Today, in the heart of Munich at the Marienplatz, a place frequently visited by residents on their way to work or to shop as well as by tourists because of the famous town hall with its glockenspiel, there was some hot protest action going on. The students of the Department of Cultural Anthropology and African Studies of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität had organized the demonstration since almost all the part-time lecturers had layed down their work this semester.
The situation is the following: part-time lecturers are a valuable base for the academic education at our institute, especially for the upcoming introduction of Bachelor and Master Study Programs. Mostly they are PhDs who are trying to follow a sientific career within the area of Ethnology. Their lectures are valuable to the students because they concern up-to-date investigation, theory, methodology and current interests in general, apart from the usual curriculum held by the professors. Unfortunately though their work is financially not hold in high esteem. Recent calculations led to the conclusion that for every hour of work, which includes the lecture itself, class preparation, revision, and correction of exams, papers, and presentations, payment is approximately by 1,90 Euros. Apart there is no refund for the journey nor for any working material, not even copies.
(Read Newspaper Article: AZ 04.02.2006)
To blame is not the institute itself, maybe not even the faculty, maybe higher not even the university, but rather the ministry of education and cultural affairs, which is not willing to spend more money on academic education, especially on the so-called „luxury“ or „remote subjects“ such as cultural sciences, such as cultural anthropology. The ridiculous is that Bavaria is introducing tuition fees soon, money used to fill in the blanks of the general budget rather than to attribute to where the money comes from … the students.
Therefore, after the part-timers went on strike, this is the first protest action taken by the students who work hand in hand with everyone else in our institute. Speakers were e.g. Wolfgang Wohlwend and Jens Zickgraf as representatives of the student council, Dr. Alexander Knorr as representative of the non-professorial staff as well as Prof. Dr. Heidemann. A combination of protest against the current situation at our institute and against the upcoming use of tuition fees or let’s say „tuition fees as such“.
Be a jugde of yourselves by viewing today’s pictures. (source and more pics in higher resolution: Fabian Klenk)
More information: PROTEST-Blog and Ethno::log.
