To celebrate the 20th year of our university, we have prepared a set of four questions to ask faculty and administrative personnel who have been with us since the beginning, and to our first students. They all tell "the story of 20 years" from their own perspectives.

Going in alphabetical order, this week's interviewee for "The Story of 20 Years" is Mert Özsöz.

Mert Özsöz has been a member of the Sabancı University family for 21 years. He is one of the first 251 undergraduate students of 1999, when the university opened its doors. Mert Özsöz, who graduated from the Economics Program of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) in 2004, completed his MBA at Koç University after a 5-year international industry experience. Mert Özsöz, who has been a strategy and management consultant for the world's leading professional services companies for nearly 12 years, is currently a director at the consulting firm Korn Ferry. 

Mert Özsöz ’s answers to our four questions are below.

What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?

M.Ö: Our first meeting with Sabancı University took place in two stages for me and my twin brother. During the university selection process, my father came home one evening with an A5-sized booklet of 12 pages with a purple cover and told us, “We have found what we were looking for." Of course, at that point, we both had other dreams, expectations. We took this introductory booklet (which I still keep) and jumped in the car about a week later and came to the campus from Izmir. When we arrived at the main security gate of Sabancı University, the guards asked “Who did you come to visit?“, and my father said, "Frankly, we do not know anyone, but I have brought you two students.”, and they referred us to the Rectorate building. At the door of the building, the late Mr. Terzioğlu, may he rest in peace, and dear Mrs. Koyunsağan welcomed us. For about four hours, they told us about Sabancı University, its vision, its goals, and introduced the campus on a model, since it was completely under construction that day. We were probably introduced to about 4-5 faculty members within these four hours. By the time we left the campus, the decision had already been made. The purple introduction booklet, Tosun Terzioğlu, and Zerrin Koyunsağan.

What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change?

M.Ö: If I had to sum up the differences and contributions of these twenty years, I would say a label with strong recognition and validity and a sense of belonging, asking questions, but getting pleasure from researching and reading in detail and in depth, white strands of hair, plus 20 kilograms and a few wrinkles around the eyes, an increasing self-confidence, giving back what you received from the community and the land to the community and the world by adding onto it, the joy of giving back, a wife, and a son who gives meaning to life.

What comes into your mind when you think of Sabancı University in 20 years? What are your dreams for Sabancı University for the next 20 years? What about yourself?

M.Ö: Influenced by the circumstances we are in, I want to say health first. I hope that you are reading these lines, we will all be in a healthier and more peaceful world, but even in that situation, my first answer would be health. When I consider it from different angles (personal, physical, education/training, intellectual), after 20 years, Sabancı University makes me think of “The First Sense of Freedom”. By 2040, I would like to see that it is a world-leading brand with its exiting and future achievements, perceived not only as an university that provides education, but as a significant value (both the industry and societies) considered as the reference point by those who manage global resources (both the industry and societies). And for myself, I guess I wish a life where the feeling of freedom that these first 20 years have made me feel continues, and I would probably like to see my son join Sabancı University.   

Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?

M.Ö: Frankly, this question is not easy to answer. In my personal opinion; half of life, success, or achievement is the plan, and the other half is luck. In other words, there is an important part that we can influence, but there is also a part that is not so much under our control. I think we have had a planned and lucky start to the journey of freedom by selecting Sabancı University.  

Collaboration Space workshops continue online in November 2020.

3D Print Workshop

17 November 2020 at 20:00

Giving a general idea behind the 3D printing technology and how to use it continued with 3D printing slicing and learning how to print.

 Please click to register.  

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Android Mobile Development Course (Java)

18  November, 2020 at 18:00 to 20:00

The following topics will be covered in the Android application development course with Java.

- Introduction to Application Development, Android Studio, XML

- Android Versions, Support Libraries

- User Experience, Interface Development

- API Fetching, Saving User Data

Participants are expected to have Java experience. Evalutation test will be sent after pre-registration. According to your test result, your acceptance will be announced.

 Please click to register.

