National Union of Israeli Students called on the emergency war cabinet this week to streamline academia's adaptations to the ongoing war with Hamas. "Stop the chaos," the group said in a statement, referring to "uncertainty that harms the student population."
The union appealed to the mixed messages sent to students at a time when hundreds of thousands of young Israelis have been mobilized for reserve duty. More than 100,000 students, the statement said, have a spouse on reserve duty or are mobilized themselves, and cannot start the academic year.
The student organization demanded financial accommodations for students who have trouble with tuition or who live in university housing through interest-free loans, guaranteed by the state. Some institutions, such as Tel Aviv University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, have already provided financial assistance to students affected by the mass reservist call-up, but these have not been part of an organized and uniform effort across the country.
The statement came after the board of university heads announced that the academic year would be postponed again, but for seven institutions only. The students' union denounced this move, citing its lack of coordination and saying it "deepens inequality."
Students demand emergency authority for Higher Education Council
"In the interest of maintaining academic, economic, social, and mental equality, and in the interest of strengthening the resilience of the State of Israel, and to show solidarity with the students serving in the IDF and security forces, we demand that the education minister and the emergency cabinet act to amend emergency regulations" to streamline decisions of that sort, the group said.
The group demanded a change in regulations to grant the Higher Education Council in Israel "the authority at this time to establish sweeping procedures," for institutions that are funded from the Education Ministry budget, the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, and for private institutions as well, with respect to a range of issues such as the start of the school year.