After fourteen years of unpaid leave, Zoltán Maruzsa returned to his former workplace, the ELTE Faculty of Arts, on May 15. Several professors of the university protest in an open letter against the employment of the former state secretary of public education – writes HVG. We contacted Zoltán Maruzsa regarding the letter, who said that he did not wish to comment.
In their letter the lecturers write that they are aware of the university’s labor law obligations, but at the same time they are convinced that “the operation of the university is not only based on legal, but also on moral and professional standards”.
“We consider it particularly important to emphasize that the university cannot be merely a workplace or an administrative organization. The university is also a community of values whose operation is determined by the principles of professionalism, academic freedom, institutional autonomy, professional solidarity and responsibility towards students.” Therefore, they believe that the return of Zoltán Maruzsa cannot be treated solely as a matter of labor law.
According to the educators, the educational policy measures of the past decade and a half have curtailed the freedom of education and school autonomy, putting even the teachers who stand up for them in a difficult situation. “We are convinced that we have a responsibility to the students, the teachers and the university community as a whole not to keep silent about these issues,” they write.
“Our goal with our open letter is not personal stigmatization. On the contrary: we want to promote an open, responsible and honest professional dialogue about the values on which we want to shape the future of our university.”
The authors of the letter wrote that they consider it necessary for the legislator to review the regulations regarding public employees returning to higher education institutions after a longer unpaid leave. “We consider it advisable to develop provisions that provide the universities – with adequate guarantees – discretion in cases where someone has been away from the institution for a long time, for example four or more years, and during this time did not participate in the life of the university either with his academic activities, his teaching work, or his professional relations with the university community.”
The initiators of the petition: Prof. Zsuzsanna Varga, Prof. em. Gábor Erdődy, Prof. Ágnes Szilágyi, Prof. em. Gábor Székely, Dr. Mónika Mátay, Prof. em. György Csepeli, Dr. Vera Szabari, Dr. Lilla Krász, Prof. Csaba Olay, Prof. Gábor Polyák, Dr. Gábor Czoch, Prof. Gábor Schein, Prof. Attila Ferenczi