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Introduction to Circuit Elements With Tinkercad (Simulation)

10 November  2020 at 13:00
24 November  2020 at 13:00 

It is an online training to examine circuit elements with the help of Tinckercad program via web browser and simulate small circuits. 

Please click to register.

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Introduction to 3D Modeling Training (Fusion 360)

27 November  2020 at 20:00

In the training modelling will be trained using Fusion 360 software. 

Please click to register.
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Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) will host the second annual conference of GEARING Roles, a project funded by the European Commission.

The online conference will be held November 9 – 11 under the theme of Gender and Leadership in Higher Education and Research.

Mangala Subramaniam, Professor of Sociology and Butler Chair and Director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, will be the keynote speaker of the conference.

Please click for registration.

For more information: gearingroles.eu, ilayda.ova@sabanciuniv.edu

Ayşegül Yapar, Nagihan Aydınlık, and Nazif Can Akçalı, graduates of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Sabancı University were selected among 1,194 applications across the country and were found eligible to participate in BASE 2020.

BASE is an organization that brings together the work of young artists who have just graduated from the painting, sculpture, photography and video, graphic design, visual communication design, printing arts, glass, and ceramics departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts throughout Turkey under the same roof. Introducing newly graduated prospective artists to the public, art sector, creative industries, and media, BASE aspires to support them in their transition from graduation to professional art life and to give their careers momentum and direction. 

BASE, the first collective exhibition of new graduates of Fine Arts Faculties in Turkey, received 1,194 applications from 76 universities in 59 cities in Turkey this year. After the evaluation of the Selection Board, 120 works belonging to 98 newly graduated prospective artists from 33 universities in 22 cities were found eligible to be exhibited this year with a majority vote. 

Ayşegül Yapar, a graduate of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS, whose work will be exhibited at BASE 2020, shared her views: “I entered Sabancı University in 2015. In 2020, I graduated from the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program with Art Theory and Criticism and Psychology as my minors. As of Fall 2020, I am continuing my education with the Master's Program in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design. 

I decided to study art in my early childhood. As a child, I began to develop myself in painting, and during my college years, I had the opportunity to experience other forms of art. As a prospective artist, my biggest dream was to present my paintings to the audience in an exhibition one day, so I can say that BASE has already become a unique and beautiful experience for me as it is the first exhibition I will participate in. My goals for the future include continuing to perform art as a priority. Currently, I am about to start a new series of paintings on a topic that I have poured into sketches during the quarantine period and have read and thought about for a long time. I would like to thank my instructor Selim Birsel, a faculty member at the FASS, Sabancı University who guided and always supported me in the process of creating my paintings, which will be part of my graduation exhibition.” 

Nagihan Aydınlık, a master’s student at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS and whose work will be exhibited in BASE 2020 also shared her thoughts and feelings: “I graduated from the Department of Communication Design, Yıldız Technical University. In 2017, I did my internship in Berlin on user experience. 

Immediately after the internship, I started working as a visual designer for a company called Commencis, which designs digital experiences and applications. I participated in the experience and visual interface design teams of major bank projects such as Arab National Bank and İş Bank. In 2018, I quit my job after being awarded a full-scholarship master's degree at Sabancı University. I continue my education at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS, and also continue working as an assistant at the school. 

I mostly produce illustrations and animations. I usually work on themes such as the female body, social problems, and taboos. 

After graduating from school, I will continue my art and design career individually. I want to go abroad for my doctoral studies once the Covid-19 crisis is over.” 

Nazif Can Akçalı, one of the graduates of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS and whose work will be exhibited at BASE 2020, told us about his expectations for the future by giving information about himself as well: “I started the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program at Sabancı University in 2016. I work in many areas such as painting, video, animation, and graphic design. In 2019, I participated in “Stretching Klee's Line” and “Design Delight” workshops at Bauhaus University. I won the third prize in the experimental film category at the Rofife International Short Film Competition my short film called Seoul(e), which I shot in 2020. I was found eligible to participate in the ALC Videoart Festival organized in Spain and Marmaris International Film Festival. This film included in the Videoart Collection of the Las Cigarreras Cultural Center will be displayed in BASE 2020 along with my photography series, “Dönüşümü Bekleyenler (Those Waiting for Transformation).” 

