The students of the university occupations, having reached the eleventh day of mobilization to stop the invasion of Gaza, leaf through the calendar. «We aim to move forward as much as possible. At least until June 1st when the first national procession of the university intifada is scheduled in Rome”, explain the leaders of Change course in the afternoon assembly at the Polytechnic, where all the representatives of the acampade scattered throughout the city. There is discussion of prolonging for another ten days a protest which has especially put the University of Turin in crisis, forced to deal with pickets at the entrance to Palazzo Nuovo.
The block of lessons is the big issue to be resolved in these last hours.
The request to restart in-person courses at the headquarters in via Sant’Ottavio was presented twice yesterday to the assembly that brings together all the collectives involved in the university intifada. In the morning, a delegation of Regno’s leaders appeared in the Rectorate, which was also occupied, with a message signed by the rector himself Stefano Geuna.
The delegation of representatives of the Academic Senate, led by the professor Christopher Cepernich, delegate for Communication, asked to let teachers and students in to allow the last lessons and exams of the summer session. On the table, the promise was offered to convene the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors as soon as possible, postponed this week. Even in presence, as the students ask, but with a firm opposition to the request to organize an assembly open to students.
“The regulations don’t allow it,” they explain from the University. «The meeting, which follows others already held, did not produce the desired result due to the protesters’ unavailability for reasonable negotiation. Even in the face of understandable humanitarian requests, we are sorry to have to once again point out an attitude that is not at all constructive”, reads the note published by Unito. Where, moreover, they also put their hands forward: «In reiterating that the University is always ready for dialogue, the university acknowledges the impossibility of a rapid common solution».
The «Free Palestine» students they are determined to carry out a protest that has specific demands: cancel contracts with Israeli universities and companies in the defense sector. They also repeated it yesterday afternoon, during the assembly called in the Rector’s office to try to build a bridge with the professors. The protesters are not going to pass for those who do not want dialogue. «It is the rector, personally, who continues to deny it. Not us.”
The invitation email written to all teachers, in reality, had poor results. There were about twenty in all, the majority from the Humanities department. Most of those who spoke said they were available to organize alternative teaching moments. «But it would be better to reopen Palazzo Nuovo, to avoid streaming lessons. Live teaching activity also has a disruptive force in opening a debate on employment issues”, explained the professor Giuseppe Gatti.
