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The rector of the university, Fadlo Khoury, attributed the decision, in an email to the university family the day before yesterday, to “the existence of many fees that we pay in hard currency”, wishing that “those who receive their salary from outside Lebanon or those who they have deposits abroad, pay their fees in dollars. American. “Khoury said the action was taken after consulting with the elected student government last month. But sources from the latter denied that any of the university officials had communicated with student representatives about it, although the decision did not surprise them from the all, mainly because the rector did not reassure them, in his first message about the economic situation that the university is going through at the beginning of May, to make sure that the fees are not “dollarized.” It attempted to market an austerity plan based on the distribution of losses among the administration, teachers, students and employees, and launched a veiled threat to close departments and specializations, reduce financial aid and lay off employees.
Khoury’s decision apparently paves the way for similar decisions to be made by the rest of the private universities, after the Lebanese Association of Universities announced, in a meeting held on November 20, that it “respects the freedom and independence of each one of the member universities in the study of the appropriate decisions, in order to preserve the continuity of the institutions. Higher education education, and I am confident that member universities will do everything in their power to ensure that students graduate.
While the students today held a sit-in in front of the Lebanese American University, to protest the decision that it may withdraw in the next few days to the rest of the universities, the Union of Professors of the American University of Beirut held a meeting yesterday to discuss the reasons for the decision and other records concerning the teachers, provided that a charge is soon issued in that matter. According to sources from the professors, the majority of the university professors do not agree with such a decision “which conflicts with the university’s objective of educating students from different social classes and not making exceptions.” He pointed out that the university administration has succeeded in courting what it called the “administration party,” which “is made up of professors promised to certain positions in the university, who always seek to defend the administration’s arbitrary decisions, especially those related to the dollarization of quotas “. Professor sources accused the university presidency of “spreading a climate of intimidation and oppression among the students, and of treating them with contempt” by the rector, and of “inciting other universities to raise fees, leading to the destruction of education “.
The decision depends on the support of the Lebanese Association of Universities, which is a club of university rectors, in which professors and students are not represented.
He emphasized that the decision depends on the support of the Lebanese Association of Universities “which is actually a club of university rectors and not an association of universities, since professors and students are not represented in them.”
Professor sources placed the “primary responsibility” of the Minister of Education, Tariq Al-Majzoub, to protect the interests of all students, including students from private universities, because these are not necessarily wealthy, and they go to the American University of Beirut as a transit card for them to other positions in graduate studies, research or the job market. . It is only an investment in the future. “It is no more revealing than the cry of a third-year medical student declaring that he will not be able to complete his studies after cutting half.” She asked, “Why doesn’t the decision apply only to new students?”
This issue will be resolved mainly in the meeting agenda, previously scheduled, at the invitation of secular clubs, to launch the so-called “Student Lebanon Declaration”, at 12 noon next Saturday, at the Sunflower Theater, to speak on the urgent risks and concerns students face. In this delicate stage, ways to face it with solidarity between groups of students. The organizers of the meeting pledged to face “unfair decisions until they are abandoned, and not to accept the commodification of education and place the burden of the country’s crisis on the students.”
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