The network of academic solidarity and engagement in the new procedure for the selection of one full professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Belgrade sends public support to colleague Dragana Vasiljević Tomić, associate professor of this faculty. This is the second time in the last two years that the Teaching Scientific Council of the Faculty of Architecture (NNVAF) prevents colleague Vasiljević Tomić from reaching the highest academic title. However, unlike the previous (non)election, when her job was not threatened, this time the consequence of the unsuccessful promotion for her colleague Vasiljević Tomić may be the loss of her job at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Belgrade.
Professor Vasiljević Tomić has been employed at the Faculty of Architecture for 28 years, of which she spent 14 years as an associate professor, and despite the fact that she met the requirements for selection as a full professor during the previous competition, announced in 2020, neither then nor now, she was not elected to the position she belongs to according to all her qualifications. That colleague Vasiljević Tomić is qualified to carry the title of full professor was assessed by the five-member international Commission for the selection of teachers to which the Teaching Scientific Council of the Faculty of Architecture (NNVAF) unanimously entrusted this mandate at the session held on 27.6.2022. The paper in which colleague Vasiljević Tomić is proposed for the position of full professor can be viewed at the following web address: http://www.arh.bg.ac.rs/2022/09/15/izbor-u-zvanje-redovnog-profesora-dr-dragana-vasiljevic-tomic-dipl-inz-arh/?pismo=lat
Since three objections (two of which are anonymous) to the proposed Report of the Commission were received, after their analysis and a detailed response to them, the Commission concluded that all three objections are unfounded and that colleague Dragana Vasiljević Tomić meets the conditions for election to the title of full professor which are prescribed by the regulations of the Faculty of Architecture and the University of Belgrade.
Nevertheless, despite the positive report of the aforementioned Commission, NNVAF, at the session held on 17.10.2022, by secret ballot, without prior discussion and valid explanation, rejected the Commission's proposal to elect Professor Vasiljević Tomić to the title of full professor. After the complaint of colleague Vasiljević Tomić, the university Ombudsman issues an advisory opinion (November 3, 2022) where it is pointed out that the explanation for the (non) selection of Professor Vasiljvić Tomić submitted by the Faculty of Architecture does not contain detailed reasons for not adopting the Commission's report, which is an obligation expressly mandated by the Rulebook on the method and procedures of acquiring the title and establishing the employment relationship of teachers of the University of Belgrade. After that, the dean of the Faculty of Architecture decides to repeat the procedure for the selection of one full professor. However, at the new NNVAF session, held on November 14, 2022, the Commission's report was rejected again, practically without discussion. In the new explanation of this decision, which was submitted to the University after all the deadlines stipulated by the Rulebook had been breached, there are still no detailed reasons for rejecting the Commission's proposal, but the focus of the negative decision is on the aforementioned three objections to the Commission's Report, which, to note once again, , the Commission unanimously rejected.
In the meantime, on November 2, 2022, Professor Vasiljević Tomić received a request from the Faculty of Architecture to respond to the report for unethical behavior in the written work submitted on October 20, 2022 (thus breaking the eight-day deadline within which, according to the Rules, a response from colleague Vasiljvić should have been received Tomic). It should be noted here that the application to the Ethics Commission was submitted by the same person who also submitted one of the objections to the Commission's report proposing the election of Professor Vasiljević Tomić to the title of full professor, which the Commission found to be unfounded. Shortly after the answer of colleague Vasiljević Tomić, the Faculty of Architecture gives the opportunity to the applicant to comment on the response of colleague Vasiljević Tomić, but not to Professor Vasiljević Tomić to once again comment on the new allegations from the applicant's response. After that, in an unusually fast procedure, it is proposed to form an Expert Commission whose mandate would be to determine the accuracy of the allegations from the application to the Ethics Commission.
It is important to note that the report for unethical behavior refers to the originality of the representative reference from 2014, which Professor Vasiljević Tomić used without any objections for her advancement in two election cycles in the past eight years. Therefore, it is very unusual that after so many years, at the very time when her promotion to the title of full professor was prevented, proceedings are initiated before the Faculty's Ethics Committee for a reference that has not been contested so far and which is in no way decisive for the selection of colleague Vasiljević Tomić.
At the time of writing this reaction, the Expert Commission has not yet been formed and is waiting for the statement of the Council of Scientific Fields of Construction and Urban Sciences on the second appeal of colleague Vasiljević Tomić on the new decision on non-election to the title of full professor. We are still waiting for a new reaction from the Ombudsperson, since a new complaint was also submitted to him regarding the new explanation for the unsuccessful election of colleague Vasiljević Tomić. In the meantime, 14.12.2022. the Protector of Citizens also came forward, requesting relevant information from the Faculty of Architecture based on the complaint of the injured colleague.
Bearing in mind all of the above, MASA states that the procedure for the selection of one full professor, for which Professor Vasiljević Tomić is marked by numerous procedural failures (primarily the failure to explain the decision not to support the commission's report), non-transparent procedures and non-academic pressures on colleague Vasiljević Tomić with a clear with the aim of obstructing not only her election to the title of full professor, but also her stay at the Faculty of Architecture.
Bearing all this in mind, MASA appeals to all those responsible in the academic community, the Faculty of Architecture and competent university bodies not to allow another professor of the Faculty of Architecture to lose her job in the short term, after decades of work at this higher education institution.
