Below are some articles from renowned newspapers and blogs across Lebanon and the region that discuss the Student protest at the American University of Beirut due to the shift fro…
Below are some articles from renowned newspapers and blogs across Lebanon and the region that discuss the Student protest at the American University of Beirut due to the shift from the 12-credits system to the 15-credit system which increase the tuition for newly enrolled students (as of Fall 2010) up-to 25%.
English Daily Star: AUB students hold strike against hike in tuition fees (link) Star Scene: AUB students protest against tuition increase (link) Now Lebanon: Strike at AUB (link) Demotix: Students of AUB university in Lebanon protest rise in tuition fees (link) This is Beirut: Empty classrooms a week before finals at AUB! (link) iloubnan: AUB students go on strike protesting increase of tuition (link) Gino's Blog: The AUB Problem Breakdown (link) Farfahine: Letter from AUB students: Support us to take our campus back. (link) Blog Under Construction: AUB Students Boycott Classes (link) Sawt Al Niswa: Stike: It is your right, For your right and theirs (link) Occupy California: American University of Beirut on Strike (link)
Arabic Al-Mustaqbal: الجامعة الأميركية.. بلا زيادة أو نقصان (link)
Al-Nahar: إدارة الأميركية لا تتراجع عن الزيادة والطلاب يستعدون لتصعيد تحركهم الاحتجاجي (link)
Al-Akhbar: طلاب الأميركيّة و الـ 25%: لن ندفع (link) Al- Safir: تحرك حاشد في الأميركية ضد رفع الأقساط: لا لـجامعة البرجوازيين (link)
Al- Markaziya: طلاب الأميركية تظاهروا احتجاجاً على ارتفاع الأقساط (link)
French
La Nation Libanaise - Mouvement Patriote Libanais: Grabuge à l’Université Américaine de Beyrouth (link)
Follow the protest on their official twitter page here.
If you have written an article about the AUB Student Protest and I haven't linked to your article, please post a link in the comments section so that I can update the list.
Dear AUB Students, I’d like to congratulate the organizers of the demonstration yesterday for an event that was well organized and well executed, making a number of deep concerns t…
Dear AUB Students,
I’d like to congratulate the organizers of the demonstration yesterday for an event that was well organized and well executed, making a number of deep concerns to our students known to the administration. I especially appreciate the commitment by the organizers—representing the USFC and the Campaign for an Affordable Acceptable Education—that their aims are “voluntary, nonviolent, and progressive.” The event was carried out in a manner consistent with that pledge, and I applaud both the intention and the outcome; it reflects the best traditions of free speech and the dynamics of a responsive academic setting.
Yesterday I had the chance to talk with a number of students who had relevant questions about the new tuition policy. One question needs to be laid to rest immediately. A good number believed that they would have significantly higher tuition costs next year and were worried about how they or their families could afford it. Nothing could be further from the truth. For current students, tuition will be priced according to the present 12-hour credit system and AUB promises to freeze tuition increases at 4% for the next three years. We do not feel that we can change the rules of the game for students who are in the middle of a multi-year university commitment. This would not be fair to them or their parents.
Another young woman at FEA, knowing of our pledge to cover 75% of the added tuition burden for eligible students under the new pricing policy (again: which applies only for students enrolling for the first time in 2010) asked if we could cover that final last 25% with financial aid. I promised her we would review our options. We have been discussing that very question, and feel that we can soon propose a solution that will in fact cover 100% of the added burden for students who need it.
One slogan I began to hear yesterday is that the new tuition policy is just “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” Actually, that is a somewhat accurate, if sardonic, description of what direct financial aid is all about. It is what AUB and thousands of American universities and colleges have been doing for decades, and is the foundation for permitting needy students to study here. The system is simple: out of all tuition revenues received, a certain percentage is dedicated toward outright grants to offset the costs of tuition to students who otherwise could not afford to enroll here. AUB is one university in Lebanon that gives significant amounts of direct grant to its neediest students, rather than loans. If this system did not exist, AUB would be an institution for the purely elite, available only to those who could pay full freight—something none of us wants. Rather, we aspire truly to be a “college for all classes and conditions of men.” (And women.) Let me add that financial aid generated from tuition revenues (about 30% of the total) is supplemented generously by annual donations given by alumni and trustees, by endowed scholarship funds set up by donors and alumni chapters, and by government grants. In other words, the benefits of “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor” are enjoyed by all who use and enjoy our campus, by ensuring that we maintain a diverse student body represented by every region and socio-economic group of Lebanon, as well as countries beyond.
