Students’ protest continues
By Keti Arjevanidze
Thursday, November 15
Broken infrastructure, the indirect expenditures of the university’s budget, poor priority distribution, the self-government’s re-election arrangement and the resignation of the Technical University Rector, these are the statements and demands the students of Technical University put to the administration of the university and rector, Archil Phrangishvili, on November 13th. Students are not going to stop the protest until their demands are satisfied. The protest began on November 12th.
On the night of November 13, the students of Technical University sat in tents in front of Technical University’s administrative building. The members of the Independent Students Association demanded the discharge of the people who were participating in the kidnap of the students from rector’s office a year ago, on October 26, when they visited the Rector with the demand to improve the studying conditions. On November 1, Technical University students sued over the kidnap case in the Prosecutor Office.
“Unfortunately the people who participated in our kidnap are still employees of the university, we demand their discharge immediately,” declared the students.
The rector of university stated that he has proof, (video material) that from his cabinet the students were not taken by force. “If the people about whom the students speak are guilty, they will not only be discharged but will be arrested too. However, this is the prerogative of Prosecutor’s Office, the fact that the students were kidnapped from my cabinet is not truth, and I have proof and a witness," explained Phrangishvili. “All the administration employees are hired by us, our parents pay them in order to have comfort–not discomfort, they have to perform all the demands which we have, it is their obligation, we do not have to ask them ”said Aleksandre Kobaidze, one of the students.
Kobaidze stated that, many times they have tried to meet the rector in order to discuss the issue, but it did not produce any results; that is why they decided to strike. Kobaidze also added that Tbilisi State University and Tbilisi State Medical University is going to support them.
Kobaidze talked about the audit’s entrance in the university to examine the financial side of the university, as according to him, the budget recourses are not distributed properly in the university.
Kobaidze still hopes that through dialogue with the administration of the university, they will achieve positive results