Actually, I did not have any plans to study art in my entire educational life. I decided to study art after enrolling in Sabancı University. We start our university education at Sabancı without a department, we choose our program at the end of the first year. Although I started university thinking that I would study genetics, I decided to study Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design. Seeing the works of the graduates was effective in my decision. It may be a very cliché dream for a prospective artist, but I would say that my biggest dream is to leave valuable and permanent works that will be talked about for years.

In my art, I am inspired by everything from a person’s body to his thoughts; from what he eats and drinks to what he builds and destroys. What a man does and what he will do is incomprehensibly vast. Looking at them with a different perspective, interpreting them, documenting them offers unlimited artistic opportunities. Sometimes it is a psychological condition that very few people experience, sometimes it is the trivial garbage of a food we consume, sometimes it is our values that we first glorify and then try to destroy... It is all an inspiration if you focus on it.” 

We congratulate our graduates and wish them continued success.

Sabancı Business School Executive MBA (EMBA) Program has moved 10 steps up to 84th place in the Financial Times Ranking of “Global Executive MBA” programs in 2020.  

In the ranking of the world’s best business school EMBA programs, schools are evaluated based on17 criteria . Data for the ranking are collected using two online surveys, the first completed by participating schools and the second by alumni. Alumni responses inform five ranking criteria: salary today, salary increase, career progress, work experience and aims achieved. Information provided by the business schools informs 10 criteria including female faculty, female students, women on board, international faculty and students and boards, international course experience, extra languages, faculty with doctorates, FT research rank, CSR rank and overall satisfaction.

Nihat Kasap, the Dean of the Sabancı Business School said: “As Sabancı Business School, we are both happy and proud to have been ranked in top 100 among FT best Executive MBA Programs globally with a leap of 10 places to 84th up from 94th last year. Our faculty with its quality of education and research at an international level is among the best not only in Turkey, but also one of the best business schools in the world."

Only business schools with AACSB or EQUIS accreditation are eligible to apply for the Financial Times EMBA ranking.

Pleace click for the full FT Executive MBA 2020 rankings. 

World-renowned thinker Pankaj Mishra, author of the book “Age of Anger: A History of the Present”, attended as guest of honor at the Sabancı University 2020/21 Academic Opening Ceremony, held online as part of pandemic measures.

The opening ceremony for the new academic year attended by Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı started with the opening speeches of Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici, Sabancı University Vice President and Director of Istanbul Policy Center Fuat Keyman and Stiftung Mercator Director Michael Schwarz.

The President Yusuf Leblebici said in his speech:

“We, as Sabancı University, have come together under extraordinary conditions for the opening of our 2020-2021 academic year and the start of our fall semester. We successfully completed the last spring and summer semesters carrying out education using a fully online educational model.  Once again, for the health and safety of our students, academic staff and employees, we have started the new fall semester with education being conducted remotely. This period reminds us of the importance of solidarity and mutual trust in the face of uncertainties. Our school's philosophy of ‘creating and developing together’ has never been more meaningful.

During the period we have been going through, we have been witness to fear, resentment and anger in the people of almost all Western countries. The COVID-19 crisis has been the source for the growth of various difficult issues even in the richest countries of the world. Today, our guest of honor Pankaj Mishra, addresses some of these issues with his original stance on both historical and current events, and offers a new perspective on how we interpret the world in this chaotic time. ”

Sabancı University Vice President and Director of Istanbul Policy Center Fuat Keyman said in his speech:

While establishing the Istanbul Policy Center, our goal was to be a global institution, with an analytic focus, that would offer innovative and creative policy recommendations. It makes us both happy and hopeful for future projects to see that the academic successes we have reached to this day are coupled with teamwork and creativity. Since its establishment, IPC has held more than 3,000 academic events in various parts of the world.

