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Introduction of the Blog and WA group guidelines

  Welcome to the first TAU international Volunteers-managed blog! This blog has been created to give complementary information to the graduated students of TAU and to create a community where we can share thoughts and information. This blog is not affiliated to any of the TAU services or bureaucratic apparatus and it is meant to be an informal tool where people can be updated, alongside the Whatsapp group and the informal word-of-mouth. Each student or post-doc is more than welcome to approach and participate in the creation of this blog, acting as a volunteer (with a little basic commitment) but also as an user, where they can collect any sort of information. All of the content posted on this blog is under the responsibility of the person who wrote it and posted it. UPDATE 06.11.23  Guidelines for the WhatsApp group  1.Respect & Kindness: Treat all members with respect and kindness. Be mindful of your tone and language.  2. Stay On Topic: Keep discussions releva...
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The fight for our rights part 3 - the academic secretariat allowed the scholarship increase

We report here the email of today sent from the TRFO, great news for everyone!
____________________________________________

Hello,

Thanks to our struggle and to your impressive support and engagement (including a petition signed by over 700 scholarship recipients), the university changed its decision not to raise scholarships for the 2022-23 academic year. 

Therefore, during last week’s public meeting with scholarship recipients, we decided not to escalate our struggle against the university administration, but rather to continue building and organizing our collective power through activity groups, so that we may act quickly in case the administration does not deliver on its promises. 

We received the wording of the administration’s decision this week. The different items of the decision are detailed below:
 
Scholarship amounts will increase by at least 5% for the 2023-24 academic year, for all scholarship recipients, including postdoctoral fellows - whose scholarship amounts have not changed over the past several years.
The maximum scholarship amount that research students may receive will be raised from 200% to 220%, or from 250% to 275% with the rector’s approval.
Graduate students studying towards a master’s or doctoral degree will receive a one-time compensation for the current academic year, 2022-23. This compensation will amount to approximately 3% of the yearly scholarship amount, the equivalent of 2/3 of the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year. The mechanism by which the compensation will be awarded is yet to be determined, and we will keep you informed as it becomes clear. Unfortunately, those scholarship recipients whose scholarship ends before April will not receive the compensation. 
PI's will be encouraged to award scholarship recipients a similar compensation to that mentioned in item 3 above. This includes scholarship recipients whose scholarships are funded by PI grants. We will pressure the administration to create a mechanism by which the compensation is paid automatically, so that PI's will have to actively cancel the compensation if they do not wish to award it. The exact mechanism is yet to be determined, and we will keep you informed as it becomes clear. 

Even though the administration’s decision is unilateral and does not answer all our demands, it is a significant achievement that includes compensation for the entire 2022-23 academic year and an increase in scholarship amounts for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Needless to say, we cannot predict by how much the CPI will rise by the beginning of next academic year. Therefore, we must closely monitor how the administration implements item 1 above, as well as the other items listed above. We must take into account that if the university reneges on its current commitments – as it did regarding its commitment to raise scholarships according to the CPI – we will be forced to renew our struggle. 

Since the administration set only a minimum increase of 5% for scholarships' increase in 2023-24, we will have to reevaluate the situation at the beginning of next academic year and demand an increase in scholarships that reflects the financial situation. 

The items listed above are not part of a signed contract; therefore, we may continue to apply pressure on the administration in order to assure that these commitments are carried out, and may change our demands to the administration with respect to the cost of living. Let us know if you would like to take part in organizing an activity group.

Join the WhatsApp group for the struggle to raise scholarships here.. Link to join.

 
Yours,

The Teaching and Research Faculty Organization
​segel@segel.org.il

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