Despite an 8-hour time difference, members of Students Organizing for Labor Rights and the American University of Beirut Secular Club discussed the importance of interconnectedness in campus activism during a Monday event.
The talk, aimed at connecting student movements, was presented by the Middle East North African Undergraduate Group and moderated by Northwestern University in Qatar Prof. Sami Hermez, director of the Liberal Arts Program at NU-Q. Student activists discussed activism on their respective campuses and took questions from attendees.
Lara Sabra, AUB Secular Club president, said the organization started in 2008 to practice politics “separate from, but also opposed to, the sectarian binary.” The club seeks to advocate for causes under the umbrella of sectarianism, such as feminism, anti-racism, environmentalism and freedom of expression, she said.
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Students of the American University of Beirut have called for a tuition strike after the administration adopted a new dollar exchange rate last month, equal to a 160 per cent rise in annual fees.
They launched the “We won’t pay” campaign, urging students not to pay the tuition fees that are due on February 5, which have become largely unaffordable for many in the crisis-hit nation.
“I may be putting my education at risk because I only have one semester left before I graduate, but I will not pay the full tuition,” Karim Saadeh, t
reasurer of AUB’s Student Faculty Committee, told
A declaration of war : Lebanese students unite against hike in tuition fees
After overwhelming victories in university elections, independents have joined forces to demand affordable education and fight sectarian politics with eyes set on the country s 2022 elections
The AUB, one of the oldest universities in the Middle East region, will update the exchange rate to 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar, after it was officially stabilized at 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar 23 years ago. EPA
Medical students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) wear face masks as they attend a protest against the adjustment of the dollar rate for new tuition fees in Beirut, Lebanon. EPA
BEIRUT: Student movements at Lebanese universities and independent civic groups are reorganizing themselves with the goal of changing the ruling authority in Lebanon.
Secular and independent clubs affiliated with the Mada network in Lebanon’s universities launched the “Declaration of Lebanese Students” on Saturday, in light of “the unprecedented risks threatening students, especially the crisis of the dollarization of tuition fees.”
That dollarization has seen tuition fees start to massively increase at institutions across the country, following decisions to adopt the Lebanese Central Bank’s new exchange rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. The American University of Beirut (AUB) saw its tuition costs increase 160 percent alone as a result.