On the March

Students' ire against Law 815

Not since November 1973 had so many Greek university students rallied in protest. At that time, the celebrated siege of Athens' Polytechnic University had provoked a violent clash with the army that helped topple the country's military junta. Now the marchers, 15,000 strong from all political factions, swept through the streets of Athens with a more peaceful aim: to protest a grapeshot series of educational reforms known as Law 815. Trying to play it safe, the conservative government of Premier Constantine Caramanlis had closed the country's seven universities (total enrollment: 100,000). But as it turned out, the students intensified their challenge by staging a takeover of the campuses for six days of marathon sit-ins. "Hands off the student union!" they chanted. "Ban Law 815!"

On the face of it, Law 815 hardly seemed a piece of villainous legislation. Passed last year to help raise Greek universities to European standards, it addressed some of the problems of an educational system that is widely recognized to be a shambles. But each successive reform roused the ire of either the faculty or the students or both. Under the law, for example, all professors, who have long reigned supreme in their own "chairs" of tenure, will be grouped in departments administered by a pool of professors and two elected students. The law also takes aim at another hallowed institution on the other side: the "eternal" students, who by the old rules, could take--and fail --the same exam three times a year without being drummed out. Now, to the wrath of the 60,000-member student union (E.F.E.E.), exams are being held only twice a year, and failure means repeating the academic year.

Beyond opposing specific provisions, the protest also reflects a conviction that Law 815 is a government tool aimed at weakening the student union while encouraging the "silent majority" of unorganized students. For its part, the government has made matters worse by accusing the students of seizing the campuses simply because "they are lazy and want the right to be 'eternal.' " But why do so many students fail the exams at all? A root cause is one that Law 815 ignores: overcrowding. Professors often lecture to classes of 1,500 students. Only 10% of Athens University's 45,000 students are housed in dorms. In addition, labs are ill-equipped, textbooks long outdated, libraries usually closed. Says Student Union President Christos Papoutsis about Law 815: "It's like trying to construct a building from the second floor up, having forgotten to put in the foundations and the first floor." qed

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