The University of Hamburg is not happy with Dieter Lenzen because Trustees and AS “push-through procedure”

(Hamburg 20.11.2009) - Today, the Academic Senate (AS) from the University of Hamburg, confirmed Dieter Lenzen as president. Alone the short notice for the meeting in the heavily secured DESY Bahrenfeld speaks volumes – the whole process was not designed to be democratic or transparent and excluded a college audience completely. The university president should represent the entire university and be able to present him or herself publicly. Nothing like this was the case, although on Thursday more than 1,000 students called for public presentation. Many of the students and staff of the University and also the squatters of the Audimax lecture hall hold the confirmation of Lenzen as unjust – as they do the process and even the candidate Lenzen.

Lenzen himself in his speech to the AS patronizingly gave the impression: that considering he was “popularly” elected, he’ll take the job. This borders on extortion. Certainly we shall once again criticize the insidious tactics of the selection committee led by Albrecht Wagner. Firstly the deletion of certain candidates from the shortlist, before they could present themselves narrowed all margins and put those involved in the decision-making process under pressure. The logic behind this is: whoever rejects any of these candidates will only harm the university further (Eat or Die tactic). With this banal argument every candidate in this “electoral process” has been pushed through. To talk of voting is impossible because elections must always have something to do with choice and transparency. We would like to affirm at this point that we reject the decisions of the committee of the High school board at this time because of it’s lack of democratic legitimacy.

Continuar a ler o artigo...After confirmation some AS members came to the occupied Audimax, to read aloud the official press statement from the university – not a word mentioned the displeasure of many niversity members about procedures or the candidates – and questions were raised. One thing was clear, some of the AS members have had significant concerns about the procedure, which they have not expressed in public. We believe such an attitude to “voting” is fatal – because it is easy in retrospect, to criticize things, but does not allow them to be reversed immediately. The AS-member Prof. Schnapp argued that the hastily made decision dated back to the confusing conditions of the AS session held on Thursday at the Mineralogical Museum. This is a flimsy argument because had there been no protests on Thursday against the procedure and the candidates to be elected Lenzen would have been confirmed on that day. This statement distracts from the fact that procedures have been consciously disregarded, providing for a period of time between the election and confirmation of the Higher Education Council of the AS.

Some members of AS reported that Dieter Lenzen had convinced them of his candidacy, among other things, because he wanted to maintain democratic and transparent higher education regulations and structures at the university. (What does this mean?). In this and other controversial points, we doubt that all the members of AS have conscientiously informed themselves about the candidate Lenzen. A call to the AS-members of the Free University of Berlin would have been enough to learn that they must consistently threaten him with the involvement of the local administrative court to exercise their democratic rights. The current FU presidency at the local bureau in Berlin, acting under Dieter Lenzen is anything but “inclusive”. Rather Lenzen makes use of emergency-type test clauses frequently in the Berlin Higher Education – so that the academic self-government suffers as a result.

We will convert our anger at this decision into energy and ensure that Dieter Lenzen will not stay here long. It would be better if he chose not to accept the position. We also hope that he takes his leave from the students at the Free University Berlin, where he has also been adopted. No university needs Dieter Lenzen!

In Hamburg we are reviewing different strategies. One thing is certain: Lenzen is not our president, so we will speak of him in future only by the title “candidate Lenzen”.