Phone calls asking “vote for me the next day” to as many people as possible university students, Rousseff-type engagements, dinner parties, late-night club events with popular programs, underground stabbings, internet abuse, favorite satellite candidates for chancellor, leaks to the press, rumors of party support. Byzantium seems symbolic in this period. Athens University. The Faculty of Medicine is of great importance, as the two leading candidates for the post of rector are its professors, and their struggle is described by many as very tough. The reasons why someone wants to become a rector of a university, especially in the VCPA, can be different, as they also have a personal aspect. However, it may help for the correct answer. recognition “K” university and former government leader that “I would rather be the rector of the one and only University of Athens than one of the many deputy ministers or even government ministers.” Moreover, in many cases the position of rector does not preclude a career in the central political arena.

In particular, after two terms as rector, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine Thanos Dimopoulos he will hand over the seat to his colleague, who will be elected under the electoral system first applied in the Kerameo Law 4957/2022. What is this? An 11-member board of directors has been established, which includes six professors from each institution and 5 non-university figures with important work, selected 6. So, tomorrow – from 7:00 to 18:00 electronic voting – about 1600 professors from the University of Athens will vote for six council members. In essence, with a ranking voting system in place, candidates can form alliances and seek targeted votes from other candidates in the same camp. And if 4 members from one group are elected to the council, then they can control the entire council and elect the dean. How; The 4-member group votes for the two friendly outside members and thus wins a majority on the 11-member council and ultimately elects the chancellor.

In particular, 14 professors put forward their candidatures at the University of Athens, namely: Maria Gavuneli (School of Law), Spyros Vlachopoulos (School of Law), Dimitris Kainurgios (Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences), Stelios Kotsios (Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences), Dimitris Drosos (School of Philosophy), Achilleas Chaldayakis (School of Philosophy), Asimina Antonaraku (School of Applied Sciences), Nikos Tomaydis (School of Applied Sciences), Gerasimos Siassos (School of Medical Sciences), Theodora Psaltopoulou (School of the School of Medical Sciences), Thomas Babalis (Pedagogical School), Grigoris Bogdanis (School of Science in Physical Education and Sports), Atanasia Smirniotou (School of Science in Physical Education and Sports) and Nikos Orfanoudakis (School of Rural Development, Nutrition and Sustainability).

However, there are two favorites: Theodora Psaltopoulou and Gerasimos Siassos from medicine, and the main reason is that they teach medicine, in which almost 40% of EKPA university students study. Behind Psaltopoulou-Siassos, information has spread that five other candidates are currently being prepared. “It happens, but all this does not honor the institution”, said the university student in “K”. The two candidates who filled out the list of 14 are outside a certain camp and have minimal chances of being elected.

Some of the 14 candidates, prominent among the favorites, have already started campaigning since the end of 2022. information “K” it is said that the “game” has become too violent.

14 nominations, favorites and the first implemented new electoral system.

For example, telephone calls to voters in recent days have begun to timidly end with constant reminders. And not only. It is significant that evil tongues say that a university student organized a bouzouki evening and two government officials appeared there, who expressed their gratitude for his scientific and research work. In the opposite camp, they laugh at “a research project that party officials might know about!” and claim that “where many roosters crow, the dawn is late. One decides who to support … “.

Of course, the guests talk and express their innocent delight. Thus it became known to one that he took his admirers to bouzouki, and to another that he organized continuous tables in fashionable places and famous Athenian clubs.

At the same time, each camp communicatively uses the failures of its opponents. Like, for example, the candidate’s letter to the competent Vice-Chancellor of EKPA, who, referring to the Constitution, asked to disclose the names of the persons who nominated external members of the Governing Council. The response of the competent authorities was that law 4957/2022 does not provide for this, nor does NTUA and AUTH, which have elections in the near future.

Predictions

On the other hand, “informal” camps insist that they are ahead of the race and leak relevant information to the press, even if it is difficult to predict due to taxonomic voting and the lack of polls organized by the scientific method. Perhaps these predictions are based on social media popularity data for each candidate. In fact, the information suggests that there are “spies” from one camp to the other who even count the likes each post receives to give the internet cafe’s pulse.

“Too much polarization. “We are being killed,” the atmosphere infuriated with mutual accusations and insults, – a student of the University of EKPA told “K” yesterdaystating that “the discussions in camp groups and viber are indicative of the situation and greatly irritate the inquisitive journalistic eye and those professors who have adopted stoic practice.”

“The law establishes a super-centralized, uncontrolled administration”

Many criticize the new system for selecting university leaders, and the rectors, as they themselves told K, put pressure on N.D. (SYRIZA has said it will repeal the law) so that it can be changed after the election. The weak point of the system is that it allows candidates to form camps and purposefully ask their colleagues to vote for them so that one camp controls the entire Council. The same applies to most of the 14 EKPA candidates for the institution’s board of directors.

For example, such as This was reported to “K” by Yannis Cirbas., assistant professor of political science and public administration at the University of Athens, “the system for electing internal members is called the “secret ballot” by the Ministry of Education. It is essentially a ranked-choice voting system in which voters are allowed to rank the available candidates from first to sixth. And the special version of rating voting used in our case is called a single transferable vote: each candidate receives only those votes that are necessary for his election on the basis of an electoral measure, and the rest are transferred to the next election of his voters. multiplied by the coefficient.

Secret ballot issues and concerns about lack of internal controls.

“Basic Grade”

An experienced observer of university events told K that “it seems that the factions around the ballots and the clientelistic relations of the past between leaders and the ruled have not disappeared, but have turned into groups around “candidates with common goals.” There are legitimate concerns, especially since no distinction is made between the executive management and the oversight body of institutions. Since the process of appointing the administrations of the top 10 universities is being completed, a serious and meaningful assessment of its implementation is useful.”

For his part, Professor of Philosophy EKPA Vaso Kindi pointed to “K”. that “despite the misleading rhetoric of the ministry, the law establishes an over-centralized, uncontrolled administration with an all-powerful rector more powerful than ever. A small council of six internal and five external members is created, chaired by the rector himself, who will be one of the internal members. That is, the rector who leads will be accountable to himself. It is planned to create an internal control unit, the ministry said in a statement. But she will also report somewhere (we don’t know where yet), either to the rector of the council, or to the rector of the Senate (the same person). That is, this unit will also be controlled by the administration, but should be in a purely supervising body independent of the administration. But the ministry tells us that the council, together with its rector-chairman, will be an operational management body and there will be no internal oversight. But why do professors from abroad come to it? Will they leave their jobs to take care of day-to-day management as outside board members? Of course not. At best, they will silently relinquish command to internal members who have chosen them for this very purpose.