On March 16, 2021, a meeting of the Small Programme Council was held, during which, as part of the debate "Who is a graduate of the Film School supposed to be?" Anna Paliga, a graduate of the Lodz Film School, spoke.
Her report contained a detailed description of the violent behaviour of our school lecturers Anna Paliga came across when she was studying at the Acting Department. The list of examples includes aggressive, degrading, intimidating situations which deprived students of their dignity. The graduate shared the information about the fear, lack of a sense of security and loneliness in reporting the situations experienced by the students.

As the Rector - holding the position from September 2020 - I declare that at the Lodz Film School, no behaviour is allowed that bears the hallmarks of harassment or violent treatment of students and it will not be tolerated. Our mission and duty is to guarantee that conditions are conducive to the educational process in which artistic and scientific freedom, creativity and freedom of expression must be exercised in a responsible manner and to ensure that the dignity of another human being is never undermined. The foundation of the staff-student relationship must be trust and a sense of security. I decided to participate in the elections for the Rector's position in the spring of 2020 because improving communication between the school authorities and its students is a priority for me.

By November 2020, we had already established an informal Small Programme Council, which is a platform for dialogue with students. It is composed of rector's and dean's authorities, heads of faculties, representatives of the Student Council and members of student community. To date, three meetings have been held. At the meetings of the Small Council, each student has the right to comment not only on matters related to teaching processes, but also on the functioning of the school. I would like to thank Anna Paliga for the trust and courage she showed in passing her letter to us via the Small Council. I treat it as a credit of trust for school authorities.

Immediately after the information was presented to us by the Small Programme Council, the following actions were taken:
 • Anna Paliga's statement was submitted (on the same day) to Monika Żelazowska - Rector's Plenipotentiary for Counteracting Discrimination
 • as a matter of urgency, a meeting of the Anti-mobbing and Anti-Discrimination Commission was convened
 • on Monday, March 22, 2021, the Commission will meet with Anna Paliga.

Strategic steps will be taken in the coming days to:
 • examine the scale of the problem - we plan anonymous, professional qualitative research and a CAWI survey with a quota selection of a sample among students and staff
 • analyse the procedures and functioning of the Anti-mobbing and Anti-Discrimination Commission – to find answers to the questions why these matters have been kept silent so far, why the students experiencing these events did not believe that there was a way to appeal, did not feel that they could count on support
 • show support and take care of the abused
 • take action against those who are shown to be guilty
 • educate the staff in the areas necessary for the anti-violence didactic process (the list of trainings will be developed after the above-mentioned research)
 • elaborate - also on the basis of the survey results - the proper principles of our school's functioning based on values such as: respect, dignity, freedom, creation, courage. Rules according to which everyone will feel safe.

We will inform you about the work of the school's Anti-mobbing and Anti-discrimination Commission.

Finally, I would like to express my sympathy to all students who have ever been hurt and left alone with it. We will make sure that you never walk alone. We apologize and ask for your trust and support in creating a better world.

Ms Milenia Fiedler, PhD
Rector of the Lodz Film School