For centuries, universities have been a place where the education of young people takes place independently of secular and ecclesiastical power. University graduates have been the driving force that has ensured the improvement of life all over the world. A university student should have a humanist sensibility in addition to a desire for knowledge – hatred and aggression in no way belong on academic campus.
On Thursday 21 December 2023, 14 people, mostly students, were killed and dozens of students were injured in a shooting at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. The shooter was likely a student at the faculty who turned a firearm on his classmates. This day will go down in black letters not only in the history of university education in the Czech Republic, but also throughout the world. It is a tragedy on an unimaginable scale that broke our hearts. We strongly condemn this act of violence. We are extremely sorry for the young lives that have been extinguished. We express our deepest condolences and support to the families and loved ones of those murdered, their classmates, teachers and the entire academic community of Charles University. We wish the injured a speedy recovery with a full return to life. We wish that a similar tragedy will never occur on academic campus again.
