Olmert to hold university crisis talks

Tamir: "Tragedy" if semester delayed; Braverman blasts Bar-On for not attending finance c'tee meeting.

By JPOSTLEO GIOSUÈCOM STAFF, ABE SELIG
Tel Aviv University 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Tel Aviv University 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday summoned Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and higher education representatives for a Thursday morning meeting to try and resolve the current funding crisis and ensure that the university semester starts on time. Meanwhile, the Knesset Finance Committee convened for an emergency meeting on the issue and Tamir said it would be a "tragedy if the semester doesn't start on time," since the education system needed "stability." She claimed that although negotiations had been ongoing since April, "the Finance Ministry is dragging its feet - every time we get close to a decision, the Treasury tries to invent new problems," she said. The Finance Ministry dismissed the accusation. "Tamir is a hypocrite, she hasn't been present in any of the negotiation meetings," stated the ministry. "She is the one who is a signatory on the Shochat Committee report and she isn't abiding by her own decisions." On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Council of University Presidents - a body made up of the leaders of the country's seven universities - told The Jerusalem Post that it remained locked in negotiations with the Knesset Finance Committee over funding for the upcoming year. "Negotiations are still going on, and we are hopeful that a breakthrough will be made soon," she said. The spokeswoman went on to say that after Olmert said he would do "everything he could" to resolve the crisis during the Knesset's opening session on Monday, the council had sent a letter asking him to personally intervene. Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Avishai Braverman said at Wednesday's meeting that the approval of funds for universities depended on talks between the CUP and the Finance Ministry. Braverman blasted Bar-On for not attending the meeting. "Nowhere in the world, in such a respected forum, would the finance minister be absent," he said. The CUP sent an e-mail out to all of the universities' enrolled students on October 7, announcing that the school year would not begin as scheduled due to the government's failure to implement financial reforms as recommend by the Shochat committee - a government panel set up in 2006 to examine shortcomings in the country's higher education system. While some sources close to the negotiations have said they expect a last-minute breakthrough, the CUP spokeswoman offered a slightly more cautious outlook. "The Finance Committee can only recommend that the funding be approved," she said. "And for that to manifest itself in law will take some time." Later Wednesday, Tamir was scheduled to hold a meeting with CUP representatives, while university presidents were set to hold a protest outside Finance Ministry in Jerusalem.