Baden-Württemberg: Rector of the University of Design voted out again

Karlsruhe (dpa/lsw) - For the second time within a year, the rector of the State University of Design (HfG) in Karlsruhe has been voted out.

Baden-Württemberg: Rector of the University of Design voted out again

Karlsruhe (dpa/lsw) - For the second time within a year, the rector of the State University of Design (HfG) in Karlsruhe has been voted out. The required two-thirds majority was achieved with nine yes votes, one no vote and one abstention, the university announced on Wednesday. Jan Boelen's term of office would not have ended until the end of 2024.

At the request of professors, Boelen was voted out for the first time in April. According to the university, he successfully sued the administrative court for formal errors and returned to the HfG in mid-November.

"The professors did not want to wait for the final judicial decision of the Administrative Court and had therefore again applied for a vote out," said the HfG. "They saw the guarantee of teaching and university operations as endangered by the presence of the rector at the university."

The chancellor of the university, Thomas Fröhlich, said at the time that trust had been lost. The Ministry of Science assumed that the conflict between the rector and the professors would smolder for a long time. According to the ministry, this has worsened significantly since the middle of last year. Attempts at mediation were unsuccessful.

The university was headed by the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk for a long time, after which the media theorist Siegfried Zielinski took over in 2016. In 2018 he also left early. The university has been repositioning itself for some time after the state audit office recommended a structural reform.