CAIRO: About 25 Cairo University mass communication students continued Friday their open-ended sit-in, even though nine of them were officially expelled, Mohamed Fotouh, a student, told Daily News Egypt.
The students’ sit-in on campus began the first week of March, calling for either sacking the faculty dean Sami Abdel-Aziz or his resignation for being affiliated with the former regime as well as being a member of the disbanded National Democratic Party’s (NDP) policies committee.
"It is illogical that we end our sit-in since our demands have not been met," said Fotouh, who was expelled just months before graduation, adding that he and his colleagues only heard of the expulsion from a journalist asking for comment.
"The university did not officially inform us of this decision. We heard about the charges against us like everybody else," he said.
The council of university deans said in a statement, "The [expelled] students besieged the mass communication building [on March 23], forcing the faculty board members to stay inside for over six hours during which they prevented water, food and medicine from reaching them."
"They also held banners with defamatory [statements] against the dean as well as chanted slogans condemning the university and the faculty leadership," the statement read.
On March 23, military police forcibly dispersed the student sit-in, after failing to convince the students to end it, leaving several students hospitalized.
The army, however, later denied this in a press conference, saying that it intervened to end the sit-in peacefully, since the protesters prevented Abdel-Aziz and other professors from leaving the faculty or receiving any food or water.
"This is untrue. We did not prevent water and food from reaching the professor. Neither did we prevent them from leaving the building," Fotouh said, adding that the student sit-in was peaceful and faculty board members who held a meeting at that time moved in and out freely.
"The whole event was recorded on video which can prove our side of the story," Fotouh argued.
A few hours after their expulsion, the Minister of Higher Education Amr Salama summoned the students to his office.
"Salama assured us he will resolve the situation after he [talks to] the university president on Sunday, then he will meet with us at 3:30 pm on the same day," Fotouh said. He and his colleagues will file an urgent lawsuit against the university before the state if the situation is not resolved.
"Even if the expulsion decision is called off, we will not back down," Fotouh said.
Laila Soueif, member of the March 9 Movement — a group of Cairo University professors who press for university autonomy and academic freedom — said the council of dean’s decision is "totally unacceptable,” though "not surprising."
"We knew that rejecting the continuation of university leadership in their posts [after the revolution] would result in unacceptable [reactions]," Soueif, an assistant professor of mathematics, told DNE.
"They maintain the same strategy of suppression [adopted during the former regime] and…even in a more intense manner," she added.
Earlier last week, Cairo University President Hossam Kamel subjected three journalism professors, including the department head, to disciplinary action. They were accused of impeding the educational process and inciting students to hold a sit-in on campus from March 21–24.
"We laughed when we heard such claims," Fotouh said. "No professors incited us. They actually joined forces with us after we initiated this move and took a stance against the dean."
“This generation who revolted and took the lead during the January 25 Revolution does not need anyone to tell [us] what to do. It just happened that both students and professors made similar demands with no prior planning,” Mahmoud Khalil, one of the three professors, previously told DNE.
Mass communication students, faculty professors and March 9 members will hold a march on Sunday afternoon to reiterate their demands. The march will begin outside the faculty building and move towards Cairo University’s iconic dome, before the nine expelled students head to Salama’s office.
