The Student Council at the University of Food Technology-Plovdiv came out with a new position, in which they announced that on November 11, the long-awaited General Assembly was held, the purpose of which is to accept the report of Rector Plamen Mollov for 2021. The students ask the logical question why the report for the previous year was accepted only in November and why in May and June the rector himself was illegally – officially on vacation and on sick leave. Just then, according to them, he was wanted by the anti-corruption commission of the National Assembly.
The general meeting started with a scandal, because it turned out that its composition and quorum were not clear. Its composition did not include the legally broadcast representatives of the students. On the contrary. The names of students who participated in a previous assembly whose term had already ended were announced. Something more. Some of them have already even graduated from the university itself, that is, they are not actually students.
The current chairman of the Student Council, Plamen Petrov, who was removed by an invalid order of the rector, contested in court, was refused to participate in the voting during the General Assembly on November 11. This is straightforward, although according to the legislation, and in particular the Administrative Procedure Code, „the challenge stops the implementation of the administrative act“, the young people point out in their position. But according to the rector’s rules, it turns out that he is not actually a student.
“Doubts about the lawful composition of the General Assembly were expressed by the chairman himself (the chairman is retired from June 2022) Assoc. Nikovska. The composition of the General Assembly was so questionable that they did not even want to elect a Chairman of the General Assembly. According to the regulations for the organization and activities of the University of Food Technologies, upon the retirement of the chairman, a partial election of a new chairman is held within two months. The two months have long passed, ie. the rules have been broken again. The deadlines for publishing the rector’s reports for 2020 and 2021 on the university’s website have also been violated. According to the law on higher education, the deadline for publication is three months after acceptance by the academic council. In fact, both reports were published in early November 2022 in violation of the law. These are probably lessons for the students – how not to fulfill the laws and our own regulations”, the Student Council also states in its position.
Young people learned other important lessons during this General Assembly, such as how a student may never be given the floor to speak, which they believe means their opinion is not important and can be crushed. At the same time, the leadership claimed that it was teaching them democracy and freedom of speech. And they add:
“How should alerts and denunciations be written (the lesson was given by a proven state security operative)?“ How are uncomfortable questions covered up, for example, about the university’s relationship with the rector’s favorite company „Lupean“ EOOD with an owner, partner in other companies with the son and wife of Prof. Mollov (I wonder how far the investigation of KPCONPI reached)? The last lesson was taught with the special participation of the rector and the secondary roles of the three disgraced vice-rectors. Excited and enraged shouts of „kick out the students“ could be heard in the hall. A teacher’s question remained like a voice in the wilderness, „and if we drive them out, who will we teach?”
The Student Council also revealed that during the meeting, some individuals from the leadership even allowed themselves to interfere directly in the autonomy of the student community by saying what was legitimate and what was not, and whether the protocol of the meeting held on June 9 was correctly written this year’s General Assembly of the students, which they themselves attended.
“Perhaps this lesson is how we must carry out specific orders or else everything is declared illegitimate. Finally, the half-empty hall adopted a Declaration against political interference in the work of the university without any such and against a member of the public officially invited to a meeting by the student council. And as a final lesson on the topic „How to pass a declaration with a full majority in the absence of a quorum“ and how people who were not present at the meeting vote for a given declaration without really knowing what happened. And finally, the question arises, whether with this act, a scandalous rector (involved in several corruption scandals in the public space) wants to hide behind the walls of a collective body?!?”, the Student Council of the University of food technologies-Plovdiv.
