POSITION OF THE FDU STUDENT PLENUM REGARDING MAKE-UP CLASSES For over six months, we have stood in solidarity with our professors and fellow students from other faculties in the ongoing blockade. The authorities are exerting pressure on faculty administrations and governing bodies, attempting to sow division within the academic community through a series of unlawful decrees—cutting salaries of teaching staff and threatening faculties with draconian financial penalties that endanger their operations. We remind the public that the newly appointed Minister of Education is an associate professor from the Faculty of Teacher Education at the University of Belgrade, known for multiple allegations of sexual harassment against female students, which led to his prohibition from holding office hours. Such an individual has been given this position with a single purpose—to dismantle the university. Let us also recall that before the student blockades began, the current regime had plans to introduce foreign universities into the higher education system with state subsidies and without the requirement of domestic accreditation. This proposal was to be implemented through controversial amendments to the Law on Higher Education, which recently prompted the formation of a working group to assess the current state of funding and to push reforms. These developments echo the passing of the contentious University Law 27 years ago. The crisis in higher education was not caused by the blockades—they are merely being used as a pretext to advance the government’s ultimate objective: the complete dismantling of public universities. The fourth demand of the students in blockade was adopted as a direct response to this threat. The issues of repeating the academic year and enrolling a new generation of students have emerged as direct consequences of the government’s six-month-long refusal to meet student demands—at the expense of the autonomy, integrity, and dignity of the University. Through media manipulation and persistent pressure, the Ministry of Education is attempting to shift the blame onto students and professors participating in the blockade, casting them as the main culprits. The academic councils of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Faculty of Physical Chemistry, and the Faculty of Music have recently made decisions to initiate online instruction. Yet without students, neither the academic community nor the University can exist. We therefore deem it unacceptable and shameful to make such significant decisions without the consent of all student plenums. The Student Plenum of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts unanimously refuses to accept the imposition of make-up classes now being forced upon our peers at other faculties of the University of Belgrade and the University of Arts, as a means to halt the repressive measures the ruling regime is carrying out against public universities and the academic community in Serbia. Forced attempts to impose make-up classes would severely undermine the quality of education and violate fundamental academic standards. Returning to classes under such conditions will not preserve the functioning of the University nor “save” the academic year. The reputation, status, and role of the University and the academic community can only be defended by continuing our blockade and our shared struggle—students and professors united. Until our demands are met, The Student Plenum of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts #sviublokadefdu #serbia #students