Novi Sad Philosophy Faculty Raid: Trauma Doubles

A year after police entered the building of the Philosophy Faculty in Novi Sad, the first public measurement of the toll that raid took on professors and students has come to light. Professor Irena Boskovic said Wednesday evening, August 26, at a panel discussion outside the faculty, that average scores on a trauma symptom scale now sit around 22 to 23, compared with 10.6 on the same scale two years earlier.

The panel, titled “Occupied, but Not Silenced,” was organized by the Free University academic network. The evening opened at 6:30 PM with a photo exhibition documenting the Philosophy Faculty during the student blockade and the period of police presence. Autonomija credits the photographs to Marko Mrav, while the portal 021 names Marko Antic as the photographer in its report on the same event. The discussion itself began at 7 PM, with lawyer Vladimir Beljanski, professor Boskovic and student Ana Marija Radosavljevic taking part, moderated by Boris Kojcinovic.

What Happened a Year Ago

The blockade of the Philosophy Faculty was broken up in the early hours of August 26, 2025, when then dean Milivoj Alanovic, accompanied by several professors, entered the building, changed the locks and threatened students inside with disciplinary action. Once the students left, police in full gear swiftly appeared both outside and inside the faculty. At the time, officials cited an alleged threat to Dean Alanovic’s safety as the reason for the police presence.

Police remained in the building from August 26 until September 8, 2025, a total of 13 days. Tensions escalated further on September 5, 2025, when a large gathering on the University of Novi Sad campus ended with police moving against the professors, students, citizens and journalists who were present.

Has Anyone Been Held Accountable

A year later, according to lawyer Beljanski, no one has faced any legal consequences.

“It’s worrying that there have been no legal consequences. It’s clear no one has been held accountable,” Beljanski said at the panel outside the Philosophy Faculty.

Beljanski added that this isn’t merely an oversight, but a sign of a power imbalance in which the institution was left unprotected against the executive branch.

“The regime has shown that it has a police force willing to do something like this,” Beljanski said, arguing that the raid, having produced no legal consequences of any kind, served above all as a demonstration of power.

A Measurement That Didn’t Exist Before

What set this panel apart from previous commemorations was that, for the first time, a concrete figure on the psychological toll was presented publicly. Professor Boskovic, who teaches at the Philosophy Faculty, shared results from research conducted among activists and people involved in the country’s social and political events over the past several years.

“The average scores on the trauma symptom scale are now around 22 to 23. On that same scale two years ago, they stood at 10.6,” Boskovic said.

The gap between those two figures, more than double, points, in her words, to chronic stress among people who have taken part in protest and activist activity over the past two years. Boskovic said respondents showed symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.

Student Ana Marija Radosavljevic, who was among the students inside the building during the blockade, said the institution does not belong to whoever happens to be running it.

“The faculty isn’t private property. The faculty is made up of its students and professors,” Radosavljevic said.

What Remains a Year Later

The panel and the photo exhibition took place without the participation of the faculty’s current administration. Organizers described the commemoration as a reminder that, as they put it, the days of police occupation should not be forgotten. No state body has yet published findings on the circumstances under which Dean Alanovic called in the police, nor has any proceeding been opened against those involved in the events.

The question lawyer Beljanski raised at the panel, who made the decision to send police into the faculty building and why that decision has never been reviewed by any authority, remains unanswered a year after an event that, according to the measurement presented at that same panel, left a measurable mark on the people who lived through it.