IPM has hosted a total of 54 researchers and 18 senior researchers in Istanbul since the start of the Mercator-IPC Research Program.  This program is a collaboration between Sabancı University and Stiftung Mercator and is now in its 9^th term. IPM has collaborated with more than 30 national and international institutes to achieve our goal of creating a sharing and productive atmosphere. I believe that every one of these projects is highly valuable not only for the IPC, but also for the international academic world. We will continue to implement these efforts, no matter how challenging conditions can be due to the pandemic. We will always be with our students and researchers; together we will reach a productive end to this period without making any compromises to our academic achievement goals.”

Pankaj Mishra, one of the prominent thinkers of our age known for his writings in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Guardian, and his books From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia (2013), Age of Anger: A History of the Present (2017) and Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire (2020), received great acclaim with his speech as Sabancı University Guest of Honor and Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow.

Pankaj Mishra started his speech by sharing the starting point of his book "Age of Anger: A History of the Present". He described his book as an effort to write about the discourse of progress led by Western Europe and the United States and the emotional impact of development practices on countries that feel left behind. He also noted that large-scale globalization and international competition are not in line with the ideology of progress offered by Western Europe and America, and that we are even seeing a political, economic, cultural and social collapse in countries that present themselves as models for the rest of the world.

Pankaj Mishra continued by saying that the unequal and unfair distribution of wealth has created a huge wave of discontent that has enabled far-right movements and demagogue leaders to stand out. He underlined that in order to overcome this, people must radically change the sense of resentment they carry. Mishra concluded his speech by stating that the moral and intellectual choices we face today are far more comprehensive than the choices we face in pursuit of political victory.

This speech was followed by a Q&A session led by IPC Senior Specialist and Sabancı University Faculty Member Senem Aydın-Düzgit.

“The most of the hope and optimism I feel today from young people"

Stating that a new era in history has opened with the difficult pandemic process, Pankaj Mishra's evaluation of the young generation in this environment of uncertainty, despair and risks is as follows: “The most of the hope and optimism I feel today from young people. This is the generation has experienced an unprecedented politicization and a historical awareness of a sophistication that previous generation did not have. So this is already a huge advance over what previous generations have experienced and thought about, that already thoughts that it took a long time previous generations arrived at, some of them has not arrived at those thoughts, radical thoughts about how to shape the world, what kind of economy we need, what kind of politics we need. I can speak for my generation, we were too over odd, we were too impressed by what we saw as a success of the establishment, we were too sometimes intimidated by them to openly question them or challenge them. Young people have broken free from those the modes of intimidation. They are free to think thoughts that we were not free. They are experiencing a present which is very uncertain, a future which is very ambiguous at this point. So they already have more experience in a very short span.

This puts them ahead of us.”

The ceremony ended with a screening introducing the topics that Mercator-IPC researchers would be working on.

Professional Graduate Programs Commencement Ceremony was held on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı made the following remarks during the speech she delivered at the virtual ceremony:

“While designing the Professional Graduate Programs, we aimed to meet the needs of the business world and we also aimed to make sure that these programs are based on the competencies of the future, starting from today.”

“You are graduating at a time when so many drastic changes are taking place in the world. Standing out and setting yourselves apart from the others in such a world can only be possible through continuous development.”  

The Professional Graduate Programs Commencement Ceremony was held online on Saturday, October 17, 2020 by Sabancı University, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in the last academic year. Sabancı University decided to have a virtual commencement ceremony in order to protect the health of students and their families in accordance with the precautions taken against the Covid-19 pandemic. This online ceremony was held for 252 graduates who have completed the Sabancı University Professional Graduate Programs in the fields of Information Technology, Cyber Security, Data Analytics under Graduate School of Engineering and Natural Sciences; and the fields of Finance Master, Management (MBA), Management for Professionals (Professional MBA) and Management for Executives (Executive MBA) under Sabancı Graduate Business School. Graduating Students and their families attended this virtual ceremony, which was broadcast live on the university website and its social media accounts.

Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair, Güler Sabancı, President of Sabancı University Yusuf Leblebici and Member of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University and Borusan Holding Board Member Agah Uğur delivered their speeches at the opening of the virtual ceremony.

