Eng
Eng
On September 20, students and staff of Odessa Medical University picketed the building of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Health for the third time this year. They demanded to unblock funding. For the first time ever during the confrontation, a representative of the Ministry of Health – an adviser to the Minister Dmytro Raimov – came to the protesters. He promised that a commission will come to the university, which will understand everything in place. The commission did arrive, but its visit has confirmed once again that the crisis is far from being over.
It should be reminded that the conflict between ONMedU and the MoH has been going on since last summer. A.i. Minister Ulyana Suprun dismissed Rector Valerii Zaporozhan and appointed Rector Konstiantyn Aimedov as a.i. Rector. A month later, he transferred his powers to Vladlena Dubinina. At the same time, the staff, to which the law and the statute give the right to choose the rector, did not recognize the MOH appointees. At a meeting of the Academic Council, the staff voted in favor of a.i. Rector Yurii Sukhin. The confrontation with the Ministry of Health continued in the courts, at protests. Dubinina’s supporters have tried to seize the Rector’s office by force at least 6 times. In January 2019, Ulyana Suprun did not recognize the documents signed by Sukhin and refused to approve the university’s budget for 2019. All this time, 3 thousand employees and 8 thousand students have not received salaries and scholarships. Payment of utility bills was blocked, repairs stopped.
In the talks with Raimov, a.i.Vice-Rector of ONMedU Konstiantyn Talalaiev stated that the university is ready to accept the commission, provide all documents and provide maximum assistance under one condition: the MoH will include impartial experts in its composition who would not represent the interests of any party of the conflict. However, the MoH broke the agreement. The commission was headed by two vice ministers – Andriy Semivolos and Mladena Kachurets. Semivolos was greeted with applause – for the first time the MoH delegated to the university its representative, who is known and respected in the industry. Besides, Semivolos is a new man in the Ministry of Health, he did not participate in the conflict around ONMedU. But Kachurets was met differently. The fact is that she was a lawyer of Ulyana Suprun and helped to “document” illegal attempts to seize the university. Moreover, Kachurets’s visit to ONMedU is not the first one. She is remembered to be seen with a gang of raiders who were beating students who came out in defense of their alma mater in one of the raider seizures.
This has been the first four-party meeting since the beginning of the conflict: the ONMedU administration led by Sukhin, representatives of the Ministry of Health, staff and students, supporters of Dubinina – Konstiantyn Aimedov, Maksym Boldin and others. It was not without brawls and booing. Aimedov took the floor in shouts of “shame”. The team explained their reaction simply: Dubinina’s supporters do not have the authority even to simply attend the meeting – they are not employees of the university, members of the Academic or Supervisory Board. “Who are you anyway? Who chose you where? ”Maksym Boldin heard as he took the floor.
With the first words of Mladena Kachurets it became clear – Suprun’s policy continues to live even in the renewed Ministry. Throughout the meeting, the Vice Minister made it clear that the commission was a picture for the media. In fact, the MoH will appoint their person as the rector, again violating the law and the rights of higher education institutions for autonomy. Unfortunately, Kachurets continues the policy of Suprun and her deputy Oleksandr Linchevskii, who was the ideological inspirer of ONMedU raider captures.
Not surprisingly, instead of getting out of the situation, Kachurets offered to continue walking in a closed circle, the Ministry will appoint an a.i. rector who will manage the medical university before the election. And since the court banned the MoH from interfering with the university self-government and appointing ONMedU heads, both sides – the Sukhin’s administration and Dubinina’s supporters – are required to withdraw all their court claims.
The staff did not agree with this plan of action. People are convinced: Kachurets acts in the interests of Dubinina. The purpose of the Vice Minister is to put her in the rector’s seat at any cost. Once again, the Ministry is trying to put the university on its knees, and to transform the staff into servile slaves – without the right to vote and choice, without the right to even receive a salary for their work. The ONMedU staff will never agree to this. People are not slaves and will not become them whoever comes to govern the Ministry of Health.
Only at the first glance, the idea of the MoH may seem conciliatory. In fact, it will aggravate the situation even more. Firstly, the Ministry has already tried to appoint its rectors. All Ukraine knows what happened. Secondly, by the attempt to appoint another a.i. rector the Ministry of Health will again violate the autonomy of universities, court decisions and, most importantly, the law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”. Thirdly, none of the attendees of the meeting believed that the new a.i. may be an impartial professional concerned solely with the fate of the University.
Dubinina and Aimedov, convinced that one of them will become the new a.i. Rector, supported the idea of the Ministry of Health. Contrary to the opinion of the staffm, they demanded that the current administration must be removed from the administration of higher education as soon as possible. Their position provoked a strong reaction from the audience. “Contrary to the will of the staff, you were brought to the Rectorate of the Medical University. We have a video of you entering the office with the militants, knocking down doors, not wishing to meet the staff, hiding in the office, staying there for a month and a half. We’ve seen it all. Unlike other attendees, I do not want to be the rector here. I am here only because the staff voted for me. And you are here on what basis? ”- said Yurii Sukhin in response to Aimedov’s reply.
The lawful ONMedU administration rejected the MoH proposal. Here they insist: first of all, it is necessary to unblock the financing of the university, to repay the arrears of salaries and scholarships, and only after people have received their money, and the university will return to normal work, to “share” the rector’s office. “Today you represent the newly elected President, the new Cabinet. We voted for you, we dreamed that new people would come and stop this mess. We want to work normally. We ask you, first of all, to sign an budget for our people to receive salaries and scholarships, and then – to declare legitimate fair elections, and let the staff choose the best rector, “- asked a.i. Vice-rector Oleh Tarabrin the commission.
After the negotiations, the commission met the university’s trade union organization and the students. Although it is difficult to call a meeting productive, the fact that it did take place is the first positive signal. The ONMedU thanked Minister Zoryana Skaletskaya for the dialogue that had begun and the delegation of Andriy Semyvolos to the commission, who had taken a legitimate and constructive position. The staff expects that their position will be realized soon. Whatever the decisionthe Ministry of Health takes, the main thing is that Odessa Medical University should continue to work, that the right of people to work and get paid for that would be inviolable, that the law would protect the constitutional rights of students for higher education, and that of Odessa citizens – for highly qualified medical care.
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