Slovensko.Digital Calls on Education Minister to Intervene at FIIT STU

Bratislava, June 26 (TASR) - The Slovensko.Digital platform has joined those calling on Education Minister Branislav Grohling (SaS) and the leadership of the Slovak University of Technology (STU) to resolve the situation at the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies (FIIT), which has seen most of its original lecturers filing resignations effective as of June 30 or August 31. "At the same time we recommend all our members and the public to refrain from cooperating with the faculty until thorough changes are made to prevent the disintegration of one of Slovakia's best faculties," reads an open letter signed by the Slovensko.Digital managing board. "This isn't only about reputation risk for private companies, but also about setting a standard for what we as society are ready to tolerate and legitimise in publicly funded academia," reads further the letter. Slovensko.Digital has called on the resignation of faculty dean Ivan Kotuliak and his associates as the only way to settle the situation. A similar call was made by Slovakia's IT Association on Wednesday. The disputes at FIIT escalated when dean Maria Bielikova was fired from the faculty in early January by her successor Ivan Kotuliak. Shortly after that he hired 18 researches, which is a post that doesn't require official selection process. Meanwhile, this move increased the number of staff at the faculty by 40 percent. In addition, the media have reported that some of the new researchers were active in private companies that were involved in joint projects with the faculty. Dissatisfied lecturers responded to the developments by holding minor strikes lasting one or two hours every afternoon for three weeks in the winter. Then 24 of the original 36 lecturers announced that they would go on full strike as of March 9. However, the tension was interrupted by the novel coronavirus outbreak in Slovakia, as the first case was diagnosed on March 6 and it was followed by the swift imposition of a lockdown by the government. bub