Güler Sabancı made the following remarks during the speech she delivered to the graduating students:

“We are again experiencing a very different kind of excitement on this graduation day at our university,  which has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Today, 252 students who have completed professional graduate programs under the Graduate School of Engineering and Natural Sciences and Sabancı Graduate Business School are graduating. Our distinguished graduates are making history by being ‘the first graduate class which has a virtual graduation ceremony’. Thanks to the opportunities offered by the new technologies, we are happy to be able to celebrate your graduation day with the attendance of all the people you cherish. You have not given up investing in yourselves and learning in such a challenging time when we have had an increased level of anxiety and stress due to unforeseen circumstances. You did not give up. I would like to congratulate you with all my heart!”

Reiterating that Sabancı University aimed to meet the needs of the business world and to meet the required competencies of the future today while designing Professional Graduate Programs, Güler Sabancı went on to say the following:

“ The inter-disciplanary approach we have adopted as part of our foundation philosophy has always made us strong. By graduating from the programs we have designed based on this philosophy and perspective, you have taken a very significant step in your career and climbed the next rung of your career ladder.  You are graduating at a time when so many drastic changes are taking place in the world. Standing out and setting yourselves apart from the others in such a world  can only be possible through continous development.”

“Our Goal Is To Be Among The Top 40 Universities In The World University Rankings”

President of Sabancı University, Yusuf Leblebici stated the following in his speech at the online commencement ceremony:

“ Our University has lately made a significant stride in a comprehensive manner. First of all, I am proud to say that we are one of the best universities in this country with the quality and authenticity  of our educational programs as well as our research  output that demonstrates the conributions we make to the scientific world. However, our goal is not only to be the best university in Turkey but also to literally be a world class research university which is well-known and well-respected in the world. Sabancı University Executive Development Unit EDU continues its steady uptrend in the institution-specific customized programs rankings announced annually by the Financial Times.

EDU, which entered the lists for the first time in 78th place in 2018, ranked 55th in the list this year, climbing up even higher in the list. Our goal is to be among the top 40 universities in the world in this area by 2025.” 

Member of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University, Borusan Holding Board Member and the guest speaker of the ceremony, Agah Uğur made the following remarks:

“Success is a relative term in business life. Everyone has their own reality. Having completed my 40th year in my career, I have believed that the means are much more important than the end. Those who favour money, fame and power over everything end up being unhappy on their career journey and they also fail to reach their destination. However, those who do their best to enjoy what they learn from their career journey always achieve the things they desire such as money, fame and power eventually. Passion is the key to success. When I hear the life stories of high achievers, I can clearly see that being passionate and curious are of utmost importance. It is not being a superhuman that makes a huge difference in the professional life but having your own positive energy. The world is not impressed by the leaders with a vision anymore but instead, the leaders who collaborate more effectively and who have more humane leadership skills are more popular now. The leaders who find a way to get both the minds and the hearts of their employees to be committed to their companies rather than solely their minds are those who are the most successful.”

To celebrate the 20th year of our university, we have prepared a set of four questions to ask faculty and administrative personnel who have been with us since the beginning, and to our first students. They all tell "the story of 20 years" from their own perspectives.

Going in alphabetical order, this week's interviewee for "The Story of 20 Years" is Melih Özsöz.

Melih Özsöz has been a member of the Sabancı University family for 21 years. He is one of the first 251 undergraduate students of 1999, when the university opened its doors. Melih Özsöz graduated from the Social and Political Sciences (SPS) Program of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) in 2004 and had his Master's Degree in European Studies at Boğaziçi University. He is currently working at Limak Holding as a manager.   

Melih Özsöz’s answers to our four questions are below . 

What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?

M.Ö: After the university selection exam, we visited the campus for the first time on a Friday during the selection period. It took us a long time to get to Istanbul and to the campus, we arrived at the campus on Friday afternoon and everyone had left. Mrs. Zerrin Koyunsağan was leaving the campus while we were talking to the security guards of the Rectorate building. She saw us. She talked to the security guards and told us that the Founding Rector Mr. Terzioğlu (God rest his soul) was on campus. We had the opportunity to tour and get to know the campus for the first time accompanied by our Rector Mr. Terzioğlu and our Student Resources Director Mrs. Koyunsağan. I think it is an opportunity that has been given to very few people. They canceled their own schedule and spent the evening with us. At that moment, we had already realized that Sabancı University was the “right school”.   

