Protest sign reading: Motivated students without facilities. | Photo: Ardit Kika
Students from the University of Prishtina’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences reach an initial agreement with Prishtina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti for the construction of a new building.
Without a building of their own, University of Prishtina students in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences hold their classes in the Faculty of Philology. Last week, more than one hundred students and their supporters protested, demanding new facilities, and yesterday, they reached a primary agreement with Prishtina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti.
Student protests, held on December 6, took place on campus, as well as in front of the Ministry of Education and the Prishtina Municipality Building. At the municipality building, protesters met with Prishtina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti.
One protester, Florian Bivolaku, head of the faculty’s student union, made a personal pledge to Mayor Ahmeti.
“Our conditions are dreadful and inappropriate for us to develop our studies. We asking for what belongs to us, we demand that you stop what you’re doing right now. You’re not giving permission to build the facility, and we demand that you change that,” he said.
Yesterday, Ahmeti met with Esad Kelmendi, General Secretary of the University of Prishtina, Dean Tahir Arbneshi, Vice Dean Faton Berisha, and Bivolaku.
The meeting, held behind closed doors in the Prishtina Municipality building, resulted in an agreement on two potential building locations.
“One option is in front the Technical Faculty, on property owned by the municipality. In that scenario we should see specifically which part is the property of the municipality… This would be the ideal solution,” said Ahmeti in a joint press conference held after the meeting.
“The second option is to build it inside the campus area, where the Education Faculty was foreseen to be built [near the Institute of Albanology],” he added.
He pledged that the details regarding legal procedures of the two options will be outlined by the end of the week. Yet he did not make promises regarding timelines: “Maybe it will be built in the spring,” he said.
Still, Vice Dean Berisha seemed optimistic after the meeting.
“It started well. I hope this continues, and that we really get a new building for the faculty,” said Berisha.
12 December 2017 - 13:51
