Alexandria Uni. Professors, Freedoms Committee Stage Demo

Alexandria Uni. Professors, Freedoms Committee Stage Demo

University professors and members of the freedoms committee at Alexandria University staged a protest vigil on Thursday Dec, 27th, 2007, in front of the Al Shatbi-based university administration building in which they condemned the security interventions in university and students affairs. They also demanded the university increase of budget related to the scientific research in addition to salaries of the teaching staff members.
 The professors lashed out at wasting the budget allocated to the scientific research in fake projects under claims of “Developing University Education” or “Developing abilities of the teaching staff members” .
 The freedoms committee in the university issued a statement in which it criticized the government ignorance to the repeated demands of the members of the teaching staff in Egyptian universities calling for reforming university education and issuing fake slogans about reforming the university education .
 The statement stressed that professors at Alexandria University and Egyptian universities in general stick to their demands which they presented in the fourth general conference of the teaching staff clubs in Egyptian universities on Nov, 30th, 2007, held in Cairo University . Their demands included:
First: Increase salaries of the teaching staff members: to provide them with a decent life in material, social and health care levels for the teaching staff members and their families because the teaching staff members are a main component in reforming universities.
  Second: Taking care for professors over seventy years old. Amendments of the universities law in the year 2000 sidelined professors over seventy years old, subjecting them to humiliation and disrespect although they raised up generations of university students.
 Third: Stopping any security intervention in university affairs. These security interventions led to turning the campus into a security barracks, not a place for learning.
 These interventions include intervention in picking university command, appointing lecturers and approvals on travel of teaching staff members to attend conferences, in addition to intimidating students and rigging student union elections.
 The professors demanded the government, at the end of their protest vigil, to quickly address their demands to ensure stability in universities. Sources familiar with the teaching staff members in Alexandria confirmed that the university professors will escalate their moves during the next period till government meets their fair demands.
 The security services imposed a security cordon on the protesting professors lest citizens and students join them. The security services justified their heavy presence around the university professors under the claim of helping traffic go on smoothly and to protect professors.