Intimidation at Ordu University ‘tip of the iceberg’

In a society where employees are only expected to perform well according to predetermined criteria, where loyalty to superiors and management is tested through the nightmare of contract non-renewal, where there is a desire to transform universities into subsidiaries of monopoly capital, those who say "a university should not be like that" will be treated as spanners in the works, writes Nuray Sancar for Monthly Review.

That's the reason why an investigation was opened into seven academics at Ordu University – for hanging on their doors left-wing education workers' union banners declaring: "We want a university for the benefit of humanity, nature and society.” The hastily prepared investigation’s minutes said only that the academics hung the banners without permission, omitting information about what the banners were about.

On the same day, however, Assistant Professor Deniz Yýldýrým, one of the seven, learned that he faced disciplinary punishment because of his speech on the draft law on the Council of Higher Education, or YOK. The development at Ordu University may be seen as an indication of what is in store for academia. But according to academics at a recent workshop organised by the "Academia Won't Be Silenced Platform", what happened to Yýldýrým and his colleagues is only the tip of the iceberg.
Full report on the MR Zine site