The administration has heard your concerns, and I was presented an eloquent statement from Jeffrey Karam, which I have read with interest. Yesterday Provost Dallal publicly declared that we are ready to meet with the organizers of the demonstration to discuss these issues. Yesterday I was also able to make the same pledge to USFC vice-president, Elias Ghanem, and others, that I am ready to begin discussions any time after 9 AM this morning. Open discussion is the essence of university life and the key to resolving the remaining issues. It is also essential that continuing engagement be “voluntary, nonviolent, and progressive,” so that those who wish to attend classes and go to work not be prevented from doing so.
Below is a message sent from the USFC Student Vice President Elias Ghanem to AUB Students about continuing the strike tomorrow (Thursday)
For the whole album of photos from today&…
Below is a message sent from the USFC Student Vice President Elias Ghanem to AUB Students about continuing the strike tomorrow (Thursday)
For the whole album of photos from today's protest, check this facebook album.
Dear AUB Students,
After our highly appreciated success with the strike today, I send my fellow students the warmest cheers and sincere admiration of your commitment in raising our concerns to the administration.
However, this is just the BEGINNING.
Following today's movement, we are calling for a second day of strike that will continue with no turning point until our demand is met. We will escalate the intensity of our movement with absolute commitment. We believe in AUB students! You will not turn us down!
Meeting point: 7am, West Hall. All students are requested to participate.
Gathering at 12:00pm, Main Gate.
Dear Students, Today we have witnessed major student protests across the campus against the proposed changes in tuition fees that are due for implementation next year. AUB has in i…
Dear Students,
Today we have witnessed major student protests across the campus against the proposed changes in tuition fees that are due for implementation next year. AUB has in its long history not only tolerated the right of students to express their views but has explicitly promoted this right. Over the years this has been done in many ways, whether through the USFC, Outlook, protests and sit-ins.
For students who are participating in the protests against the tuition fees changes, or thinking of doing so, I urge you to do so while fully respecting the rights of other students who wish to attend classes, or study in the libraries in peace, or go about their day-to-day business without disruption. Likewise it is important to remember the other valuable segments of our community, including faculty members and staff, who feel a personal duty to carry out their duties to the University and its community. They too have a right to disagree with the strike action or if they agree with it may still not want to take part.
Ultimately, our shared aim is to protect the greater good and the greater good is the University, its good name and its ability to serve its community. This includes you, the students. Cutting off the nose to spite the face is a sure way to take a cause down the road to ruin. I urge you to work with us to ensure that those with destructive streaks do not exploit this event to vandalize our buildings and property, or confront other students or faculty members. Moreover, please respect our neighborhood by not taking action that turns our neighbors, both businesses and residents, against you the students and against the University.
I am counting on your maturity and on your sense of responsibility during these controversial times.
Oooh how I love hate-mail. It shows you who your real friends are. Below, you will see that obviously, someone is pissed about my recent decision not to endorse the tuition increa…
Oooh how I love hate-mail. It shows you who your real friends are. Below, you will see that obviously, someone is pissed about my recent decision not to endorse the tuition increase protest, its even worse than that American Jew being pissed about the new Miss USA.
Tarek H. Al Choikani: HIJAZI!!!!! its like ur pushing me to reply to u!!
metel ijri if u read this or not, and metel ijri if u reply to this or not!! but i think its better if u understand the following points:
- The guy who spoke on behalf on USFC is Jeffery btw and he DID introduce his name! so i think u should go see a doctor on the expenses of the medical center WHICH will certainly start making losses trying to make u understand and correct ur insanity.
- he gave more valid points than the VP did! i attended the meeting and ur tweets seem so biased!! the tenderness and relaxation in ur tone when referring to VP Kenny as if he is an angel and the anger and madness when reffering to Jeffery! as if he is ur enemy!! Hijazi! u r attacking the wrong person! iza mab3oos mn hiba go and face her! dont come and attack a revolution done by hundreds if not thousands of students just because of a STUPID EVENT THAT U WORKED ON FOR A MONTH!! i have worked in many clubs before and i lost many times, [...]! but i never blamed it on outdoors that day or the job fair! cuz it wasnt intentional!! and u need to understand that! the universe for some reason chose ur event to be the victim! but do u really think that we should have stopped the campaign for ur own sake and just pay the $3000 hek! ill go to my dad and tell him :" dad, bala zana5a moe 3ando event dfa3 $ 3000 yalla wlo" how could u accept this to urself! how could you ignore the society that u live in for ur personal sake! and above all HOW DARE YOU say we are the selfish ones in ur last article when all ur thinking about is ur interests and all we are thinking about is the AUB COMMUNITY INTEREST!!.
another EXTREMELY IMPORTANT POINT, U!! URSELF among all "journalists" in aub wrote an article about wasta in the finacial aid system, u were fired from ur job for it! and everyone respected the way u dealt with it! and i was shocked when i find u now supporting this system!! u r actually adding $30mil to the financial aid system which WE ALL KNOW IS CORRUPT!! and u said it... u r contradicting urself! how could u waste that much money! how could u cover it up and ignore it! u lost an event SO WAT!! AUB COULD LOSE ALOT ALOT ALOT MORE FROM THEM because of the corruption in that stupid financial aid program!! it is a fucking rip off and u know it and u r DEFENDING IT! and all i can say about it is that u r supporting a crime being done in AUB!!!
