Minsk: Students Expelled from Belarusian State Pedagogical University for Public Activist Hold Press-conference
On 16 March the activists of student movement Liudmila Asipenka and Aliaksandr Kartsel, who have been remanded from Belarusian State Pedagogic University, held a press-conference.
Liudmila Asipenka was a third-year student of the faculty of Belarusian philology and culture, and Ales Kartsel - fourth-year student of the faculty of Russian philology. On 14 March the rector of the BSPU Piatro Kukharchyk singed the order for their expulsion. The students told journalists that the official reason for their expulsion was the dean’s memos about ‘systematic violations of the educational discipline and internal regulations of the higher educational establishment’. Belngo.info asked the dean of the faculty of Russian philology Valery Starychonak to give explanations. ‘This student (Ales Kartsel) didn’t differ from other ones. He didn’t come to practice and missed classes. There are no other reasons for his expulsion’, said Starychonak. At the press-conference Ales Kartsel showed to the journalists the medical certificate witnessing he had missed the practice because of illness.
A.Kartsel and L.Asipenka studied very well and often participated in the republican conferences. ‘During the last years I experienced unbelievable pressure from the side of the faculty administration. At winter exams teachers openly said to me that I was well-prepared and answered excellently, but they couldn’t give me more than a 7’, said Liudmila Asipenka. ‘I got to know about my expulsion occasionally. Nobody informed me. Workers of the dean’s office didn’t give me a copy of the order and refused to talk with me’.
The day when Kartsel’s and Asipenka’s friends at the university found about their expulsion, they started collecting signatures for their rehabilitation. For several hours about 60 persons signed the letter, but the following day many of them revoked their signatures and asked not to mention their names. ‘Students understand that it is impossible to expel the whole group, but the dean’s office has an elaborated practice of intimidation. They say the will expel one or two persons instead of the whole group’, -- said Mr Kartsel. ‘Everyone can be treated like us, that’s why people are afraid’.
Nevertheless, the students categorically disagree with their expulsion and intend to complain against the decision and apply to court.
Iadviha MATSKEVICH
