The Lebanese University campus in Hadeth. (Credit: UL)
BEIRUT – Full-time professors at Lebanese University are refusing to grade student exams as they’re on strike — protesting poor working conditions, the deterioration of their salaries, which are now worth about $150, and the lack of services provided by the university.
Here’s what we know:
• The head of the executive board of the Association of Full-time Professors at Lebanese University, Amer Halawani, told L’Orient Today that professors are teaching online because in-person education is impossible, due to a lack of university funding.
• He predicted that this will cause the “collapse of Lebanese University in the near future,” noting that the university's budget is still based on an exchange rate of LL1,500 to the dollar.
• Halawani announced an open strike and that no “exams or academic work will be held.”
• A member of the association who wished to remain anonymous told L’Orient Today that the issue will only be resolved if both professors’ demands concerning salaries and transportation benefits are addressed.
• “We take our own papers to print at the university. They no longer provide us with pens, and electricity on campus has become a thing of the past,” the spokesperson said.
• The spokesperson also said that “the university’s students can no longer afford transportation costs and the university has resorted to online learning. This poses a problem for students who don’t have electricity at home or access to the internet.”
• Halawani concluded by calling on students to raise their voice and protest against LU’s condition, in hope that “the government will hear the last call for help before the university fully collapses.”