finally, before claiming to be a journalist make sure u match the criteria!! a journalist should report the truth and ONLY THE TRUTH without adding his/her anger or input to it! wat u did now is highly unprofessional, i assume in my opinion and the usfc opinion u dont qualify to be a journalist and ABOVE ALL u dont qualify to be a student in this university!! for we are all stand united for our cause while all u care about is UR interest and only YOURS!! u only qualify to be a BIASED RADICAL SELFISH SELFCENTERED human project that is being developed by aub administration to provide a cover for an organized crime done by AUB adminstration and board of trustees!! WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION you are still immature, ur ideas are like a baby, cries without thinking of the reasons of crying! so i hope one day u reconsider! and i know u r reconsidering, but its just ur nature to not show that innak nba3aset! and the proof is that u deactivated ur fb yday and reactivated it today! hoping u can fight us back!! but u missed the fact that NOT A SIGNLE COMMENT SUPPORTED U! and im sure im the most harsh one between all! cuz i have always fought ur radical ideas! AND IM PROUD TO HAVE SUCH A REPLY TO YOU!! BUT WAT A WASTE!!
i know u might not read this or reply to it and i dont care, but im sure some people will read this reply and realize the stupidity u have! and im sure ppl will go back to ur previous note and read it with ur comments and realize the true reasons behind all this! and im SURE ABOVE ALL that they will realize the seriousness and importance of this campaign and how much we are ready to give for it!!
Tarek H. Al Choikani: we dont care about ur blog! go fuck ur self with it! dean kisrwani walla 3'ero cant stop u from doing wat u want! just to let u know im only replying to u hoping u would join us cuz u r the only studnet in the whole aub community who is against this! but it is not gonna stop usfc from doing this protest! ma kteer tsade2 7alak w ta3ti 7ajem la 7alak! ad ma kberet u will always remain the student who betrayed his university!! the campaign will continue and it is more HUGE than inno nenbe5e3 cuz of a blog that no one reads!! lawla facebook kellak ma 7ada 2areek inta! LIAR! BIASED!! BETRAYALLL!!!
Today, I attended the tuition increase town meeting that was held by members of the AUB Administration (President Dorman, VP Kenny, Provost Dallal, Dean Kisirwani, etc) and I was …
Today, I attended the tuition increase town meeting that was held by members of the AUB Administration (President Dorman, VP Kenny, Provost Dallal, Dean Kisirwani, etc) and I was reporting the event live on twitter via @mhijazi.
This was my first experience with twitter reporting, and I am glad to say it was very enjoyable.
Tomorrow, I will be covering parts of the protest via twitter also, and between my classes. (No, I am not skipping classes, here's why)
Below are the tweets related to today's meeting from newest to oldest, so I would recommend that you read from bottom to top.
The following article is extracted from Debbe Schlussel's blog and is only presented to you here for humor purposes. [ via ] May 16, 2010, - 11:38 pm Donald Trump, Dhimmi: Miss He…
The following article is extracted from Debbe Schlussel's blog and is only presented to you here for humor purposes. [via]
No, it’s not “just another beauty pageant.” Donald Trump, Muslims (who mostly support Islamic terrorist groups, like Hezbollah, which features many of Fakih’s close relatives as top officials), and even Barack Obama will exploit this as propaganda for Islam. Mark my word. Hezbollah is laughing at us, tonight. One of its auxiliary members won the Miss USA title without having to do a thing to denounce them and their bloody murder of hundreds of Americans, including the trampling/torture murder of Navy Diver Robert Dean Stethem aboard TWA flight 847, the 25th anniversary of which is next month.
Dhimmi Donald Trump simply didn’t have the guts to demand that Fakih denounce the Islamic group Hezbollah, whose martyrs and top terrorists are Fakih family members. It doesn’t matter to the Donald that this is the terrorist group that murdered more Americans than any other after Al-Qaeda, and probably more, when you count its joint ventures with Hezbollah. Trump made a bigger deal with Miss California USA and her bimbo activities, when–hellooooo–it’s a bimbo contest. Now, Hezbollah has the chief USA bimbo. And they’ll use it.
I don’t just wonder if this whole contest is rigged. I have a feeling that it is. Clearly, there is affirmative action for Muslim women in beauty pageants and other such “contests.”
