Estonian Academy of Arts: We Did Not Dismiss Pärn
The situation over the dismissal of Priit Pärn from his duties as both teacher and Head of the Animation Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts, which was detailed in our article, caused the response of EKA representatives.
Solveig Jahnke, Head of Communications at the Estonian Academy of Arts, contacted Zippy Frames to present the EKA version of the story.
She states:
The universities in Estonia have a system of having regular elections for the positions of professors and associate professors and the elections are conducted by voting. The vote is held at the meeting of the Academy's Council, which consists of 21 members. The members can only vote FOR a candidate. Unfortunately, Priit Pärn received 5 votes out of 21.
The academy invited him to continue as the Professor Emeritus and continue teaching at the academy, but relieve him of the administrative tasks that a Head of Department must carry out on top of creative work as well as teaching.
And Jahnke concludes with EKA's highest appreciation and respect for Priit Pärn.
While no one disputes the validity of the voting procedure, it seems unclear why Priit Pärn was deemed inefficient (with so vast majority) for the Estonian Academy of Arts animation department, even though, according to him, his initial contract was valid till 2019. -
The reasons for this decision need to be better explained, at least to his current students, who have started protesting -the Professor Emeritus proposal by EKA seems rather to gild the bitter pill in this case.
Vassilis Kroustallis