CAIRO: Twenty-five teaching assistants at three faculties at Ain Shams University were appointed for the first time without security approvals, said a statement by the university on Wednesday. The statement said the assistants — appointed at the faculties of Agriculture, Law and Computer Science — were chosen based on academic excellence and proficiency without notifying security authorities. "This was an expected procedure after confirmations from university presidents and the Minister of Higher Education that security won't interfere in academic life anymore," said Laila Soueif, member of March 9 Movement for the independence of universities. "We challenged security decisions in courts because they are illegal and were meant to hinder procedures only," she said. The Ain Shams statement said that it was the first university to take this decision in compliance with spirit of the January 25 Revolution and the ongoing demonstrations at universities demanding reform. "This is the start of a new path for universities that will create political mobilization inside universities based on freedom of thought and expression," said Mohamed Salama, deputy head of the graduate studies and research program. "Now we can appoint teaching assistants without having to send a survey form to the ministry and get security approval," he added. Teaching assistants' demands included the reappointment of assistants who were expelled on political grounds, as well as better wages and healthcare and more just regulations for choosing candidates for scholarships abroad. State Security was disbanded on Tuesday by Minister of Interior Mansour El-Essawy and was replaced by a new security arm called National Security, which would be restricted to guarding the domestic front and battling terrorism. Souief said that they have been trying to cancel regulations that allow interference of security in academic life. "They interfered in everything starting from inviting visitors and holding conferences to promotions, appointments and scholarships," she added. Earlier last month, university guards affiliated with the Ministry of Interior were replaced by civilian security personnel. "These are correct steps in the direction of the financial, administrative and security independence of universities," said Fatma Serag, a legal activist from the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). "Academic life in Egyptian universities has been suffering a lot from security interference since 1981," she added. According to a recent report by AFTE, 85 students were expelled from the university during the 2009/2010 academic year, 161 were put under investigation and 135 were referred to penal councils and some were banned from sitting some exams. Soueif said that they will now push for establishing new mechanisms to choose university leaderships and a new universities law. Meanwhile, a delegation of students conveyed Wednesday their demands to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. Students rejected pledges by Minister of Higher Education Amr Salama that new leaderships of universities would be chosen within a month and a half and decided to continue their sit-ins demanding the discharge of presidents of universities and deans of faculties.
