university buildings
to demonition, claiming they have no construction permits. Of course, this was
turned down by the courts. But as he admitted on TV recently, the real reason
the municipality had made such a decision was because some of our faculty
members had expressed opposing views (to the municipality’s projects) when they
were assigned as experts by the courts.
How do you connect Gezi events with the ODTÜ incidents?
People who have been participating in the Gezi movement or opposing them, have
associated ODTÜ incidents with Gezi as an overall opposition to a heavy-handed
government. It is seen by some as related to Gezi protests. But comparatively
it is a more localized issue.
No matter what the connection is, we have been telling people all along - we as
a university believe that liberties and individual freedoms are part of
university life and of democratic society, and people should feel free to
express their opinions, get organized to raise their voices, but on the other
hand people should refrain from violence in their demonstrations.
Unfortunately, there have been so many clashes with the police who have used
tear gas quite liberally. It is a type of blanket reaction that does not
discriminate even innocent by-standers.
What do you expect next?
So far we have tried to solve the issue with as little confrontation as possible,
but we have not seen a similar approach from the municipality. We have issues
to be settled with the Ministry of Environment, and we hope these issues will
be solved without a need to go to court. But we will take our complaints to the
court if they are not settled amicably.
Who is Ahmet Acar?
He has extensive research experience and provided management training and counseling to a wide array of private and public organizations, with a number of publications on strategic management, innovation, small business management, and quantitative decision methods.
At Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), he has served as chair of the Department of Business Administration, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, as well as Vice-Rector, and founding Rector of ODTÜ Northern Cyprus Campus. In August 2008, he was appointed as Rector of ODTÜ.