CEU-Rector: great mistake to give the United States ultimatum
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- After the signing of the CEU-law index.hu interviewed the rector of the university.
- According to Michael Ignatieff, the CEU case does not seem like a Hungarian internal matter to Washington; the safety of international universities of the US seems to be threatened.
- The CEU will not move away from Budapest, but the laws are respected.
- According to the Rector the governmental attack on the demonstrators is an insult to the Hungarians.
INDEX INTERVIEW
Can you see any opportunity that the Central European University could work on in accordance with the recently approved law?
The law will take effect in September, and from January 2018 we cannot receive students. The CEU has always followed the Hungarian laws, and we will continue to do so, also with this law. We do not agree with it, but we follow the laws.
However, it should be clear that we want to stay in Budapest. This is our home. This is also an emotional issue. My wife is Hungarian, hundreds of our colleagues are Hungarian, a lot of Hungarian professors returned from overseas due to CEU. We have hundreds of Hungarian students. We are an American university, but we are equally Hungarians as well.
It is important to emphasize that this is not an education issue here: we are targets of prepared political attacks. And it not only affects us, but also the freedom of Hungarian education.
The solution would be a bilateral international agreement between New York State and the Government of Hungary, which guarantees the freedom of our scientific work, and that we may freely teach and enroll students. It is important that these are not our privileges. These rights apply equally to every Hungarian institution.
There is a contradiction between being respectful of the law, even the Lex-CEU, and, in the meantime, being committed to work on in Budapest. How do you imagine your future?
It does not depend on us, but the Hungarian party. I hope that the Hungarian government begins negotiations with us.
We said that we want to stay, and that a bilateral agreement between New York State and Hungary would be the solution. I was in New York last week, and there are no obstacles on their part of the agreement. The next steps depend only on the Hungarian Government.
However, according to the recently adopted law the Central American government should enter into an agreement, while Washington has just no authority in something like that.
I do not want to speak on behalf of the US government, I can only say what I’ve been informed of. They do not have the authority, neither do they have any affinity to deal with this issue. This is a matter for New York State and Hungary. But it also should be emphasized:
We will not back down.
What kind of action do you count on by the government of the United States after your visit there?
One only needs to look at what has happened to some of world great universities- most in the US
It’s called the the Soros affect.
You have student making demands at Yale and ousting professors over a holloween costume dispute as just one of many examples –
Hungary does not need a BLM chapter
Michael Ignatieff lost it. First he is Canadian, or pretended to be when he ran as a liberal. Ignatieff’s only interest is the limelight. Hungary could not have threatened the US since there is no US University associated with CEU. The media should get the fact that CEU was issuing false diplomas. The solution to this silly problem is to issue Hungarian diplomas only. Why is the media over blows and are they being paid by Soros? We are taking about a BA. in any case, that does not qualify any one to get a job!! CEU imported many foreign students because Hungarian parents are realizing that the diploma issued by CEU is useless.