CAIRO: A protest by some 6,000-university professors, faculty and students from across Ain Shams University brought the Cairo campus to a standstill on the second day of the new academic year. Protestors chanted demands that the university president step down, as other presidents have done so already, threatening to march to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces headquarters to push for his dismissal. Despite the resignation of many state university presidents, several have refused to resign even though Prime Minister Essam Sharaf promised in May that all university heads will resign by early August. The university presidents who refused to step down contend they have not been accused of any wrongdoing and hence should not be forced out before the end of their tenure. Referring to the president of Ain Shams university Mohamed Maged El Deeb, a vascular surgeon, professor Khaled Ali, said that “he has 48 hours to step down, or else we will march to the defense ministry to bring him down.” On September 11, downtown Cairo came to a complete standstill as university professors demanded that the interim government deliver its promises to purge state universities of presidents, deans and department chairs appointed by the former regime. "Universities have stopped being places of education and knowledge for decades; we want these institutes to regain their value,” said Ahmed Saber, a member of the Ain Shams medical school's student union. Saber explained that the university professors had invited student unions to join the protest. “It is the responsibility of the interim government and the ruling military council to pressure the current president to resign like those who did; we want to began our elections and bring a chosen president and deans to the university's leadership position,” said Ali.
