INTERNAL, EXTERNAL WOES THREATEN T/C "STATE U"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NICOSIA 000103

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR EUR/SE MCLEGG-TRIPP AND EMELLINGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2012
TAGS: PGOV OEXC PREL KPAO CY TU
SUBJECT: INTERNAL, EXTERNAL WOES THREATEN T/C "STATE U"

REF: 06 NICOSIA 1767

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald L. Schlicher for reason 1.5 (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: North Cyprus's Eastern Mediterranean
University is "in dire trouble," worries Vice Rector for
Student Affairs Samil Ergodan and Senior Advisor to the
Rector Johann Pillai. Beset by labor strife, empty
"government" funding commitments, and cronyism at home, the
"TRNC's state" university also faces external threats,
including tough competition from Turkish and private
universities and continuing exclusion from European Union
educational programs like Erasmus. Labor leaders privately
blame Rector Halil Guven for EMU's woes, and are seeking his
ouster. Not all news is bad, however, as San Diego State
University's January 24 decision to continue its exchange
program with EMU has buoyed spirits somewhat. END SUMMARY.

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The Good News First: The San Diego Saga
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2. (C) Vice Rector Erdogan told Poloff January 22 that Rector
Guven had traveled to the U.S. to make sure "no stone is left
unturned" in protecting his university's exchange program
with SDSU. About a year ago, he revealed, EMU had been
caught off-guard when Central Connecticut State University
pulled out of a similar exchange agreement. Select EMU
faculty had built up professional relationships with Central
Connecticut, but, according to Erdogan, the U.S. university
was surprised by the ferocity of the Greek/Greek-Cypriot
lobby against EMU, describing it as "an illegal entity on
occupied land." Central Connecticut eventually abandoned the
arrangement, he explained, although "academic cooperation"
continued, including CCSU's recognition of EMU degrees.


3. (C) Thus schooled, EMU had not been surprised by the
lobbying effort leveled at SDSU. Erdogan noted that the
assistance from government and academic circles in the U.S.
had made the difference this time around, however, and
prevented the SDSU-EMU program from collapsing -- an outcome
Erdogan said would have hurt undergrads already studying in
the United States. Other (unnamed) American universities,
incensed over the politicization of education in the SDSU
case, had already contacted EMU about possible exchanges, he
added.

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But More Dark Clouds than Silver Linings
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4. (U) The north's "state" university currently is beset by
labor strife. Last year, the teachers' union, DAU-Sen,
demanded and won automatic tenure for instructors
irrespective of academic achievement; EMU's administration
and "real professors," as Pillai termed them, grumbled in
response. This year, the university's two non-academic
unions, DAU-Per-Sen and DAU-Bir-Sen, went on strike during
finals season, causing major headaches. Bad press in Turkey
eventually forced the "government" to meet generous union
demands, including a retroactive 26 percent COLA payment and
an 8-18 percent raise for manual laborers.


5. (C) Shortly after their December victory, union reps told
Poloff that EMU's real problem was Guven. He had mismanaged
EMU's affairs, they alleged, preferring to grandstand on the
international scene rather than focus on internal operations.
The labor leaders admitted, however, that Guven faced
problems not of his making, especially the "government's"
decision not to reimburse EMU for cost-free tuition granted
to thousands of T/C undergrads. Tens of millions in unpaid
obligations had resulted, they claimed.


6. (C) The unions opposed joining forces with Guven to claim
these arrears. Instead, according to EMU officials Erdogan
and Pillai, they are determined to push Guven out of the
Rectorship. Erdogan and Pillai claimed that the unions are
pressuring the university senate to dismiss his hand-picked
vice-rectors and replace them with "political party cronies
and union lackeys." Pillai revealed that the unions January
30 requested the senate to call an emergency meeting,
possibly within days, to vote "no confidence" in the Rector.
Neither of these issues has landed yet on the governing
body's agenda, however. Erdogan and Pillai hope the senate
postpones these and similar moves until after the academic
year concludes.


