University dilemma

University dilemma

The Satya Wacana Foundation, which runs a quality university
of the same name in the Central Java town of Salatiga, might have
believed that it had indisputable reasons to sack Dr. Arief
Budiman from his position as lecturer. But the waves of
demonstrations by the students and a number of senior lecturers
sweeping across the Satya Wacana campus to protest the drastic
decision, raise questions as to whether Arief was the victim of a
system, or in the wrong even though he enjoys the support of the
student body.

If hearing is believing, the chief of the Satya Wacana
Foundation said Arief, holder of a doctorate degree in sociology
from Harvard University, U.S.A., failed to show respect for the
dignity of the foundation and its university. Before the verdict
was handed down, according to the foundation chief, Arief had
been warned twice to behave, but continued to challenge him.
Arief is also accused of having written a misleading article
about an internal campus problem published in a Jakarta daily
newspaper. The article is said to have been based on inaccurate
data and have contained comments on a secret decision made by the
university rector.

Reacting against the drastic action taken toward him, Arief
was quoted as saying that by making such an ill-advised decision
it was the foundation that needed sympathy not him.

Arief, who is known as an outspoken critic of the government,
did show an impressive calmness as dozens of lecturers and
students protested his dismissal on the day it was announced.
They accused the foundation official and the rector of being
undemocratic and of suppressing openness on the campus with an
iron hand.

Arief and many of his colleagues had accused the university
officials of rigging the election in which the present rector was
chosen.

Now we can all see that a prestigious university has failed to
resolve its internal conflict without much fracas.

Disputes seem to have become the fashion on campuses today.
The Jakarta-based National University, the country's oldest
private university, is still waiting for the court verdict on a
law suit it filed against the present rector, Dr. Achmad Baiquni,
a respected physicist. Dr. Takdir Alisyahbana, the university's
founding father and one of the most senior cultural and
philosophical thinkers this nation has seen, passed away recently
while awaiting the court ruling. Like the dispute at Satya
Wacana, the conflict at the National University also involved
lecturers and students.

These campus people seem to have come to believe that
demonstrations are an effective way to get a message across.
Although demonstrations are banned on streets outside the campus,
holding one inside to resolve an internal matter seems to go
unchecked. Apparently our society does not entirely frown upon
demonstrations. Many former leaders of student demonstrations are
now holding strategic positions in the administration.

But at a time in which higher education is developing and
expanding steadily, the dispute at Satya Wacana does not paint a
good picture of campus life in our nation. A university in a
country which is trying to modernize itself has the role of
producing an adequately educated future generation amid an
atmosphere of academic freedom, tolerance towards dissension and
mutual intellectual respect. If a university fails to resolve its
own problems in an intellectual manner, the people involved
should do some intensive soul searching to discover just what it
is that is lacking on the campus.