Treasury offers new proposal under the looming threat of the loss of the entire academic year.
By EHUD ZION WALDOKSUniversity 224.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Representatives of The Committee of University Presidents (CUP) were meeting with the leadership of the Senior Lecturers Union (SLU) late Tuesday night to convey to them a proposal from the Treasury aimed at ending the lecturers' 53-day-long strike before the academic school year is lost. There is a strong chance the semester and perhaps the entire academic year could be lost if the strike doesn't end this week, both sides have said.
A CUP spokeswoman was unwilling to divulge details of the Treasury's proposal while the late night meeting was still in progress. The CUP met with Finance Ministry officials late into the night on Monday to discuss how to bring the strike to an end.
Meanwhile, dozens of university students protested outside the Education Ministry on Tuesday. They called on all involved to end the strike as quickly as possible.
MK Avishai Braverman (Labor), a former president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told the students at the rally, "I understand you, the students, who serve in the reserves and pay taxes. We all know that there won't be a tuition hike. Our whole future rests on you, on science, education and higher education, and therefore I encourage you and am ashamed at the deterioration of the Israeli government and its inflexibility."