#Don'tTouchTheTower

In connection with the reorganization of the Faculty of Humanities and the removal of HSE teachers from their positions, our colleagues launched a petition on Change.org against the mass dismissal of HSE employees and the destruction of freedom of speech within the walls of the university. DOXA publishes the text of the appeal in the format of an open letter, under which you, students, graduate students and HSE employees, can leave your signatures.

On July 2, 2020 , it became known that they were planning to massively dismiss opposition-minded teachers from the Higher School of Economics. The formal reason is the reorganization of the Schools of Philosophy and the School of Cultural Studies.

The HSE leadership is preparing to cut 15 positions for teachers in the School of Philosophy and 7 positions in the School of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities.

Senior lecturer at the HSE School of Philosophy Viktor Gorbatov was informed by his colleagues that he, along with other teachers, was included in the list of “unreliable” employees who would be laid off. Gorbatov said that he was “put on notice” and advised to “keep his head down”: “If I don’t heed, then by the end of the academic year I may no longer be at HSE.” In his opinion, the list included teachers who signed open letters in support of political prisoners and professor Hasan Huseynov.

Later, Guseinov himself shared his fears that the management was going to fire him for political reasons: “The future head of the new School of Philological Sciences, Evgeny Kazartsev, directly said that the management set him the task of clearing the school of those who harm the reputation of the HSE and 'conduct political propaganda on social networks '".

On July 6, 2020, HSE Associate Professor Olga Roginskaya was removed from her position as academic director of the Cultural Studies educational program because of a post Facebook about layoffs at HSE and an interview with DOXA: Roginskaya allegedly violated internal university ethics.

On July 7, 2020 , HSE associate professors Ilya Kukulin and Maria Mayofis announced on their Facebook pages that they would not work at the HSE School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, which would be created after the reorganization: “We were faced with the need to leave.”

Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Higher School of Economics Mikhail Boytsov said that the School of History is also planning to cut teachers. It seems that the purge of “unreliable” teachers will also affect other faculties.

We are convinced that these changes were not caused by objective reasons; both schools have good performance indicators. In 2019, the School of Philology was reorganized, and we see a clear trend in this: the HSE leadership is trying to suppress freedom of speech and get rid of opposition teachers.

We, students, graduate students, staff and graduates of HSE demand:

Stop putting pressure on teachers because of their political views;
Return Olga Roginskaya to the position of academic director of the educational program “Culturology”;
Postpone the reorganization of the Schools of Philosophy and Cultural Studies until its true reasons are clarified;
Make decisions on any changes regarding the structure, management, subordination, merger, financing of any faculties and schools within them based on the decision of the general meeting of teachers, researchers, elected representatives, students and graduate students of the faculties.

We encourage all HSE students, alumni and faculty to sign and distribute this petition . The Higher School of Economics has long been considered one of the freest and most progressive universities in our country. Our task is to prevent the loss of this status!

Illustration: Arina Istomina
Photo used: Anna Dalneva