lizrael update

Progress.

Here’s how you know you’ve developed as a student over years of Israeli grad school:

First semester of Israeli grad school, three long years ago, you were told to write an end-of-term paper using the proper guidelines of the university’s thesis policy. You scrambled to find it after being told it was ’somewhere on the website.’

After hours of searching through the terribly laid-out university website, you find the downloadable pamphlet, print out all 42 pages, staple it, and then begin to panic. Obviously it’s a Hebrew document. But it’s so official. So wordy. So haughty.

You sit and struggle and manage to pick up whatever little pieces you deem most important and leave the rest behind; you’ll worry about it later when you really need it for the end-of-degree project paper.

And now, three years later, you’ve come dangerously close to the deadline of the last project you’ll have to do in this degree. You’ve got 40-60 pages to write, and somehow have to squeeze that in between work and the holidays before the back-to-school date. You’re not too bothered by it though and the time has come to start.

You dig out that old paper-writing manual and brush it off. You flip through the three-year-old pages and scan for details. Suddenly, there’s so much more to learn here. When to use quotes, when to skip lines. When to spell out terminology in English instead of transliterating in Hebrew (though, that’s not your problem).

This pamphlet of guidelines is quite pleasant at this point, like an old friend who you’ve been weary of but have now learned they like to bake cookies. The 42 pages that seemed scary before seem like just enough. You settle into your chair and begin.

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On second thought, that’s not developing as a student over years of Israeli grad school; it’s actually more like being the student you’ve always been, but developing as the speaker of a second language, making it your own through pamphlets, thick and thin.

Lizrael Update: school keeps on truckin’.

I know it’s been a while since I properly updated with the whole fancy ‘lizrael update’ subject line. And this is likely to be quick, since it concerns school.

Some days I’m soclose to finishing my remaining projects (which these days numbers three) and some days I feel like I will never finish this thing. Fortunately, today was a soclose day. I’ll be done with one paper by the end of the week, starting a new one (ahem… two years over due one) after Shavuot and then I have my big fancy internship project to work on and then write up.

Of course, there is also the official ‘course gishur’ (mediation course) to take, which I still need to sort out dates and details for.

No more classes, no more books… but a lot between me and accomplishing the degree.

The final final.

I don’t want to make promises, because you just never know over here… But I’m %99.99 sure that I just finished my last ever final at Bar Ilan University…

…And I totally rocked it. Take that, Ethical Dilemmas in Mediation!

Here’s a portrait of the calm before the final:

It’s not the end of my degree, of course. I’ve got a lot more work to do and the mediation certification course to take. But I’m enjoying this small triumph until I start writing the next paper…

Stop playing with my heart.

Amidst my packing the apartment, my husband calls to me: “Looks like you got too sad too early.”

Lecturers’ strike ends

“The Coordinating Council of the Faculty Associations and the Treasury have come to an agreement ending the 89-day strike which has threatened the academic school year.

After marathonic overnight negotiations, the parties have agreed to sign an agreement outlined by Ofer Eini, Chairman of the Histadrut Labor Federation and detailing the various wage increases and lecturers’ pension rights.” (ynet)

Bar Ilan University has shut its doors…

…and it’s libraries, laboratories and offices.

I just got a notice; if you’re a student it might interest you:

בשל שביתת המרצים הבכירים הופסקה באופן מעשי פעילות ההוראה של הסגל הבכיר באוניברסיטאות זה כ- 87 יום

לאור העובדה שהצדדים למו”מ אינם מצליחים לגשר על הפערים, הגיע ועד ראשי האוניברסיטאות למסקנה האוניברסיטאות אינן מוכנות לקבל מהסגל האקדמי הבכיר שירותים חלקיים.

לפיכך החליט ועד ראשי האוניברסיטאות לסגור את האוניברסיטאות ובהן גם את אוניברסיטת בר אילן, החל מיום א’ י”ג בשבט תשס”ח 20.1.2008 בשעה 8:00 ועד לתום השביתה.

על-מנת שלא לפגוע בלימודיהם של הסטודנטים שלמדו בסמסטר הראשון, החליט ועד ראשי הא וניברסיטאות לאפשר קיומם של הבחינות, למרות שהקמפוס יהיה סגור לכל פעילות אחרת.

לאור האמור, כל הבחינות יתקיימו במועדן כפי שפורסם.

ייתכנו שינויים במיקום חדרי הבחינות והנכם מתבקשים לעקוב אחר מיקום הבחינה בלוחות המודעות בכניסה בניין נייגל 507 ביום הבחינה.

לידיעתכם: ספריות, המעבדות, חדרי ההוראה, המחלקות האקדמיות וכל היחידות המינהליות תהיינה סגורות.

מוקד מידע טלפוני: עומד לרשות הסטודנטים בטלפון: 03-5318508

ציבור הסטודנטים מתבקש לעקוב אחר ההודעות שיפורסמו בכלי התקשורת ובאתר האינטרנט של האוניברסיטה.

