Above photo is taken at a public university in Turkey. It
may not seem remarkable at first glance. Just another plain cement building,
reminiscent of the uninspiring public sector.
However, what makes it interesting is the two words written
above those doors: “Student Entrance”
(Öğrenci Girişi)
Few feet away, just around the corner is another door. “Faculty Member Entrance” (Öğretim Üyesi Girişi) it says.
I am sorry, but having separate entrances for the academic
staff and the students -at a public university, of all places- reminds me of
the Jim Crow laws in the US. This is segregation
to me, no matter how you swing it.
What could be the rationale for having separate doors for faculty members and the students? Are the
university students a wild pack that we need to avoid when getting in and out
of the buildings? Would the mighty professors get stepped on if they walked
with the common folk? It just doesn’t make sense…
The problem of hierarchy
and super rigid pecking orders under
the roof of what is supposed to be a universal institution of higher education
bothers me a lot.
When I was teaching at a public university in Ankara, my
university had five (yep, FIVE) separate lunch halls depending on your status
in the pecking order.
At the bottom were the students. They had their separate place
and God forbid, if they dared to show up at the other lunch halls. Their cards
wouldn’t work and they would get scoffed at.
Then came the super rigid ladder for the staff. The lowest step
was the manual laborers. They had
their separate quarters tucked way in the back. Only once I peeked my head in,
for I had lost my way. Instantly everyone stared at me and I understood my
grave (!) mistake. I bowed down and backed out to my assigned quarters…
Next, came the second tier of staff. These were low ranking,
white-collar workers, such as
secretaries. They wouldn’t mix with the manual laborers, but wouldn’t mix with the
higher ranked staff either.
With my meager status as a TA, I was a member of the third
tier. This was a middle-of-the-road crowd, with bunch of low ranking academics,
like TAs and instructors, and
high-ranking admin staff, such as faculty secretaries. Assistant Professors who
wanted to show some solidarity also came and ate with us.
Lastly, the top tier: Assistant
Professors and up. The mighty professors didn’t line up with trays like us the
commoners. They were perched up at a restaurant with the best views of campus,
had tables with white linen and waiting staff…
In a recent column, Gunduz Vassaf states that human beings feel
extremely submissive to authority, when they don’t feel confident and powerful
as individuals. He gives the examples of universities in Turkey, as institutions
that cultivate this culture of hierarchy and submission.
Unfortunately, since the last military coup in 1980 the academic circles in Turkey failed
terribly in terms of adhering to the universal principles of higher education.
Instead teaching universal values like equality and freedom, majority of the universities are
grinding the young generations into docility and submission. Their institutional culture is inimical to cultivating self-respecting
individuals with critical thinking skills. Segregated entrances and lunch halls
are all part of this structure that instills submission to authority.
The word university
is derived from the Latin word, universe.
It is composed by putting together uni
(one) and versus (turned), with the
combined meaning referring to one
becoming whole, as in the whole cosmos.
If we cannot even bring students and faculty together and
have them walk through the same gates and have lunch at the same tables, what
kind of a whole are we talking about?
What kind of a university are we talking about?
When I transferred to a different university in Ankara, one of the first things
I appreciated was the de-segregated food
court! Faculty members and students all lined up with their trays, chose
their meals and sat wherever they could find. All as equal human beings! What a
relief, I thought...
Wishing you all free and egalitarian university experiences,
The hierarch-averse Academic Mommy
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