L’AQUILA – “Our concern – states the spokesperson for Student for Palestine – has been defined as an offense towards the academic body since, according to them, we are questioning their ethics: in our opinion yet another way to delegitimize the need to re-discuss and problematize the access that military companies have to universities and research. This meeting left us with little beyond the usual questions: when will there be the possibility of the public meeting we want, of an open discussion? When will Univaq have the courage to expose itself and discuss?
It is a passage from the note of the university students of L’Aquila who continue the protest against the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian population, following the military invasion of the Gaza strip, as a reaction to the massacre of Israeli civilians by the Islamic fundamentalist militias of Hamas, armed and supported by the theocratic regime of Iran.
Below is the note issued after the meeting with the rector of the University of L’Aquila Edoardo Alesse.
“INSUFFICIENT ANSWERS FROM THE RECTOR, WE WANT A PUBLIC MEETING”
On Thursday afternoon, at 4.00 pm, we informally met the Rector of the University of L’Aquila Edoardo Alesse in the rector’s office, accepting what he himself defined as a “courtesy invitation”. The rector first of all showed himself to be disinterested in holding a public meeting that could be attended by students, teachers and journalists, stating that he did not recognize the problems we had raised and adding that he had no time to waste despite the collection of signatures presented to him of 200 signatures, deposited both by students that as teachers and citizens, demonstrated the interest of the student body in the conversation we proposed.
For his part, the proposal was to act through the academic senate, as if the student’s requests were legitimate only if forwarded through institutional channels: the sensation was that of witnessing an attempt to postpone a discussion that has no intention of face.
This is the main reason why yesterday we decided to close the doors of the economics centre, which was supposed to host a conference yesterday at 10.30 with Edoardo Alesse, with a chain and a padlock. There is time for conferences, but not for students?
Furthermore, during the meeting he reiterated the CRUI’s positions and proved adamant, refusing a reevaluation of the relationships that Univaq has with Leonardo. What made her position even more evident was her refusal to define the latter as a “war company”, preferring the term “beneficial collaborator”, despite its role as the main exporter of weapons from Italy being in the public domain. . We are worried because we fear that this relationship between the university and Leonardo could generate data that will help these war companies invent new weapons and perfect existing ones. In fact, the rector himself admitted that these projects can also be used for war purposes by the company, but he doesn’t seem to be particularly interested.
The contracts say they will not be “directly”, so their conscience is clear, their responsibility relieved.
The rector affirms the presence of forms of control in this regard without however specifying which ones, but it is enough to do a little research to learn that the legislation in this regard is very weak especially from the moment in which, at the end of the research, the results become the property of the university as much as the company which can use them for the purposes it prefers. He declared that for him research is always sacred and we ask ourselves if research aimed at the production of weapons and, indirectly or otherwise, at the genocide of a people is also sacred.
Lastly, our concern has been defined as an offense towards the academic staff since, according to them, we are questioning their ethics: in our opinion yet another way to delegitimize the need on the part of the student to re-discuss and problematise the access that war companies have in universities and research. This meeting left us with little beyond the usual questions: when will there be the possibility of the public meeting we want, of an open discussion? When will Univaq have the courage to expose itself and confront the student3?
