Yesterday Viktor Ivanovich Kauk reposted my post about “Why I quit the university” to the group “KhNURE - open group” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vicerector/permalink/1806975352897269/). He added his own narrative to the repost. A discussion happened under the repost, including with the participation of the rector of KhNURE, Eduard Yefimovich Rubin.

Several people reached out to me, like, Vova, we’re confused: there are several interpretations of your post. Whom should we believe?

Anyone who doesn’t want to spoil their mood on this wonderful Sunday had better not read further.

V. I. Kauk on my resignation: “What is striking is that it was precisely the last year that became like this and pushed him toward this decision. Without people like that, KhNURE will have a hard time confirming the high level of IT even in the Kharkiv region. Without the young, active, professional, and talented, we will not survive. And if our system of organization and management is squeezing out people like Vladimir Obrizan, then something needs to be changed, and urgently.”

Let’s get straight to the main thing: the high level of IT at KhNURE was pissed away by Mikhail Fyodorovich Bondarenko. I enrolled in 2000 in the Computer Engineering department, and even back then people studied there through bribes, while in lectures they would talk with a smart look about 555-series chips from the 1970s. (For comparison: in 2000 Intel released the Pentium 4 microprocessor with 42 million transistors integrated). In 2005, at my groupmate’s diploma defense, he was asked: “How does a Mealy machine differ from a Moore machine?” He answered: “Let’s leave that question unanswered,” and they gave him an “excellent” and issued him a diploma. In 2004, another groupmate, immediately after receiving his bachelor’s diploma, left with the words: “They won’t teach me anything else here” (he now works as a programmer in Sweden). There were still 10 years left before Rubin and his team arrived, and KhNURE was already reliably working to incubate morons and drive out the sane.

E. Ye. Rubin on my resignation: “I spoke with him. He left not because of the problems of the last year, but because of the worsening situation at the university and the problems of the last two, three years. And in this he sees the problem not in me, but more in people like you. He also had important business matters.”

I have been observing problems since 1999. Back then, at our prep courses, a teacher showed up drunk for a math class and wrote formulas while leaning on the board. Thank God, he was good at math, and it did not affect the quality of the preparation much.

In 2000-2005 I was a student, and a pile of problems was visible in lectures. (See above.)

I was on the Council of Young Scientists in 2006-2007. Even then Slipchenko ignored us. (See Youth Forum).

In 2008-2009 I worked at the center for teaching students in foreign languages. It was a complete sham — nobody studied there, and grades were put down in the dean’s office just like that. When I was leaving the CNSIM, Gorbachev, instead of asking: “Why, what’s the problem?” yelled at me, like I was a slave and had to work there forever. By the way, KhNURE’s name was already then “thundering” on the international stage. In 2009 Kuwait stopped sending students to study at KhNURE: News from Domestic Education There were 6 years left before Rubin arrived.

When I worked as a lecturer until 2016 — good luck expelling anyone, because the students know: the incubator doesn’t give up its own.

And in recent years: who brought in a pile of foreign students who understand absolutely nothing about IT and forced me to teach them?

V. I. Kauk: “I have known Vladimir for a long time. And I carefully read his confession of why he left. April 2016 is not a year or two ago. Besides, read closely, Eduard Yefimovich, and you will understand what is happening with EDUCATION at a specific faculty. I am not lying about anything, and by the way, your way of insulting people is well known. What exactly did I lie about? Did I really not give Vladimir the opportunity to show himself as a teacher and a person?”

Viktor Ivanovich, my brain works like this: first there is the decision-making process, and then there is a bifurcation point when the decision has been made, when it is too late to thrash around. There were many consultations on this issue with colleagues over several years. I watched what was happening for a long time. I began writing the series of posts about lack of success at the university in April 2015 (University Does Not Teach You to Be Successful). Six months before Rubin arrived.

And as for education at a specific faculty — it’s just that at ours we weren’t chicken-shit about talking about it.

E. Ye. Rubin: “Viktor, you know him, but I spoke with him and clarified the reasons, so that is why I say you are distorting things. By the way, Vladimir is one of the main partners for the dual-education project and took part in all the negotiations.”

That is true. Already after I picked up my work record book (September 2016), I took part in the discussion of dual education, and I fully support this project.

V. I. Kauk: “In your opinion, is the fact that Vladimir stopped being a KhNURE teacher bad or good? If it is bad, then what did the administration do so that people like him would come to KhNURE and stay there?”

And here is a very subtle point that only a handful of people understood: I quit, but I did not leave. These are two very different things. I do not need to go according to the schedule to an empty classroom. I do not need to pretend to do a lab with foreigners. But I continue to work with motivated students at the Department of APVT. Rubin, Chumachenko, and I are discussing dual education. In my own organization, I am road-testing an advanced course on mobile-platform programming, which, by agreement with Rubin and Chumachenko, I will deliver at the Department of APVT as an elective for students of our university. Don’t be so quick to bury me!

Paragraphs for those who still have questions. Those who have no more questions are strictly forbidden to read further.

In the last election I voted for Rubin. The other candidates are a highway into the swamp.

People here say that Rubin is not a scientist, that he is not an educator. For some reason people think that the head of scientists and lecturers should be a scientist and a lecturer. The head of scientists and lecturers should be a professional manager. It is good that Rubin is not a scientist, so that he would not have the temptation, instead of strategy, organization, motivation, and control, God forbid, to start writing articles or monographs. I go to a professional dentist to get my teeth treated, not to a Doctor of Medical Sciences.

People also think that everything will change in one day. The university has a pile of Candidates of Sciences and Doctors of Sciences, but for some reason they have forgotten about the law of inertia. My organization has only 16 people, and we change veeery slowly, one small change every 2-3 months. Do you really think that in 10 months Rubin should have overcome organizational resistance and brought you happiness on a platter? Ha-ha-ha, how naive you are.

People also think that everything around them should change without their involvement. Like, Rubin will come, he will change everything, and I will sit and wait. No, with that attitude you are digging your own grave. Do not wait for a miracle from someone else; change yourselves. Have the courage to take responsibility for what is happening around you.

“Change yourself — and your life will change.” (Jim Rohn).

“Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved.” (Seraphim of Sarov).