The incumbent boss sawed off, her successor disgusted: The University of Göttingen shows how the search for a university president can go wrong and lead to a fundamental directional dispute: Who should run the university? From whom do the professors want to be led? And how much do you want to be led?
The outcome is uncertain. One thing is certain: After the rejection of the designated President of the United Sascha Spoun on Wednesday, the situation is far from being pacified. On Thursday followed by another retreat from the squad of those responsible. Wilhelm Krull, Chairman of the Foundation Council and Committee, announced that he would give up these offices.
Krull, full-time General Secretary of the Volkswagen Foundation, was the chairman of the search committee for the candidacy of Spoun. In this function, he had recently come under increasing criticism, so had five senators of Georg August University in Göttingen called for his resignation. He gave in to it now.
He draws "personal consequences from the appeal failed for formal legal reasons" Spouns, said Krull and acknowledged mistakes. He confirmed that the search committee had "not completely documented individual selection steps in writing". This applies in particular to the evaluation of the applicants. "We worked for a traffic light system." And "green" has ultimately reached only Sascha Spoun, Krull said in a conversation with the SPIEGEL.
New procedure, new application
To iron out the formal mistakes later would have been an option. But the Academic Senate did not want to get involved in a special meeting on Tuesday, but to reopen the procedure, as Krull says. Sascha Spoun would have been able to apply again in this process. He did not comment on this, but may have felt that this was an imposition, which he escaped with his refusal.
That the dispute over the personnel could escalate, started two months ago. Then the search committee proposed Senate Spoun as the only candidate for election. Formally this is correct. The Niedersächsische Hochschulgesetz gives selection committees a free hand on this point, they can propose several candidates, but they do not have to.
However, critics did not want to accept Spoun as a single electoral proposal, especially since at first there were contradictory statements as to whether he had acted as adviser to the Commission. In a protest note, 49 of the 471 Göttingen professors in seven points complained, among other things, of a violation of "elementary, democratic usages", questioned Spoun's qualification for the post and demanded Krull's resignation as Chairman of the Foundation Council.
Some time later, the administrative court announced the claim of a competitor for the presidency, who reportedly wanted to join shortly thereafter another rejected candidate. Whether it really came to the complaint and how it would have been, is speculation.
However, the university itself wrote in a communication, "the competent bodies are advised on necessary steps for a legally secure decision on the presidential process". Spoun's resignation left her without comment, Krull thanked for the "trusting cooperation".
Which hierarchies are up-to-date?
Is it in the dispute so mainly formalities? Doubts are appropriate. The dispute over the presidential election reveals a directional dispute that has been smoldering at the university for years. It is not just about content-related issues, but about questions that are currently also in other universities:
What is the idea of the university? What should she be, how should she be governed? Which hierarchies and decision-making mechanisms are up-to-date?
"It's about the power and influence that professors threaten to lose," says a connoisseur of the university scene the SPIEGEL behind closed doors. Another explains: "In Göttingen people are fighting for the Ordinary University and arguing about what they might look like in the 21st century".
Against this background, the resistance against Sascha Spoun can be understood. The German-Swiss is considered a science manager who drives reforms, stands for profile formation and cooperation. "The conditions and rules of the game" in science had changed, he said in the speech of his choice, "therefore it is not enough for the reputation of Göttingen, the once successful only to preserve".
"Radical restart necessary"
For the majority of professors at the university, who had already won 14 Nobel Prizes, but remained at excellence competitions far behind their own expectations, Spoun had become a hope with such sentences. She chose him. Others, on the other hand, found his style bitter, including Thomas Kaufmann, one of the four namesake signatories to the protest note.
The University of Göttingen needs transparency and participation, said the professor of theology SPIEGEL. Also in terms of personnel, a "radical restart" is necessary - with a "completely new team" and a president or a president at the top, who "act as first among equals beyond the unacademic hierarchical model as primus inter pares".
The withdrawal of Krull and Spoun is not enough for Kaufmann. Personnel consequences would have to be drawn by anyone who "dismissed our inquiries about the proceedings and declared them illegitimate" and - like the Senate - played "the whole game", he said. The dispute over a new candidate search is now really starting.
"The university is in a very difficult interim phase," says Krull. Former President Ulrike Beisiegel will retire early September. After the defeats at the Excellence Competition, she wanted and was to pave the way for a new beginning. What it looks like is now open.