The Minister of Education Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos met last night with the board of the Rector Synod, which is comprised of the Rectors Mylopoulos of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Tsartas of the University of the Aegean and Anagnostopoulos of the Harokopio University of Athens.
After a three-hour meeting, the two sides agreed to form a tripartite committee from university management, the ministry and the administrative employees to further discuss the issues at hand.
The three Rectors expressed their opposition to the government’s suspension scheme and requested that the Ministry of Education takes the necessary measures so that the objections of administrative employees are examined. The Rectors also took the opportunity to request an increase of their budgets to last years’ levels.
The future of the university administrative employee strike action depends on today’s meeting between the Minister of Education and representatives of University of Athens’ administrative employees and the University’s Rector Theodosis Pelegrinis. The University of Athens employees, who are affected more than any other university, are at the forefront of the strike and their decision is expected to influence the decision of the employees at the Technical University of Athens.
The administrative employees of the University of Athens held a meeting yesterday and a faint majority vote (239 v 225) decided upon the continuation of their strike and negotiation with the Ministry of Education. The minority vote was in favor of the strike and no negotiations until the Ministerial decision mandating the suspensions was retracted. A new general meeting has been arranged for Thursday.
Meanwhile, student unions at the University of Athens and the Technical University of Athens have began occupying the departments of Mathematics, Philosophy, Biology, Law, Physics, Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Mining Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Topography.
The Ministry has warned that unless the universities resume teaching on Monday, the semester will be wasted.