הנהלת האוניברסיטה מקווה שיווצרו במהרה התנאים שיאפשרו חזרה לפעילות תקינה ומלאה של האוניברסיטה.

ברכה,
מנהל הסטודנטים

I’m so incredibly embarrassed; a generation of students is getting utterly screwed because adults - supposed mentors - cannot resolve this conflict.

In case you don’t read Hebrew, this essentially means that next semester is canceled indefinitely. We don’t even have the option of going to classes taught by non-senior professors. We just can’t go to school, can’t get an education, can’t move on with our schedules. We can’t even use the libraries to study on our own or complete work from last semester.

Worst of all - I finally have a car and won’t even have the opportunity to drive to school in 40 minutes as opposed to 2 hours on the bus…

The irony of studying mediation during a strike.

I received an email today from the head of the Conflict Management and Negotiation department at Bar Ilan, apologizing for the inconvenience of the strike. He is new to the position as of this year and I found his email refreshing; isn’t this what you would expect considering the focus of this department?

He explains that he understands the frustration of the collateral victims here - the students - and he notices the irony of studying conflict management in a country and time period where the leaders can’t get their act together and come to agreement. He hopes that in the meantime we are learning from the experience and that the strike will be over soon so that we can work towards entering society with the skills needed to avoid such situations in the future. He announces that the department will do as much as possible to make sure we finish our degrees with the least trouble.

Ok, I projected a bit; he didn’t necessarily say all of that, but I got his drift and very much appreciated the sentiment. It is good to know that someone at the university is thinking of us students; even if he is involved in the mediation field and he is striking himself.

An academic lizrael update.

*Yawn*. *Stretch*. It’s a sunny winter Sunday. Today is as good as any to update about the awful university situation in Israel right now.

Basically, I have no idea what is going to happen for the rest of the year because the department heads, university presidents, strikers and government don’t know. Somewhere in this giant, ridiculous, embarrassing strike the idea of education got forgotten.

We, the students, cannot plan our summers, even if some of us (me) have overdue degrees to complete, weddings to attend abroad, family to visit and life to go on.

They are talking about considering next semester (bet) as a semester aleph and the summer as a semester bet to complement it, since there are full-year classes that haven’t started yet (like mine). Then again, my department can’t plan the next steps - including courses and schedules for these semesters - because the professors on strike can’t talk about it or plan. So I can’t start finding a way to somehow finish up before the summer, using only next semester.

Well, there’s the state of academia in the State of Israel… for now.  Unfortunately, this battle isn’t over yet.

Small world for us (Flatbush) Jews.

My high school was big on its alumni culture. For four years I endured being laid on thick with Israel, Zionism, Hebrew, and… the amazing alumni culture of the Yeshiva of Flatbush.

I guess people always had stories about meeting fellow alumni halfway across the world or neat twists on finding each other after all those years. The cheer and enthusiasm for the Flatbush culture lives on waaay past your graduation day.

Personally, I never really felt that way. Even today, in a lecture by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at Bar Ilan, sitting two seats down from a man who seemed to look exactly like my high school principal.

I confirmed the identity after my brother sent me an online profile of the guy and after the lecture my old principal and I chatted. I think it was a nice, calm moment of recognition for both of us.

And it turns out, he made aliyah and lives in Jerusalem, a few minutes away from me. So here we both are, calmly living the Flatbush alumni dream - meeting halfway across the world, with a neat twist.

A bus driver’s advice: Sleep.

In the two and a half years I have ridden the 400 bus to Bar Ilan, I have never fallen asleep and missed my stop - until today.

What am I, six-years-old? As I walked up to the driver to confirm and to get the best route backwards, I knew the conversation could go two ways. He could yell at me and make feel dumber, or this:

“We passed Bar Ilan?”

“Yes… Where were you? I just announced it.”

“Ha… yeah… I was sleeping.”

“Sleeping? Wow, lucky you!”

“Yeah… In two years I’ve never done this.”

“It’s great! You slept over an hour? Because you know, if it’s over an hour, that’s a real sleep! Good for you!”

Yeah! Good for me! I was only ten minutes late to class anyway.

Now they’re taking *our* semester breaks?

A little ironic after my last post, but:

Universities set to cancel vacations to make up strike time

There are so many three, four and six-letter words running through my head right now (bilingually), I can’t really write anything else.

University officials say that students will probably have to give up their semester break, and maybe also part of their summer vacation, to make up the time lost during the ongoing senior faculty strike.

The strike, now in its fifth week, has already eaten up much of the 14-week semester. As Haaretz reported last week , the Finance Ministry announced that it is transferring responsibility for negotiations with the strikers to the university presidents. Since then talks have been at a standstill, and no meeting has been scheduled.

University heads previously warned that a prolonged strike might cost students the semester, maybe even the entire year. Students are further worried by a message from the striking professors informing them that they will not be allowed any dispensation because of the strike. (Haaretz)