What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change?

M.Ö: At the age of 18, in Istanbul, you live your own life away from your family, staying in the dormitory. It teaches you to plan your own life very well, and it has a lot of reflections on your professional life.    

What comes into your mind when you think of Sabancı University in 20 years? What are your dreams for Sabancı University for the next 20 years? What about yourself?

M.Ö: “Creating and Developing Together”. I did not mean much to me 20 years ago. However, today I understand much better what it means.  

I think that Sabancı University will retain the value and meaning of the its slogan “Creating and Developing Together”, which constitutes its founding philosophy, 20 later as well. I believe that Sabancı University, which “showed its difference” with this philosophy 20 years ago, will continue to make a difference/show its difference as a “global university without a campus” 20 years from now. 

Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?

M.Ö: Probably Boğaziçi University. But I would still prefer Sabancı University for my Master's Degree.  

To celebrate the 20th year of our university, we have prepared a set of four questions to ask faculty and administrative personnel who have been with us since the beginning, and to our first students. They all tell "the story of 20 years" from their own perspectives.

Going in alphabetical order, this week's interviewee for "The Story of 20 Years" is Kemal İnan.

Kemal İnan has been a member of the Sabancı University family since 1 February 1998. Kemal İnan, who has been a faculty member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) of Sabancı University for 22 years and one of our Emeritus faculty members since February 2011, also served as the Founder Dean of the FENS between February 1998 and July 2007.  

Kemal İnan’s answers to our four questions are below . 

What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?

K.İ: There are so many that it is very difficult for me to pick one. The reason is this: my being a member of Sabancı University coincided with many radical changes in my life at the same time.

These include marrying my current wife Gülten, settling in Istanbul for the first time in a long time, and of course, taking up a administrative position with so much responsibility as the Founding Dean of the FENS at an ambitious university where my close friend, the late Tosun Terzioglu, whom I trusted very much, was the Rector. 

It is not an opportunity that everyone is afforded to implement the enviable principles under radical and universal scales, that is, the principles of the establishment of an innovative world university such as Sabancı University.  

Since I have so many memories, it is hard and not meaningful to choose a particular one. Let me explain this. 

The moments I was most excited about and applied myself were the introductory speeches of Sabancı University, which I largely took responsibility for and delivered to students and their families during the university entrance exams. I was happy to learn from the students who later enrolled in our university on various occasions the decisive role these conversations played in their decision to join our university.  

Apart from this, what comes to mind are the times when I visited US universities such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT to select faculty members as well as the Silicon Valley, where I delivered speeches introducing the university system in Turkey and the shining star of this system, Sabancı University, to students who had completed their doctoral studies and were conducting post-doctoral studies and engineers. 

What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change? 

K.İ: 20 years ago I was 58 years old. In 2007, my 9-year tenure as the Founding Dean ended. In 2009, my late friend Tosun Terzioğlu's Rectorate ended.  

It is questionable to what extent the excitement and development in the organization lasts after the initial stages. I think it would be unfair to see only managers as responsible for a possible transition from excitement to stagnation. 

There were two universities I had previously experienced the excitement of foundation in a student and assistant capacity: The Middle East Technical University and the University of Warwick in England, where I started my PhD.  

From these experiences, I learned this. An overly optimistic ideology dominates the initial stages of establishment of ambitious universities. Over time, especially the expectations and facts involved in monetary opportunities and the formation of the staff often fall into a conflicting process. For this reason, after a while, initial optimism must be replaced by a realistic and constructive mentality. I leave it to those closely experience this process at the administrative level to decide whether such a realistic and constructive process exists after the first 12 years. 

After leaving the Dean's Office and then retiring with the title of Emeritus Professor, I did not and still do not express my opinion on the management of the University, following the principle of ‘stand out of my sunshine’, unless asked.  

