“SALIDARNASC” DEFENDS STUDENTS

In connection with the fact that three students were expelled from Minsk State Linguistic University, Committee “Salidarnasc” sent out letters of reaction and pressure to Natallia Baranava, rector of MSLU, so that to “clear out the situation, to objectively assess cause of events and give the expelled students a chance to continue their education.”
 
Committee “Salidarnasc” mentioned in the letter that there are grounds to talk about political motivation in decisions about expulsion of Aliaksandr Saldatsenka, Aliaksandr Vialitchanka and Mikita Kavalenka from MSLU.
 
During a personal meeting in Committee “Salidarnasc”, expelled students confirmed by documents that factual reasons for their expulsion were rooted in the fact that they were activists of the “European Belarus” civil campaign.  
 
All three of them served administrative arrests last autumn for participating in solidarity actions with political prisoners in Belarus. Kavalenka was detained once again in January 2012 during a peaceful action near the KGB building in Minsk.

Administrative arrest forms grounds for an excuse for being absent during studies. However, when the young men returned to their “Alma Mater”, they sensed a change in attitude and experienced pressure from university administration.
 
They were told in their Dean’s office that they would be given special attention to as “shaven-headed and having served a hitch”. An official warning was issued to students in November 2011 about “zero tolerance to unlawful behavior connected with participation in unsanctioned actions, meetings or picketing”.
Young men were willing to defend their rights. They launched an appeal to the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Education. They also turned for assistance to “Students’ Council” (an NGO) so that to create an independent students trade union group in their university.
 
A usual scheme was used against the young men: denial of access to exams because of academic deficiency of credits taken prior to the exams session. Some of their professors literally stated that they could not allow for liquidation of academic deficiency in their subject areas because these particular students were being closely watched. Others were a bit more “sensitive” in their opinion and said they were ready to give students a credit, but…later.
 
 
 An expulsion order was issued on February 6, 2012. Upon the official version, expulsion was rooted in students’ academic failure. As the students stated themselves, expulsions were at first sanctioned by the rector’s personal signature, but later the documents were re-drafted with the signature of P.K. Babinskaya, acting rector, thus making the rector herself “abstain” from participation in expulsion.
 
Committee “Salidarnasc” in its letter to the rector of MSLU specified that “Republic of Belarus takes an effort to join the Bologna Process and access the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Politically motivated expulsions may become a serious constraint on the way to such processes in the eyes of international experts and organizations.”