CAIRO: Minister of Higher Education Amr Ezzat Salama told a delegation of Cairo University students Tuesday that current presidents of universities and deans of faculties will stay temporarily. The minister said that a committee from academics will decide on a new mechanism to choose leaderships at universities within a month and a half. However, he said that deans of the faculties of Mass Communication, Physical Therapy and Sciences will be changed soon. University students across Egypt resumed sit-ins Tuesday demanding the resignation of presidents of their universities and deans of faculties, as well as, issuing new student regulations. Students at the universities of Cairo, Helwan and Ain Shams said that they will resume protests as well as their overnight sit-ins until their demands are met. Mohamed Refa'ay, spokesperson of the Revolution Students Coalition, said that they demanded from the Revolution Youth Coalition to arrange a meeting for them with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. "The real challenge now is to absorb students' emotions and start a dialogue with them to restore stability and allowing a safe and quiet atmosphere that permits the resumption of academic life," Salama said in an online statement Tuesday, March 15. A delegation from students met with Salama last Tuesday to present their demands. He asked them to give him a week to negotiate these demands with the Supreme Universities Council and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. They later suspended sit-ins in support of the resumption of academic life in the university and efforts to maintain stability in the country.
