Students call for elected administrators
Students at Cairo University held a demonstration outside the office of its president to demand that elected administrators replace the current faculty deans, reported UniversityWorldNews.com.
Students were upset to find that the same faculty that supported ex-President Hosni Mubarak’s former regime were still present when they came back after the January revolution.
“We should differentiate between the political leaning of an academic and his being in an administrative post,” president of Cairo University, Hossam Kamel, said.
Students from eight universities have created a pro-reform union called the Revolution’s Student Union, who believe the university law should allow free elections of university presidents and deans.
This is opposed to the president’s of public universities being chosen by the head of state, which has occurred for over fifty years.
Glasgow University staff go on strike
Roughly twenty staff members of Glasgow University’s Crichton Campus went on strike on March 17 due to disagreements about pensions. The strike has caused classes to be cancelled, reported Dumfries and Galloway Standard.
Lizanne Henderson, a lecturer, claimed that the students supported the strike and understood why classes were called off.
Henderson also explained that the university’s proposed changes would cause salary pension schemes to be removed in order for the university to save money.
Saving plans could mean that the campus could lose some liberal arts degrees.
Mary Hollern of Annan, a liberal arts graduate, warned that losing these degrees would also have an effect on other services like archives and libraries.
Concern for Students Studying Abroad
On Thursday, March 17, Temple University offered to return 200 students at its Tokyo campus to America as a result of the crisis in Japan. Over 100 students have already left.
Princeton University also contacted students and employees in the country after the natural disasters. As of March 16, some had chosen to leave while others have been encouraged to relocate away from Tokyo.
Four Hamilton College students were scheduled to go to Japan on March 28, and according to the Council On International Educational Exchange, these plans have not changed.
Several American colleges have been dealing with the risks of studying abroad this year.
In January, New York University evacuated staff and students from Egypt due to protests in Cairo and the University of Michigan also directed nine students in the country to leave. Also in January, Boston University ended its study program in Niger because two French citizens were kidnapped and killed near a popular bar for students.
Richard Gaulton, the director of Cornell Abroad, said: We haven’t had anything like this in such rapid succession [ . . . ].”
