Any witness to campus violence will be able to call police, says minister

Any student or citizen witnessing an incident of violence inside a university campus will be able to call the police, Education Minister Niki Kerameus said on Tuesday, referring to the planned abolition of the so-called university asylum law.

The government said it will table a bill next week on the law which prevents police from entering university grounds.

Asked how this will work in practice, Kerameus told ANT1 TV the same will apply as with in any other public space.

“If, for example a student, or a citizen sees another student being attacked, they will call the police,” she said, adding that the approval of the university Dean or the university council will no longer be required.

Kerameus said the vast majority of people agree with this change, noting that campuses have become “asylums for criminals.”

“We have exceptional universities, exceptional students, professors and staff [and] we don’t have the healthy academic environment that will allow them to do their work,” she said.

Commenting on the ministry’s decision to abolish the fourth Law School which the previous government wanted to open in the town of Patras, she pointed to the thousands of unemployed lawyers which cannot be absorbed by the labor market.

The department was scheduled to open in 2020.