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"Isolation" -- Including Some Self-Isolation -- Affects
Academia As Well
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7. (C) Apart from the SDSU battle, EMU can point to few wins.
One, however, is the university's expected acceptance into
the European University Association (EUA),which assists
member institutions in meeting new European education
standards (AKA, the Bologna Process). EMU hopes EUA
membership will win wider European recognition of its
degrees. Before EMU can gain full EUA entry, however, the
organization must conduct an exhaustive review of the
university's management, academics and funding, which builds
upon a self-evaluation. Rector Guven had hoped the EUA
process would expose systemic problems at his university,
Pillai reported; entrenched interests, however, including
"TRNC officials," the unions, and department heads, already
have dramatically censured the university's input. These
interests claimed they wanted to avoid providing Greek
Cypriots more ammunition against EMU; however, Pillai
contended, they actually were motivated by the desire to
avoid painful reforms at the university, which has long
served as a source of patronage for political parties and
cushy jobs for unionized workers.


8. (C) These "troglodytes" had begun to question the benefit
of international associations like EUA, Pillai asserted.
They instead argue for the university to turn inward and
focus only on accreditation in Turkey. (Note: Nearly 50
percent of EMU's student body is foreign: 35 percent from
mainland Turkey and 15 percent from other Muslim countries,
particularly Jordan, Iran and the Gulf states. End note.)
Private universities in the north are also complaining that
Guven's globe-trotting focuses attention on Turkish Cypriot
"isolation," scaring off potential students and further
undermining the crucial tertiary education sector (Reftel).
Pillai then recounted how "Finance Minister" Ahmet Uzun
angrily had asserted to Guven, "We don't need a Harvard in
the north," referring to Guven's international efforts to be
accepted to the EUA as well as the Community of Mediterranean
Universities (CMU),the Federation of Universities of the
Islamic World, and the International Association of
Universities (IAU).


9. (C) Though the university finally won admission to these
organizations, the end results have disappointed. Pillai
provided one example: the IAU had failed even to list EMU in
its global directory. The association claims it cannot list
EMU under "Cyprus" and will not list the university under
"Turkey," "TRNC," or any other designation. Having "close
formal ties with UNESCO," he decried, the association had
conveniently referred EMU's complaints to the world body "for
a political decision;" UNESCO supposedly has referred the
complaints back to IAU.

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All Their Chips on Erasmus
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10. (C) EMU's application to the European Commission's
Erasmus program illustrates the difficulties the university's
ambiguous political and legal environment creates.
Management has made acceptance into the program a top goal;
they feel Erasmus would open the door to reputation-boosting
academic exchanges, provide valuable accreditation, and
confer an unimpeachable seal of European approval. However,
EU program administrators have refused to correspond with EMU
at its usual mailing address (which, like all other postal
service in the "TRNC," is routed through Mersin, Turkey).
Instead, when responding to EMU requests for information and
so forth, Erasmus has automatically forwarded all exchanges
through the ROC's Ministry of Education and Culture in the
south. Pillai confidently assumed that such correspondence
was "trashed." It was unclear to EMU administrators, Erdogan
mentioned, whether Erasmus yet grasps that the political
division of Cyprus means that EMU cannot go through the
normal application process, which is usually initiated by an
EU member state's education ministry.


11. (C) However, EMU planned to forge ahead by the end of
January with its application; it has received mixed
information, though, on whether to file with the European
Commission or the European Council. Pillai, frustrated,
stated that this just laid the groundwork for rejection on a
technicality. EMU has already prepared a letter to the
European Ombudsman to complain about the situation thus far

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and is preparing a possible appeal to the European Court of
Human Rights.


12. (C) Meanwhile, private Turkish Cypriot universities have
decided to forego an EMU-style quest for accreditation,
focusing instead on recruiting mediocre Turkish students who
will return to the mainland after graduation, where "TRNC"
degrees are honored. Similarly, Turkey appears to be
bypassing the struggling EMU -- or so EMU interlocutors fear.
It backed the establishment of a "TRNC" campus by Ankara's
renowned Middle East Technical University (METU),for
example, and rumors abound that Bilkent and other well-known
Turkish universities will establish satellite campuses in
northern Cyprus.

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Comment
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13. (C) Despite its internal troubles -- and regardless of
whether or not it gains broader international acceptance --
EMU is the "TRNC's" only public university. As such, it
seems likely to survive, if only as a "state"-subsidized
symbol of pride, reliant on mediocre Turkish students who
cannot make the grade elsewhere. But Rector Guven is a
dogged advocate. If he survives the internal machinations
against him, odds are he will continue to score modest
successes in making a name for EMU, even if the Holy Grail of
Erasmus membership continues to elude him. Guven's apparent
inability to implement fundamental academic reform is
disheartening, however. The rector's row with the unions has
weakened his ability to press for real academic change. Even
if he survives, he will likely prove unable to improve EMU's
mediocre academic performance.

SCHLICHER