The Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz reports today that Israel's Council of Higher Education--a consortium of the country's seven public universities--met with Finance Ministry officials for
the first time in a week to resolve a funding dispute that threatens
the scheduled opening of the schools on Sunday. The institutions'
presidents have told students to stay home if the dispute is not
resolved by then.
The Forward, a New York weekly on Jewish and Israeli issues, reports in its current (31 October) issue
that the university presidents have also promised to close down
libraries and research facilities if the dispute carries on into the
second week of the school year.
Both sides agree that Israel's public universities need a boost
in funding, and the Finance Ministry has promised the equivalent of
$100 million a year for 5 years, to make up for budget cuts since 2000 that took place while student enrollment increased 10%. Ha'aretz says that in the
past 5 years the schools have together cut some 800 jobs, equivalent to
all the jobs at a single institution.
Part of the dispute is over who controls the money. Ha'aretz says the Finance Ministry has earmarked the money for institutional reforms. The universities call that demand an attack on their academic freedom.
The Forward points to other strings attached to the money: the Finance Ministry is insisting on a tuition increase. But in Israel, according to the report, tuition rates are set by the Knesset, (Israel's parliament) and not the universities. Facing an election, the Knesset has not raised tuition. Zvi Galil, president of Tel Aviv University, told the Forward, "We are in the absurd situation that we are facing financial devastation because the government has not met its own precondition for releasing funds to us."
Strikes over funding have become commonplace on Israeli campuses in the past few years. Two years ago, students went on strike for 6 weeks, and last year lecturers walked off the job for 13 weeks. Now it's the administrators' turn to take to the barricades, literally. The university heads joined students yesterday in a protest convoy that blocked traffic and caused large traffic jams on the busy Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway.
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