Cairo University bans protests in dorms for upcoming year

Protests in Cairo University student dormitories will be completely banned during the upcoming academic year, scheduled to start on October 11, the President of Cairo University Gaber Nassar told privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday.

Nassar said that university dorms are not a suitable place for protests and partisan conflicts, adding that any student caught violating these orders would be immediately suspended from the dorms without investigation. Nassar said that such protests pose a serious threat to the lives of students.

The decision was made by the university’s board of deans, who also determined that students wishing to stay in the dorms would be asked to present a criminal background check, Nassar said.

He added that medical examinations would also be conducted to prevent drug use in the dormitories.

The deans agreed that civilian university guards would be provided with batons and shields to defend themselves in violent situations.

Nassar decided two weeks ago to ban any politically affiliated student activity, in order not to disrupt the educational process.

His decision comes on the heels of similar actions taken by other university presidents, who are bracing for the new academic year by threatening to suspend any students who offend or incite against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi or any other “symbols of the state.” Ain Shams and Beni Suef Universities have already instituted this rule, while Cairo University says it is still considering the measure.

The Beni Suef University Council declared that students who commit actions or circulate speech that is considered offensive to Sisi would face expulsion, banning all protests on university grounds.

The Ain Shams University Council said that students suspected of such acts would immediately be referred for investigation, the results of which would determine whether or not to suspend them.

University campuses have been the scene of bloody confrontations between police forces and various student groups — many belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood organization — since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

In the last academic year, at least 13 students were killed, dozens injured and hundreds arrested in Egypt’s worst crackdown on academic freedoms in the last 70 years, according to the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression.