As we are nearing 1000 signatures, it is time for an update.

First and foremost: thank you all for standing by CEU! Many alumni have already signed this petition, and many friends of CEU have done the same.

The news from Budapest and Vienna (and from Berlin and New York) is disquieting. We've been told that OSF and the CEU Board and leadership are going ahead with "sunsetting KEE” and "uncoupling Budapest from CEU Vienna.” They consider Hungary a hopeless country and a lost cause not worth further support. If this is true, it means that OSF and CEU are following the logic of the Orbán government, which identifies current Hungarian politics with the country and its people. This is a shame. It also means that OSF and the CEU Board do not seem to understand that the role and mission of CEU Budapest extends well beyond the borders of Hungary. In fact, CEU in Budapest (even without its degree programs, which have been moved to Vienna) has a strategic role to play in tackling and countering the ever-fiercer attacks on academic freedom worldwide, including in the US. Should this plan be carried out, Budapest units will be extremely vulnerable after losing their status as units of CEU, which is a university registered in the European Union. Equally importantly, there are fears in Budapest that “sunsetting” and “uncoupling” are merely the first steps of OSF and CEU to shut down these units for good.

Participants in the May 14, 2024, “consultation” with the Chief Operating Officer of CEU in Vienna were told that selling some of the buildings of CEU in Budapest is a “legitimate” consideration on the part of the University leadership, as maintaining them is very costly. The university community was also told that these costs are no longer a financial burden on CEU Vienna as the financial “uncoupling” had already been completed following a continuous “drifting apart” of the degree programs in Vienna and the non-degree programs in Budapest. It thus seems that CEU Budapest is maintained entirely with the funds of OSF. Therefore, we’ve added the Board of Directors of OSF to the list of decision makers to whom this petition is addressed.

The initiators of the petition will soon hand over the petition and the (virtual) signatures on it to the Board of Trustees of CEU, to help the Trustees make the right decisions at their upcoming meeting in June 2024. The Board of Directors of OSF will also receive a copy. The petition itself, however, will remain online and open for anyone to sign for an indefinite period. We believe that it must stay there as a memento to the efforts of us, alumni of CEU, and the many friends of CEU who also signed it, to save CEU from self-destruction. It should also remind the general public about CEU and OSF’s own share of responsibility in the process of finishing off the job started by Viktor Orbán back in 2017.

Finally, we would kindly ask you to share, and to re-share, this petition among your contacts, especially those who are in one way or another connected to CEU. Also, please continue sharing your personal comments and opinion in the Reasons for signing section at the bottom of the petition. Your voice matters a lot, and it will hopefully help those who are making important decisions about the future of CEU.

Thank you!