By Francesca Patanè 

Giuseppe Silvestri, Chancellor of the University of Palermo and representative of the Italian Conference of University Chancellors (CRUI), was recently challenged at the Italian Embassy in London.

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How can one be so little far-sighted to the point of not understanding the probable future (so to speak) of “this” Italian University?

How can one be so dull to the point of not sensing that something is in the air?

How can one be so myopic to the point of not realizing that people – the outsiders – have understood all the tricks, and that the times of false promises are over? That the season of pulling our legs (to say it decently), of spongers, of Universities as a second home (for barons, top administrators, friends, and friends of friends), is over?

How can one trumpet and puff, not only in his own village but also in Europe, in London to be exact, that the only problem of the Italian University is lack/insufficiency of funds?

Booooooooooooo!  – to you, Mister Chancellor of the University of Palermo; with all due respect, the people who hissed you did the right thing.

They spared you eggs and tomatoes, even at their current price, and you should be glad. Furthermore, it is not worthwhile to invest a single cent for letting the Italian Academia know that its boat (that is today’s wreckage) should be rebuilt anew, after a necessary foundering; and given the addressees – whether obtuse by nature or for convenience, it does not matter  – any investment in that direction would be unproductive and uneconomical for every honest Italian wallet. (C’mon, Silvestri, in Italy there exist also honest people).

Hence, one of two things: either you (and with you a good share of your Illustrious Colleagues) appear obtuse because you really are or, otherwise, you appear so for convenience.

The Italian University is at the point of collapse because those who should manage it correctly use it for personal benefits (we are even tired of repeating it); because its imminent bankruptcy – and necessary, for one reason or another (and more than that, desirable, in order to turn the page once and for all: desperate ills demand desperate remedies) – does not depend on lack of funds, but rather on their evenly disbursement, without a selection of projects based on merit (are we unpopular? never mind, we do not wish to gain anybody’s favour); because many of its top leaders and followers, beginning with the old Head, now decapitated, of the former president of CRUI (Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università Italiane, Italian University Chancellor Conference), Piero Tosi, are too busy to defend themselves from accusations of nepotism that, at this point, rain down from all the Italian regions, and they do not have any time to spend responsibly in finding coherent and rational solutions for that little toy that has been handed down from father to son for many decades; because research is not encouraged and teaching is not of high quality and because the deserving young people emigrate (often to Great Britain, precisely, or to America) and the “sponsored” winners of “concorsi”, without titles and with false (and plagiarized) publications, stay; the Italian University, in short, is at the point of collapse because those who adapt to circumstances become victims of the system and stay, and those who do not conform are pulped, cindered, eliminated by the same system, with any means, sometime legitimate, more often illegal.

The Italian University is dying because its “Corpo Accademico” (in Italian, Academic Body stands for Academic Faculty) is in an advanced state of decomposition.  And the bad smell has wafted beyond national boundaries.

Having said that, Magnificent Silvestri, with your consent we give the news.

On Monday, January 22, 2007, a meeting was held at the Central Hall Westminster in London to discuss the topic “Researchers and teachers in the United Kingdom: experiences and perspectives”.

Among the authorities: the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Giancarlo Aragona, the Under-Secretary of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Luciano Modica, and, representing CRUI, the Chancellor of the University of Palermo, Giuseppe Silvestri, precisely.

The meeting, which intended to gather all the Italian researchers who migrated to the United Kingdom, was organized by the Italian Embassy and by MUR. The purpose? To display in a solid way the Italian Government’s interest toward its own “brains” that were compelled to go abroad.

“We want to intervene on the Italian system in order to correct its three most negative aspects: scarce meritocracy, gerontocracy, and unnecessary bureaucracy”: the Under-Secretary Modica proffered this declaration of intent and added more details: “Meritocracy requires the institution of Anvur (Agenzia Nazionale per la Valutazione dell’Università e della Ricerca, National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research) within a few months and with some institutional independence”. “Equally important” Modica continued, touching the very delicate matter of “opacity” in academic hiring “will be the new directives for faculty selection that will be promulgated at the end of March and will emphasize speed, transparency and adherence to international standards”.

The Under-Secretary of MUR also explained the Italian Government’s intention to involve Italian researchers, who live abroad and have experienced the functioning of university systems in foreign countries, into a network of professionals with responsible assignments in the work of Anvur, a basis for the renewal of the Italian system.

But the public present at the meeting – mainly researchers compelled to live far away from their Country of origin by a wholly inadequate university system – appreciated very little Luciano Modica’s words. For them, the speech was rather loose, “provincial” and, with respect to programmatic initiatives, still very distant from the world of research.

The atmosphere, however, became overheated with the intervention of Chancellor Silvestri, unanimously and strongly challenged by all the researchers who put him in troubles with jabs, witty remarks and ad hoc comments.

And for the Magnificent “palermitano” there arrived resolute, resonant and compact boos.

What should be done at this point? Better change the culprit: democracy. For the left-wing party member Silvestri, democracy is culpable of the Italian University’s sickness: democracy and its mechanisms that render the decision process difficult vis-à-vis developing Countries such as China.

This sensational and stupefying utterance stirred up – as it could have been anticipated and as many participants amplified on the web – “the public laughter and the embarrassment of the entire panel”. (Are you joking, Silvestri? Did you hear, perhaps, that research validity was ever disputed in the ultra democratic United States of America?).

At that point, “Nothing except your courtesy is favorable to me in this congress” commented the abused and ironic representative of the Italian Chancellors, who at least demonstrated to know De Gasperi (former Italian prime minister after the second world war), or was it only the result of a quick browsing of www.frasicelebri.it?

And, with regard to citations, we have a few ones of our own:

An ass remains an ass even when you cover it with gold. (Derzhavin)

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight. (Aristophanes)

The necessity to talk, the embarrassment of having nothing to say and the longing to appear as a witty person are the three things capable of making a laughing-stock even of the greatest man. (Voltaire).

Note: The English version of this article was first published by JUST Response on  March 13 2007. The original Italian version appeared shortly before in Ateneo Palermitano. Francesca Patanè was born in Catania, Sicily, and currently resides in  Palermo. She runs Ateneo Palermitano, a monthly periodical of university information which she founded in September 2001.

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