What comes into your mind when you think of Sabancı University in 20 years? What are your dreams for Sabancı University for the next 20 years? What about yourself?

K.İ: What comes to not only my mind, but to minds of many administrators and academics who claim to establish a new university when Sabancı University is mentioned is to implement the founding principles of Sabancı University. In an interdisciplinary environment where various disciplines are intertwined, sometimes integrated and sometimes divided, these principles firstly include (i) to be a university that allows for non-departmental and interdisciplinary interaction, and (ii) to ensure that the students have the ability to freely choose their own professional areas. 

During this time, as a person who has passed through very different disciplines as a result of my own special background, I opened a new course called Technology and Society, which I teach 4 times in a 6-year period and which is open to all students. As a result of intensive work after the first semester I opened this course, I wrote my book titled Technological (Un)Functionality. The second edition of this book, printed by İletişim Yayınları in 2012, featured a new chapter added in early 2019. This book, which examines the unemployment caused by automation and artificial intelligence technologies and therefore the difficulty of transitioning to an information society, was selected as the book to be distributed to students for review by the reading club of the university in 2015. 

Today, this topic is so vital that in the recent future, I believe that my ideas in this book will be extensively discussed once again.  

Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?

K.İ: You need to be an oracle to answer this question. But I would probably be in a university environment again. The reason for this certainly comes not from my passion for teaching, but from my passion for learning. I mean, the passion I cannot give up is being a student!

To celebrate the 20th year of our university, we have prepared a set of four questions to ask faculty and administrative personnel who have been with us since the beginning, and to our first students. They all tell "the story of 20 years" from their own perspectives.

Going in alphabetical order, this week's interviewee for "The Story of 20 Years" is Kazım Balkış.

Kazım Balkış has been a member of the Sabancı University family since 22 November 1999. Kazım Balkış, who has been working at Sabancı University for 21 years, worked at University Services and Operation and Technical Services units. 

He is currently responsible for Network Infrastructure Systems and Telephone Exchange Systems in the Purchasing and Operations Directorate.

Kazım Balkış’s answers to our four questions are below. 

What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?

K.B: On 1 May 1999, I had a job in mind, the company I was working for at the time forced me to work at the construction site of Sabancı University. I objected, saying “Today is my holiday, I will not work.” It was no good, they sent me right to the site. I was shocked when I arrived. There was dust everywhere; workers, cranes, towers, cement mixer trucks coming and going constantly in a synchronized way. It was as if there was martial law, you could not work however you wish. Even the safety helmet became my friend, I was chatting with it. We had to postpone even our vital need while working in the site. We were soldiers and the architect in charge was the military police, constantly trying to find our mistakes. The buildings were being completed one by one in these fast-paced months. As the buildings were being completed, we were feeling proud of our work. One day, I found myself in the technical office instead of the dusty construction field upon a job offer. However, there were still constructions from time and time and I was back out there. It is a different feeling, constructions attract me. 

What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change?

K.B: 20 years ago, I was in my 30’s, full of energy. But working at and being a technical employee in an educational institution, I think, is a privilege. You have to constantly improve yourself. You get to know different peole from different nationalities and cultures from students to the teaching staff and administrative staff due to the nature of the job, you have to address problems and come up with solutions and you get to improve your communication skills over the years.  

What comes into your mind when you think of Sabancı University in 20 years? What are your dreams for Sabancı University for the next 20 years? What about yourself?

K.B: When you say Sabancı University, I think of the slogan of 20 years ago, “Creating Together”. The world is rapidly developing, needs are changing, the technology is rapidly advancing; financial problems, political developments, management styles are deeply affecting all individuals and institutions. We have to constantly refresh to keep up with the process. I think our new slogan should be “Producing together”. If we do not produce something together, we lose. 

I think that in the near future, different concepts of management will be developed in the world.

Organizations that cannot produce in this process will not have a chance. When my relationship with the organization is over, I will focus on my personal development, I plan to attend various courses, I have an artistic aspect, and I feel I need to reveal my abilities. 

Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?

K.B: I would probably continue to work in technical jobs.