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[kutiandrea]

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>Subject: Controversial Rector Divides New University
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>This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
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>>From the issue dated November 24, 2000
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>Controversial Rector Divides New University
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>By THERESA AGOVINO
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>When Central European University started its Program for Gender and Culture in 1994, academics took notice. Gender studies and cultural studies are the kinds of disciplines that were ignored in Eastern Europe for years, even as they thrived in the West. So the new program was seen as a sign that this young university -- founded in 1991 with support from George Soros, the international philanthropist and financier -- was moving quickly to become a player in the academic arena.
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>The new programs quickly gained backers in the United States, with big-name scholars joining advisory boards and volunteering their time. Now the program has created an international academic uproar -- but for very different reasons. Many prominent academics in the field are harshly criticizing Yehuda Elkana, the university's rector. They say he has circumvented university policy in his treatment of the program's former director, who recently resigned, and a popular professor, whom he fired.
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>Critics call Mr. Elkana autocratic and say his style calls into question his ability to lead an institution that aims to educate a generation of leaders to foster democracy and free markets in a region still struggling with the vestiges of its Communist past. Criticism of Mr. Elkana has transcended the gender department, with some saying his confrontational demeanor will stifle discourse at the university, known as C.E.U., and harm its reputation.
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>"I'm appalled by Elkana's behavior. Maybe this is his way of showing he is in power," says Joan Scott, a prominent feminist scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., who has resigned from the program's advisory board. "I think if he isn't careful, the fine reputation of C.E.U. is going to boomerang."
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>The tensions over the department come at a time when the university faces other challenges as well -- in defining its mission, deciding where to grow, and trying to attract a broader base of financial support. For many here, Mr. Elkana's tenure has been the embodiment of the proverb, "Be careful what you wish for -- you might get it."
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>Josef Jarab, the previous rector, was criticized for his spotty attendance at the university; he was often in the Czech Republic, where he was a member of the Senate. He resigned under pressure in November 1998. In contrast, Mr. Elkana has been a very active leader since taking over last year, and his supporters say some professors simply don't want to meet his demand for hard work to raise the quality and the research profile of the university. Some of the university's procedures are not especially clear, his supporters say, adding that a history of instability -- the university had to be relocated to Budapest from Prague, and some programs have been shut down with scant explanation -- causes some faculty members to overreact to any problem.
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>Mr. Elkana is the university's third rector in nine years. Each one has tried to put his imprint on a university that has moved far from its original intent of preparing students for Western graduate schools. Mr. Elkana is especially determined to foster more research. "Eight departments and two programs are not a university," he says.
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>Since he took charge of the university, he created a center to allocate research grants at the university. Ties are being strengthened with the International Management Center, the business school created in Budapest by the Hungarian-born Mr. Soros, in order both to save money and to create mutually useful departments. Next year the university will create a humanities center, which will sponsor lectures and workshops.
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>"The rector has a commitment to quality, but I think he is still searching for the appropriate terms to achieve it," says Tibor Varady, a law professor here and a member of the University Senate. "I believe he is a man of genuine concern, but it is also a talent to follow procedure. Some things were imperfect in procedure. I hope he will not sacrifice speed at the altar of procedure."
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>Many who have complained about Mr. Elkana to Mr. Soros, who still supports the university, were not so optimistic. A series of scathing letters about Mr. Elkana have been circulated among academics and sent to Mr. Soros. Ms. Scott, the feminist scholar, wrote that Mr. Elkana's leadership was a "disaster from the start," and accused him of sending sanitized versions of the situation to the board.
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>The letters have had no outward effect. In a statement to The Chronicle concerning the controversy against Mr. Elkana, Mr. Soros wrote, "The rector presented his reorganization plans a year ago at the university's Board of Trustees meeting and was given a mandate to carry these out. ... We all regret the confusion that the reorganization of the gender- studies program has caused. As chairman of the board I am confident that given sufficient time his plans will take the university to an important new phase." Mr. Elkana himself says that as a lifelong feminist, he wasn't surprised by the outrage over the situation at the gender program, because women are often treated improperly. However, he says, he is dismayed by how few of his critics have called to hear his side of the story. He concedes that he should have made a clearer distinction between the search for a new head of the gender- studies program and the search for a new professor for the department. Nonetheless, the tall, husky Soros look-alike insists that a rector should have a vision, and should not be afraid to carry it out.
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>Mr. Elkana, a permanent fellow at Berlin's Institute for Advanced Study, was born in Yugoslavia in 1934 and later moved to Israel, where he became chairman of the history- of-science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He calls academe's reliance on committee decisions naive. "Some people say, 'How dare you? A head of a university is supposed to administer and raise money, so who are you to exercise judgment?' "To which my answer is, in the final accounting, no institution works if someone doesn't exercise judgment. In academia we have a rather hypocritical system. All the time we convene committees, but because you appoint the committee, you can easily get what you want. I respect committees. I work with people. But I exercise judgment."
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>Mr. Elkana may have a tough time selling that approach to American academics, such as members of the American Association of University Professors, which is contemplating an investigation into the firing of one professor, having been invited in because the university is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. Such unwelcome attention could cause problems for the university as it strives for accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
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>Sources at the Open University, in London, say it, too, may also look into the dispute involving the gender- studies program. The Open University oversees several programs at the Budapest institution. Mr. Elkana says he welcomes the scrutiny. But many here say it will be difficult for anyone to determine the truth.
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>"The mood at the university is divided. He plays departments against each other," says one professor, who requested anonymity. "It is like Stalinism. And we [professors] are Hungarians, Russians, Czechs. We have an instinct to look down and not say anything when confronted with this. We have old instincts that teach us how to deal with an autocrat."
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>The controversy around Mr. Elkana began last year, in the department of environmental sciences and policy. For one thing, he said the absence of laboratories made "science" a misnomer. More important, he saw three professors supervising 70 master's-degree students, a ratio that he maintains is not conducive to research. "That was a no-go," he says. Late last year, he ordered a review of the environmental-studies department. Sources say he confided in both the University Senate and the Board of Trustees before telling the department about the review; he denies that. Moreover, sources say he initially didn't want to select an outsider to conduct the review, and that he then chose a consultant who would back up his view of the department. The critics add that he didn't agree to get other opinions until he was pushed to do so. Mr. Varady, the senate member, doesn't remember all the details, but does recall the senate's needing to intervene. Given the strife within the department, the result has, ironically, largely pleased all sides. Even though enrollment was practically halved, to 35 full-time students and 5 part-time students, the department was allowed to hire two new professors, giving faculty members more time to conduct research.
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>But the situation at the gender-studies department continues to churn, with some faculty members insisting that the rector doesn't take the discipline seriously, and that he wants to close it down -- accusations that he vehemently denies. Last March, the rector said he didn't want Miglena Nikolchina to complete her two-year term as director of the program. Her contract had a provision for a review after one year, on the basis of which she could be removed from the job.
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>"There is no academic criticism of Miglena. She did many good things," says Mr. Elkana. He simply didn't like her vision for the department. "It was too narrow. Too much literary studies. For me, gender studies is more than that." Ms. Nikolchina defends her leadership of the department, arguing that she had attracted scholars, added courses, and banished professors who lacked proper credentials. She did agree to step down, though, and was helping in the search for her successor when she became disenchanted with the process. For one thing, she says, the searches for the department head and for an additional professor were being confused. She also says search-committee meetings were not called in a timely way. "It was just a mess," she says. "I'm proud of what I did. I'm happy to go. But I really wish he would just follow procedure."
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>Mr. Elkana himself briefly ran the gender-studies program before naming Susan Zimmermann, an associate professor of history, as director on a temporary basis. When a formal search to fill the job produced only one applicant - - Ms. Zimmermann -- he appointed her officially to the position. The rector is entitled to name department heads, he argues, although according to Ms. Nikolchina, committees must be convened to complete the process. "The whole situation gets a bit murky," says Mr. Varady, summing up the competing versions of events.
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>In June, the rector fired Andrea Peto, an assistant professor of history, who had worked at the university for nine years, and had taught in the gender-studies program. "I was shocked," she says. "I didn't know what to do." Ms. Peto says she has no idea why she was fired. Mr. Elkana won't discuss the issue, because she has filed a suit in a local court in Budapest, charging wrongful dismissal. The university does not offer tenure, but Ms. Peto argues that under Hungarian law, because she had been there for so long, she had de facto tenure. "I still believe in C.E.U.," she says. "But Elkana wants to control everything."
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>Not all of the changes at the university have sparked such vehement criticism. Mr. Elkana says he has pushed the economics department to specialize in the study of the transition from a planned to an open economy. Laszlo Matyas, head of the department and one of Mr. Elkana's ardent supporters, is happy that the rector is pressing the issue of research and academic standards, and has no problem with his tactics. "The rector should have the right to say how money is allocated and how things are done," says Mr. Matyas. "If the university went down, people would blame him, so if people want him to make it better, ... you can't tie his hands. You need a leader who thinks strongly."
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>Indeed, Mr. Matyas doesn't believe that the controversies over the gender and environmental-studies programs will amount to much in the long run. "They may be relevant issues, but is this the best way to spend money?" he asks. "We want to maximize impact. We need to strengthen more- mainstream departments, like law and political science." He is certainly upgrading his own department. In January, he fired one professor and warned three others to improve their performance. The department's six junior faculty members were required to sign commitments outlining research and publication goals. Next year, a master's-degree program in banking and finance is planned. Mr. Matyas has convinced banks to put up the money, so that the university will not have to depend on Mr. Soros to finance the program. "We can have a huge effect on the whole university," the department head says. "We may even make a profit."
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>Indeed, fund raising has long been an issue at Central European University. Persuading anyone to donate money to a institution created and supported by one of the world's wealthiest men is difficult, and tuition is waived for students from Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. In 1999, Mr. Soros provided almost $17- million to support the university. Meanwhile, changes are being made at the Soros- supported International Management Center, which is affiliated with the university. Over the summer, the business school, which has experienced cash-flow problems, got a new dean and a new program director, who have pledged to cut costs. As a way to save money and to expand discourse between them, the two institutions now share a campus and several professors. "This connection is one way to augment the university," says Mr. Elkana.
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>Of course, some don't agree that such an institution needs more business-related instruction; they argue that the university should keep its focus on the humanities and social sciences. "When you are an administrator, some people will admire you, some will hate you," says Mr. Elkana. "I'm old enough to realize that you will never be loved by everyone."
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