Last update - 00:00 07/05/2007
Student leader: Compromise presented by PMO is humiliating
By Tamara Traubmann and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents
The government's compromise, aimed at settling a dispute with university students over proposed education reforms and ending a near four-week-old student strike, is "humiliating," the Chairman of the National Students Union Itai Shonshein said Monday.
The student unions of various universities and colleges were discussing for several hours Monday the compromise proposed by the Prime Minister's Office Monday after a marathon of negotiations Sunday night.
Upon completion of the discussion, each institution will decide individually whether it will accept or reject the government's proposal, before a unified national decision is made.
The proposal includes a pledge tuition will not be increased until the end of next year, and the students currently enrolled will pay the same tuition they are paying now until they graduate, even if the tuition is raised. The proposal also pledges that students who enroll next year will pay the same tuition as is being charged today for the first year, and will received a three percent rebate during their second year, after the proposed education reforms go into effect. Students who enroll in 2008 will pay the tuition outlined by the disputed reforms.
One of the major disputes fueling the students' outcry is the fact that the reforms were forced upon them rather than being formulated in a joint effort including student representation. The government, as of now, is refusing to include the students in the formulation of the reforms.
Abraham Shochat, the chairman of the committee devising the current reforms, has been briefed regarding the students' actions during the strike, and said that the compromise was formulated based on his recommendations.
The students are also demanding that the government specify how much of the funds it has slashed from the higher education budget in recent years ? NIS 1.2 billion ? would be put back into higher education. The proposal presented to the students includes a vague mention of the aforementioned funds, and hinges the reversal of the cuts on the full implementation of the Shochat reforms.
Protesting students bar Tel Aviv University with chains and barbed wire
Students at Tel Aviv University on Monday sealed off the campus with chains and barbed wire.
The protest came despite reports of marked progress in marathon talks between student leaders and the Prime Ministers Office overnight.
Students also blocked the entrance of Technion University in Haifa on Monday, but for less than an hour. Some 400 Technion students then held a protest rally in downtown Haifa, but did not cause any traffic hold-ups.
The Haifa and Bar Ilan University campuses remained open, but Bar Ilan students patrolled the entrance to the University in a bid to convince lecturers and fellow students not to cross the picket line.
Police have yet to tackle the Tel Aviv students, but warned Sunday that they would respond if any attempts were made to lock gates or block entrances to university campuses.
The Committee of University Heads (CUH) late Sunday postponed its ultimatum by 24 hours. The ultimatum stated that if students did not return to classes on Monday, they would forfeit the semester. The CUH said it would assist any student who went back to class in making up work lost because of the strike.
Student leaders, meanwhile, decided to go ahead with the plan to lock the campus gates in any case. "We won't let anyone in. The campus will be empty," Boaz Toporovky, chair of the Tel Aviv University Student Union, said Sunday.
Bar-Ilan University's student union decided not to lock the gates, but rather to post people at the entrances to try to persuade students and faculty not to cross the picket lines.
Tension between pro- and anti-strike forces on campuses continues to rise. A student who came to campus to break up a class in a security studies program was punched in the face. He was treated at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv for a broken nose.
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv University decided to cancel its summer semester, during which only a few courses are taught, to allow classes and exams missed because of the strike to take place.