Student protests to dismiss certain faculty members escalated on Saturday in Ain Shams and Cairo universities. Meanwhile, students in Helwan University celebrated the 25 January uprising.
University classes were conducted regularly on Saturday for the first time since the end of first semester.
Students with different political affiliations in Cairo University announced their intention to run for student elections, even though the university has not yet begun its nomination process.
Cairo University prescribed a nomination period of three days.
Elections in Cairo University will be conducted under the supervision and control of student committees. Each committee will consist of seven students and a university professor to oversee the electoral process and guarantee its legitimacy. Students planning to supervise the electoral process will not be allowed to run for elections. All committee members will be elected by the students.
The university set Wednesday, 16 March as the date to announce the preliminary lists of the candidates; Thursday, 17 March to file appeal requests; Saturday, 19 March to examine appeals filed; Sunday, 20 March to announce the final list of candidates; Monday, 21 March for campaigning; Tuesday, 22 March for the first phase of elections; and Wednesday, 23 March for re-elections in case they are needed.
The second phase of elections will start Thursday, 24 March when the secretary and assistant secretary of student union committees will be elected. Sunday, 27 March will be for electing secretary and assistant secretary of student unions in each faculty, and Monday, 28 March will be for electing the secretary and assistant secretary of university high commissions. The elections will end on Tuesday, 29 March with the elections of secretary and assistant secretary for student unions.Cairo University students staged protests on campus.
They requested the dismissal of Cairo University President Hossam Kamel and the university’s dean and vowed to camp on university grounds if their demands are not met within seven days. Minister of Higher Education Amr Ezzat Salama had previously promised students to meet their demands within seven days. Meanwhile, students in the Faculty of Information staged a sit-in in front of the faculty building to demand the dismissal of Dr. Sami Abdel Aziz, the faculty’s dean. They called for a massive protest on Sunday in front of the faculty building.
Abdel Aziz told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he is not clinging to the position, but rather he is clinging to the law which does not give students the right to elect or dismiss universities leaders. He claimed that the students who have staged protests do not represent the majority of students and professors.
Meanwhile, in Ain Shams University, hundreds of students from the Faculty of Medicine staged a protest against the university and faculty administrators. They demanded that the dean and vice-deans be dismissed and an emergency meeting be held to appoint interim leaders until the next elections.
Some student activists collected signatures of other students in support of these demands. Protesters chanted "step down and learn the lesson from Mubarak's resignation," "students' first demand is to have an elected administration," and "students' rights were stolen when corruption became rampant." Students of the Faculty of Medicine pointed out that they will demonstrate only after lecture hours because they do not want to harm interests of the state.
