Lizrael Update

Tag: strike

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • Brothers, sons, teachers, students.

    Not quite street art, but temporarily tonight Keren HaYessod street was painted with the anger and frustration of local teachers: The sign reads: “Brother, brother! Your son is my student!” Sometimes, this country seems like one big block party where literally everyone is separated by a few degrees. In this case, the holders of the…

  • 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…

  • Students' protest; teachers' strike.

    Walking to the bus stop this morning – passing the empty school on my block – I heard loud chanting and clapping and honking; it was 8 am and the kids were supposed to be school-less and asleep. When I arrived at Yochanan Ben Zakai, a healthy-sized street that borders my neighborhood, this is (a…

  • Cancel the semester, will stab myself.

    I don’t like waking up on my one-day-a-week of school and seeing this headline: University presidents: Semester may be canceled And I don’t like reading this in the first paragraph: As the third week of the university lecturers’ strike gets underway, professors are not optimistic on the chances of the protest ending anytime soon. Representatives…

  • Today's Word: Senior/בכיר.

    In the past week I have read articles and received emails concerning the strike-affected academic schedule and peppered among all of them is the word בכיר (bachir), meaning ‘senior’, as in ‘senior professor’. Only senior professors are striking, because they are the ones being affected by the paycheck problems. Other professors get paid according to…

  • My professors are on strike.

      University professors to strike as of Sunday Well, here we go again. Sort of. Last time it was the students striking over fee hikes. This time it’s the faculty striking for pay hikes. C’mon guys… I have one more year – 3 credits – to finish. All I want to do is get my…

  • Back to – what?

    Remember when I said I was taking my last final ever? Kidding! I’m going back to school. A couple more teachers, a few more books. Lots and lots more dirty looks… at my disappointing experience studying at Bar Ilan University. In the end of August I decided to switch from the thesis track to the…