Welcome back to Bilkent University! I
hope your summer has been relaxing and enjoyable, and that you are ready for a new academic year.
With this edition of Bilkent News, we have introduced a new column entitled "Editor's Corner". From time to time, I will share a column from other newspapers that I think you may find interesting. To start things off, here is an article by Mehmet Çetingüleç, a columnist at the Takvim daily newspaper, published September 14th. I hope you enjoy it as much as
I did.
"An Approval Worth Billions of Dollars"
He had the opportunity to work in the United States or Europe earning high salaries, but he did not take advantage. He experienced difficulties and obstacles while establishing Hacettepe University in Ankara, but he did not give up.
During our nations political stalemates in the 1960's, he was nominated for the post of Prime Minister by Süleyman Demirel and his colleagues, but he did not accept. He was invited into the Foreign Ministry by Turgut Özal after 1980, but he rejected it.
He transferred his financial belongings from Europe, and his great fortune inherited from his family in Kirkuk, and invested it in land near the village of Lodumlu, in Ankara. He could have lived comfortably with a few billion dollars' personal fortune, but he did not want that. Only one thing, education, made him happy. He wanted his country to have the type of university that he gave lectures at in the United States and many European countries.
In 1982, while a new Constitution was being adopted, he was engaged in the addition of a new article which would allow the establishment of private universities, breaking the state monopoly in higher education. With this change, he was able to establish Bilkent University, the first private university in Turkey, on the land that he owned.
This year, he invited the press to his residence so that the country could view his meeting with the highest ranking Bilkent students in the nation-wide University Entrance Examination. After awarding each student with a laptop, he talked about his 92 years' of life and his dedication to education. He asked: "How have we done? Do you approve? Is it good?"
Prof. İhsan Doğramacı, who has devoted his life and personal fortune of billions of dollars to education, was humble enough to be happy with a short sentence of "approval", after all the impressive things he has done. "Yes, Teacher. It is good."
He has received many national and international awards during his life, including the "Honorary Prize of the State" (of Turkey). This Monday, he was presented with a new prize from ICANAS, which has been the greatest humanities congress of the world for 134 years. However, with all of the awards and recognition, the opinion he values the most comes from his students. After talking about all the things he has done for education, he asks again: "Do you like it? Is it good?"
In fact, he takes great pleasure in asking this question, because he knows the answer. That's why he sleeps peacefully after putting his head on his pillow every night.
Mehmet Çetingüleç, Ankara'dan,
Turkish daily Takvim,
14.09.2007
Hande Seçkin Onat
seckin@bilkent.edu.tr
 |
