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Transcript of Power to the People: University Democratisation in the Light of the Egyptian Revolution Hala Kamal...
Power to the People:University Democratisation
in the Light of the Egyptian Revolution
Hala KamalMay 2011UCU – UK
Slogans of the Revolution
The People Want to Bring Down The Regime
Bread – Freedom – DignityJustice – Freedom – Dignity
Freedom – Dignity – Social JusticeChange – Freedom – Social Justice
Egyptian Universities’ General Meeting17 February 2011
• Ousting the Minister of Higher Education• End state security personnel presence on campuses• Removal of all University Presidents involved with the
fallen regime• Resolve all University Club Boards and Student
Unions appointed by the fallen regime• Establish elections on faculty management and
student union levels• Form independent monitoring committees on faculty
and university levels• Support junior faculty members’ fair demands, and
democratically elected student union demands • Raising national higher education and research
budgets
In Defense of the University• Keep military forces and security personnel not
belonging to university civil security off campus• Ousting all anti-revolution university top
administration• End unacceptable threats to faculty members• Appointment of all junior faculty rejected on
security grounds• Cancelling all punishments issued in the past
years against faculty and students for freedom of expression and thought
• Apology from university presidents for collaboration with State Security
Academics’ Demands
• Ousting the Minister of Higher Education• Raising national higher education and research
budgets• Removal of all University Presidents and Deans
appointed by the fallen regime, and establishing appointment through elections
• Supporting junior faculty and student demands
التدريس هيئة ألعضاء الموحد االئتالف في المشاركة والمجموعات الحركاتالمصرية :بالجامعات
أجل • • من جامعيون المنصورة بجامعة التدريسومعاونيهم هيئة أعضاء اتحادحركة • أبريل 16اإلصالح
العام• • المؤتمر عن المنبثقة اللجنة شمس عين جامعة استقالل حركةبنها بجامعة
الجامعات• ) استقالل أجل من العمل (9مجموعة مارس
Dean Replacement
Faculty (Arts)
Dean Elections• Subversion• Mibilisation• General Meetings• Alternatives• Survey• Democratic Committee• Timeline/Action plan
Students (Mass-media)
Ousting the Dean• Sit-in • Hunger strike• Statements• Faculty support• Exposing survey claim• Continued sit-in (80 days)• Negotiation
Revolution on CampusTowards Dean Election
Faculty of Arts, Cairo University
General background:•Dean’s term ends July 2011•Official campus anti-democratic plans• Faculty Council’s Role•General Faculty Meetings: alternatives• Building (on) Consensus: Dean Elections• Defining and following objective(s)
21 March General Meeting•A meeting was widely announced and held on March 21, attended by over 50 faculty members as well as a number of junior staff and students•Administration’s project unanimously rejected• Alternative ideas discussed• General agreement on the principle of Dean election; variations as to University President and Head of Department selection• Formation of committee working towards elections• Participants agree to attend the administration’s “wide meeting” and insist on Dean election
23 March Meeting•Vice-Dean called to a “workshop” to discuss The New University Law•Meeting attended by around 120 faculty members and junior staff •Committee had met earlier to coordinate and set a unified position, focusing on Dean elections •Majority insists on focusing discussion on Dean elections • General agreement that Deans should be appointed through election, there were variations as to:
-who can run for Dean? -who can vote?
Questionnaire
• Vice-Dean’s decision to set a questionnaire• Decision to handle the questionnaires on
departmental level• We asked that 3 members of our Committee join
the general faculty questionnaire committee • Some departments held group discussions of the
questionnaire• The results came reassuring, with the vast majority
insisting on Dean elections
28 April Letter
• The questionnaire committee was supposed to meet and issue its report on April 18.
• Meeting to issue a letter to the Dean asking him to set a date for election based on the questionnaire result
• We collected signatures of around 120 faculty members and a delegation handed it to the Dean on May 4
• The formation of Faculty of Arts Democratic Committee
• Next day the administration held a poorly advertised meeting to announce the results
5 May Meeting• The Vice-Dean presented the results of the questionnaire• Committee pressed for setting a timeline towards
elections:- Runners for Dean to announce their candidatures- A general meeting for all candidates to be held on
May 26 in the same time and place- Elections to be held on a Saturday in the second half of June- An official report on the meeting to be sent to Departments
asking them to nominate a member from each department to the Election Committee (in charge of the voting process)
• Two professors announced their intention to run for Dean
دعوةالعريضة الخطوط لمناقشة
االنتخابى للبرنامجمن المقدم
. أبوبكر. رندة د أ
اآلداب كلية عميدة لمنصب المترشحة
يونيو ) القادمة االنتخابات (2011فى
اإلثنين الساعة – 16يوم A 11مايو صباحابالكلية المؤتمرات بقاعة
Challenges and Prospects
Challenges
• The appointment of Deans lies in the hands of the University President
• The Minister’s project• Anti-democratic forces
on campus• No precedence
Prospects
• University President to appoint elected Deans
• Minister declared the change of all University Presidents and Deans by the end of this term
• Setting a model of a democratic process of Dean selection
“Students are shaped by their experiences in schools to internalize or accept a subjectivity and a class position that leads to the reproduction of existing power relationships and social and economic structures.”
(Kathleen Weiler, Women Working for Change: Gender, Class and Power, p. 6)
Faculty and Students Together
• Faculty members and students shared struggle
• Democratisation Process• Acknowledgement of students demands• Statements of support• Supporting students’ sit ins• Addressing university and state powers• Hand in hand for a democratic university for
faculty and students
Dean Replacement
Faculty (Arts)
Dean Elections• Subversion• Mobilisation• General Meetings• Alternatives• Survey• Democratic Committee• Timeline/Action plan
Students (Mass-media)
Ousting the Dean• Sit-in • Hunger strike• Statements• Faculty support• Exposing survey claim• Media coverage• Negotiation
Students’ Struggle: Faculty of Communications and Mass Media
• An 80-day sit-in to bring down the Dean• Professors and Students hand in hand• Statements and action of support• Students (hunger strike), Faculty (strike)• Students recreating Tahrir on campus• State interventions:– violence (28 March)– negotiations (22 May)
• Celebration
Concluding Remarks• Insistence on University Independence, Autonomy
and Academic Freedoms• Involvement in Dean and President democratic
selection ensures academic freedom• By practicing democracy we encourage the future
generations in turn to learn and practice democracy• We support student struggles• We explain our struggles to students without using
them to support our demands• Working for university democratisation empowers
academics and students and consequently the society at large