(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)
The Academic Plenum initiative said in a press release on April 1 that the previous day's police raid of the University of Belgrade Rectorate building was a bare-faced act of government violence and an attempt to do away with the University's autonomy and subsequently shut down state universities.
"The Academic Plenum and Teachers for Students, which bring together university professors and teachers in primary and secondary schools in Vojvodina, fully support University of Belgrade rector Vladan Djokic, who has been the main target of the tabloids and the government-run apparatus of repression merely for consistently supporting the students -- the future of this country," the press release read.
The initiatives' statement added that they were proud of their counterparts at the University of Belgrade for defending their rector and higher education in general. "As on day one, today too we firmly stand by the students who launched the irreversible process leading to change and a more just society, to which we all aspire. We are willing to come to Belgrade at their invitation and join the other citizens in not allowing the University in Belgrade to be shut down, and subsequently all universities in the Republic of Serbia," the Academic Plenum said.
The statement went on to say that universities must remain places of free thought, critical spirit and the truth. At the same time, they urged Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to call an extraordinary parliamentary election without delay as a way out of the social crisis in the country.
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