We know that political correctness and bending over backward (and forward) to all things Islam, are the rules of the day. I had a bad feeling they’d pick her to try to pander to the Islamic world some more because–ya know–the collective American nose isn’t yet brown enough from ass-kissing Islamic butt all around the world . . . at least according to the conventional wisdom of idiots. The Islamic world is especially laughing that a sequined gay man dressed like the world’s ugliest cross-dresser, Johnny Weir, helped make a woman from their intolerant world, Miss USA. If they could, they’d still rip him to shreds and sever his penis, the way they torture their Israeli and even their own fellow Islamic victims.
Tonight, they celebrated and laughed at us from within at Dearbornistan’s Hezbollah restaurant, La Pita, where workers openly sing Hezbollah war songs and anti-Semitic “ditties” in the kitchen. It was the site of Fakih’s victory party, where falafel, and hummus, and hate were all on the menu, as they usually are there and throughout Fakih’s community.
I wonder how much influence Miss USA’s Islamic sponsor Farouk Shami–the racist 9/11 Truther and Palestinian terrorism supporter whose Farouk Systems helped pay for the pageant and broadcast–had on this win. A lot, I’d bet, especially since Fakih tweeted gushingly about hanging out with him. He probably urged Trump and the judges to make sure his fellow Muslima won. After all, it makes no difference that she’s a Shi’ite and he’s a Sunni. She had the support of Sunni terrorists like Imad Hamad, who helped fund her bid. And, as anyone who knows anything about the Islamic world knows, they’ll happily put their internecine Shi’ite-Sunni war on hold, if it means helping Islam in its propaganda war and fight to take over the West.
In her answer to a dumb question about insurance covering birth control, Fakih gave an even dumber answer. But it was a feminist, big government, anti-business, politically correct answer. And because she’s a Muslim, Fakih got away with her utterly conceited statement in a video profile: “When people meet me, they see a very beautiful, very smart, very funny person.” Hey, don’t be so modest. We gotta beat that fake notion of “Islamic modesty” that really doesn’t exist in the real world.
I knew the classy Miss Oklahoma USA, Elizabeth Woolard–who gave a good and somewhat educated answer about Arizona’s immigration law (watch the video, above)–would lose, the minute she said she supported the Arizona law. After all, the right answer was to say how “unAmerican” and “oppressive” this law is and how great these illegal aliens are for doing “the work that some Americans just won’t do” (like kidnapping, rape, stealing jobs, and driving down wages). It doesn’t matter that the question–uttered by judge Oscar Nunez–was incorrect, since his premise was that the law allows authorities to check the immigration status of anyone they think is here illegally (That’s not what the law allows at all). Since she said the right thing for America and Arizona, not the politically correct answer to win Miss USA, she lost.
Oh, and she wasn’t a Lebanese Muslim Hezbollah supporter with relatives who are top terrorists and “martyrs” in the group. If you don’t have relatives that have died killing some Jews and relatives who’ve murdered hundreds of Americans, you really don’t deserve to be Miss USA.
I am officially not supporting the Tuition Increase protest anymore. Why am I so pissed, you ask? This protest, no matter how important, will effectively ruin around four months of …
I am officially not supporting the Tuition Increase protest anymore.
Why am I so pissed, you ask?
This protest, no matter how important, will effectively ruin around four months of work for the student organized AUB Outdoors and one month work for the Lebanese Bloggers Convention at AUB.
What the protesters don't realize is that because of the tuition, the media will badly convey the situation in AUB, will over-explode the protest and portray to the public that AUB is unsafe, which will decrease the attendees of the AUB Outdoors.
The profits of the AUB Outdoors goes solely to the AUB clubs and societies and AUB financial aid; these clubs that are helping organize this protest! How is this not a double-standard, really?
Also, the fund that goes to financial aid will substantially decrease, and ironically this may be one of the goals of the tuition increase to begin with.
Moreover, how selfish are the people who demand that students don't attend classes in a period near to the final exams, where professors will be giving mock final exams, study hints, and revisions. It is also a period of lab finals, seminars, final year projects, paper due dates and case assignments. How are students supposed to skip classes, huh? How is getting bad grades on finals going to decrease the tuition?
This protest is very untimely. Whoever decided on this date had apparently no consideration of what is going on around him. Would it have killed them to protest last week when this announcement was made? Would it have killed them to protest next week when these important events were held?
No.
They just care about showing how the USFC is working oh so hard this year, showing how much they care about the tuition increase "because they would want to afford it when they want to enroll their children in AUB".
How selfish, really!
For those of you who do not know, this increase doesn't apply to currently enrolled students, but to newly enrolled students starting next fall. I don't see them complaining! So why are you so gulped-up on sugar and all worked up? Good students will get scholarships to AUB like they usually do, and other students will know the tuition fees before deciding to enroll.
So stop making such a big fuss about it. If you haven't noticed yet, everything is getting more expensive. I don't see you protesting the increase in price of food by more that 25%, or the increase in price of fuel, or increase in price of hospital bills.