Original_To:  SLOVAK
Original_cc:  NABELEK
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slovak-l
Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 12:50:00 EST
From:         NABELEK@UTKVX.BITNET
Subject:      Univ. of Trnava

During the last weeks there was no information on the problems of
the University of Trnava.  I wonder what is happening there.
Does anybody know?

Earlier, questions were raised on the legality of Dr. Hajduk's
nomination and on his qualifications.  I believe it was Dr.
Zlatuska who has explained that the nomination was legal.  Dr.
Hajduk was appointed to the rectorship by the former federal
president Havel.  And the corresponding law did not prescribe to
the president any condition for such an appointment.  In the
following, I would like to comment on Dr. Hajduk's
qualifications.

a)  Scientific and Academic Qualifications

Between 1955 and 1967 (in 1967 I was invited as a research
associate to  a research institute in the US), I was a staff
member at the Institute of Physics of the Slovak  Academy of
Sciences (SAV) in Bratislava.  During that time I had occasional
contacts with a group of very fine human beings and outstanding
scientists of the Institute of Astronomy of SAV.  Dr. Hajduk was
one of that group.   I know that during last decades he has grown
into a well known personality recognized both at home and
abroad. Therefore, I have no doubt that Dr. Hajduk's  scientific
credentials qualify him for an academic position of a professor
at the university.

Some contributors have admitted previously that the scientific
Hajduk's scientific credentials were adequate but that he should
have been a university professor.  But should the fact that he
was not a university professor during the communist era be an
obstacle to  Hajduk's nomination under non-communist conditions?

It has been a common knowledge that in communist states
educators were supposed to be communists.  As a matter of fact,
university professors were, in general, party members (or at
least they had to collaborate with the communist authorities, to
follow their directives and secure an appearance of  sincerely
accepting the communist ideology).  Yes, there were exceptions.
But those exceptions, as a rule, had to undergo strong pressures
which  usually lead to their "freely" leaving their jobs.  There
were many able educators who were kicked out of universities for
political or ideological reasons, or other able persons who were
not allowed to become educators for the same ideological reasons.
With his scientific credentials, Dr. Hajduk would be, with a very
high probability, a university professor in a non-communist
system.  But  because he was politically "clean" (as far as I
know he was never a member of the Communist Party) that should
not be held against him TODAY.

Is it not feasible that if Hajduk had  been a communist, and as
such were a university faculty member,  his opponents would have
no objections to Hajduk's rectorship?  Would those opponents like
to have a rector-communist at UT?

The political and ideological restrictions were often much
lighter for "externists", i.e., professionals in industries or
research institutions who were asked to teach a particular
subject at a university.  It was a toss up if they could or could
not teach.  Thanks to that Dr. Hajduk was able to teach
astrophysics at the university in Bratislava for a number of
years.  Consequently, in spite of opposite claims, he has had
teaching experience.

It might be noted that at times educators kicked out by the
communists from their teaching positions for ideological reasons
(they refused to become communists, or refused to document one
way or other their loyalty to the regime, or their great-
grandfathers were landowners) were accepted as scientists to
natural and engineering science institutes of SAV.  These
institutes were at times asylums for people like Dr. Mikulas
Blazek (the director of the Institute of Physics of the SAV at
one time), Dr. Gustav Prokes, etc., who were thrown out of the
Department of Physics of the Comenius University.

b)   Administrative Qualifications

After the 1989 revolution, Dr. Hajduk was the Scientific
Secretary (not "a secretary" as somebody noted) of SAV.  In 1990
I led a delegation of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and
Sciences to SAV and discussed with Hajduk, and other members of
the SAV Presidium, ways of possible help to SAV from the West.
Since then we had further contacts and I met with Dr. Hajduk
again at SAV in 1991 and 1992.  At our last meeting, he was
already named the rector of the University of Trnava and wished
to receive various information from the US related to the
development of that university.  My impression was that Hajduk
was a very able administrator devoted to the successful future of
the UT.

Some contributors to this list expressed an opinion (or even
claimed it to be a law) that a candidate for rectorship has to be
a professor first.  In general, in Czech and Slovak Republics,
even to the professorship one is supposed to climb the university
ladder.  I would like to mention that in many states that is not
the case.  A rector is to be an administrator, not a teacher.
Therefore, his teaching abilities should not be of prime concern
for the nomination.  As a rule, in Germany for a professor or a
director of a university institute is nominated somebody from
outside of the university system - from the industries, etc.  I
am not sure if in Germany that applies to the rectorship too.
But in the US it applies to that position as well.  E.g., the
president ("rector") of the University of Tennessee is nominated
by a Board of Trustees.  Few years ago, that Board named for the
president of our University Lamar Alexander, a lawyer and a
former governor of Tennessee.  He is now the US Secretary of
Education in the US Government but did not have any academic
experience.

c)   Nomination Process

As mentioned before, some insist that the Hajduk's nomination
process occurred according to law, others question it.  The
decision if the process was legal should be up to the court of
justice.  Undoubtedly, in any case the court would take into
account the circumstances - the country in turmoil, new laws
being introduced, the old communist laws being thrown out, etc.
Somebody on this list claimed that five other rectors of Slovak
universities were not faculty members when they were nominated.
As I recall, nobody on this list has confirmed or denied that
claim.  If the above were true, how could one justify using a
particular criterion only in a single case but not in other
cases?

CONCLUSION.   I believe that Dr. Hajduk is well qualified for
being the rector of the University of Trnava.  I am not in a
position for judging if his nomination was political or not.
Until George Frajkor characterized Hajduk as a "Czech
propagandist" (or something like that) I had no idea if Dr.
Hajduk was for CSFR or for a separate Slovak state.  (And, as a
fact, I still do not know it.)  May be his nomination was
political, may be it was not.  But the present attempts to remove
him from the rectorship have been, very obviously, purely
political.  If an independent court of justice decides that
Hajduk's nomination has been legal, then Hajduk should keep his
position.  If it has been illegal, he should resign.  But the
means that have been used for Hajduk's removal have been
unprecedented in a democratic system.  To prevent the rector an
access to the university by changing the locks on the doors (the
change personally assisted by the minister of education and
science !!!), to stop salaries to the staff, to try to eliminate
the whole university, etc., is incredible!  It is undignified and
it throws a very, very bad light on the present government of
Slovakia.

        Igor Nabelek

P.S.

From the declaration of the students of the University of Trnava
posted here on Nov. 11, 1992, it has been obvious that the
students disagreed with the Ministry of Education, that they
asked the Ministry to free the funds and to stop political
manipulation.  Shouldn't the Hajduk's opponents take the will of
the students into consideration?
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