Strike temporarily suspended
Administration appears to have made several concessions
Sunday, September 18th, 2011
Ezzat said President Lisa Anderson would send two emails, one tonight that promises to meet "75 percent" of the security, landscaping and custodial staff's demands and another tomorrow at 9am addressing the short and long-term demands of students.
Both emails are expected to provide a time frame for when the demands will be met.
"Each side is expected to bring its solutions and recommendations, and vote on the best one. The furthest deadline is [Eid al-Adha], but there will be concessions within the next few days or weeks," Ezzat told The Caravan.
In an earlier meeting with Vice-President for Student Affairs Ashraf ElFiqi today, Ezzat, SU President Ahmed Alaa Fayed, anthropology professor Hanan Sabea and AUC alumnus Ahmed Abu Labhan discussed a set of short-term demands that they later presented to Anderson.
With regards to tuition fees, Ezzat said the students and the Administration had not reached a compromise yet but that they agreed to form a committee with student members to look into the introduction of tuition caps.
"We have to take steps, it's a complicated issue, because this has to do with inflation, exchange rates and so on," he said.
Short-term demands included class absences during Drop and Add week, buses and parking fees, and food shortages for dorm residents.
Representatives of the student-led movement and the Administration agreed to jointly review the Delicious Inc. and Family Transport contracts.
The negotiations also included suggestions to modify bus ticket prices according to distance traveled.
"Until we have our big meeting [around Eid el-Adha], I suggested that the ceiling for a bus ticket would be EGP 10 for trips to places like Zamalek, those going to Rehab should go for free, and those going to Nasr City or Heliopolis can pay EGP 5. I think that's a good compromise," Ezzat said.
"We said that until the [Eid al-Adha] meeting, parking on campus should stay for free because we students already made it so," he added.
Ezzat also said that Provost Medhat Haroun has agreed that attendance would not be taken in classes during the Drop and Add period.
While this may appear to be a victory for some, others expressed uncertainty regarding the future of the strike.
"We're just stuck, we can't leave because how will we feed our children, but at the same time, [we're] afraid to stay because of the consequences of what could happen because of our stand in the strike," Shaaban Ahmed, a DDC staff member, told The Caravan.
Some Security guards also said they were concerned about the continued employment of Executive Director for Public Safety Mahmoud Zouk.
"We don't like Zouk and they're not showing any sign of letting him go. This is our main concern, because if he stays, he might cause problems for me or any of the security guards," Mahmoud Saad, a security guard,
Saad told The Caravan that if the protesters' demands were not met protests would resume.
"I'm really happy we got this far, [but] if all our demands aren't met, they along with the students and other groups will resume the strike."
Ezzat credits the recent "breakthrough" in negotiations - that appeared at a standstill just a few days ago - to the restructuring of the movement which has united students, custodial staff, security staff and landscaping workers.
He said that this will continue to work long-term to ensure most demands are met.
"We came up with the structure for the long-term. We have several committees, these including: internal and external PR; internal coordination to deal with the various groups in the AUC community; external coordination to talk to the university's donors, the board of trustees, parents' association and alumni, all of which we are in contact with now; logistics - food, drinks, speakers, fliers, banners, posters, when will the strike start and when will it end, is this a sit in or chants, what will the chants be; Research Committee - they are doing research about each and every entity in the university[...] to see what are our rights and responsibilities."
Ezzat adds that President Anderson's attitude toward the protesters shows change.
"Power . . . she has seen our power," he said.
"I believe it's the first time that students are saying we don't want our demands met without those of the workers' too, and the workers' refuse to work unless she meets the demands of the students," he said.
"Now she understood that the entire community is standing together."
