Popular Teacher Loses His job, Peers and Students Protest

Popular Teacher Loses His job, Peers and Students Protest

As he says, “The voting math was indeed right,” but behind it is the fact that we live in a society that is conducive to negative selection and development of personal frustrations.

Medenica, Professor of History of World Theater and Drama, was the only candidate for the post of full professor in his field and, given his impeccable track record, he received a very positive review and reference report by the tripartite board that nominated him to the electoral council.

The electoral council adopted the report on the former associate professor without any deliberation or objections, but the secret ballot failed to produce a sufficient number of votes. The quorum was quite thin, and the attending 37 full professors (there are 50 of them in total) cast 24 votes in his favor, 12 against, and one abstention. He was two votes short of being elected.

“This is an unprecedented case at the Faculty and the University in general. There were no public objections, but in secret a person has been ‘assassinated’ so as to prevent him from advancing in his career,” Medenica told TV Prva.

As he said, the fundamental reasons for the ‘assassination’ are subject to speculation, but he believes that they are largely brought on by vanity. Talking to Beta, he said that most likely it was a personal vendetta.

“I am an active theater critic, and I wrote about my colleagues. Moreover, behind us is the very successful BITEF. This decision has no political background, but rather a social phenomenon that has been present for decades – the degradation of criteria, brain drain, and lack of standards. The Faculty of Dramatic Arts still has exceptional professors, but the society I live in is conducive to negative selection and development of personal frustrations and there can’t be any other reasons,” Medenica said.

The man who has successfully ran BITEF “on the back of a frenzied bull” also said that throughout his career his reviews had always earned him negative points, “but never so that his career would be threatened.”

Medenica was immediately met with support by numerous colleagues and students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, who in 2015 also voted him as one of the three best professors in Serbia. In the meantime, the Faculty’s dean has announced a new competition – which is yet another precedent. Medenica is unsure if he will apply.

“My main reason for possibly staying at the Faculty would be the students. And, of course, quite a few of wonderful colleagues with whom I worked together on scientific, publishing, and other faculty projects. If you succeed in fighting for your rights, interests, and justice, and not for me, I will have no other option than to stay with you,” Medenica announced on social media.

However, he says that he's not sure he wants to continue working in “such an environment.” In his post on Facebook, Medenica wrote that this situation could still turn out to be useful for the Faculty of Dramatic Arts.

“Greek tragedies teach us that sacrificing the king was a ritual of healing the community (I hope you know that the best example is Oedipus the King). Nor am I a king – there are many other top professors at the Faculty – nor is this a Greek tragedy, nor do I, pardon me, really want or like to be a victim. But if we take the analogy at least utterly provisionally, I am sure that this ‘assassination’ will benefit all of us, above all the Faculty of Dramatic Arts,” Medenica wrote.