The Academic Senate met for the first time in its new composition
At the constituent session, the Chairmanship was elected and the Senate committees were appointed. The reform of doctoral studies was also discussed.
The Academic Senate discussed the situation of Russian students and Ukrainian academics
The rising cost of accommodation in the lecturers' house was also discussed, and the admission criteria for the English programs were approved.
At its meeting on 28 November 2022, the Academic Senate of the MU Faculty of Arts discussed the issue of administrative abuse of students from the Russian Federation, which often leads to forced deportations. It adopted the following statement in this regard and appointed a working group to address the issue further:
The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, in view of historical experience, strongly opposes the principle of collective guilt and its concrete manifestations in the form of administrative persecution and deportations. They do so in the context of the increased pressure from the state authorities faced by students from the Russian Federation. At the same time, it calls on the Academic Senate of Masaryk University and the management of Masaryk University to actively address the difficult life situation of Russian students.
The AS FF MU also establishes a working group consisting of prof. Foletti, dr. Rambousek, doc. Štěpánek, Mgr. Varaďa and Bc. Nováček, which is entrusted with negotiations in this matter. They invite students who have encountered similar negotiations to contact this working group at the following address: akademicky.senat@phil.muni.cz.
Subsequently, the funding situation for recently admitted Ukrainian academics, outlined at the previous meeting, was also discussed. It was confirmed that the full central university-wide support would no longer continue. However, the faculty management promised that if some faculty departments ran into problems in budgeting as a result, at least partial support from faculty reserves could be discussed.
On a suggestion from the academic community, the issue of increasing the price of accommodation in lecturers' houses run by SKM was again on the agenda after several years. In this context, both the more general question of the status of lecturers at the faculty and the purpose of these accommodation facilities (short-term, temporary housing vs. long-term accommodation for lecturers) were discussed. Further discussion on this matter was delegated to the faculty representatives in the Accommodation Committee.
At the end of the meeting, the revised criteria for admission to English degree programs were approved.
In the Miscellaneous section, among other things, Vice Dean Šaur outlined the unfavorable situation of the scholarship fund, and SKAS representatives informed about their intention to focus on the satisfaction of students with the faculty café kaFFe, especially by detailed analysis of data from the already conducted questionnaire survey.
The detailed course of the meeting of the Senate is recorded in the minutes.
The next meeting of the Senate will be held on 20 February 2023.
