Tel Aviv University International students volunteering and support group

 As we know, there are many things going on in Broshim, and many of you approached us with their own stories and concerns while living in the dorms. In particular, this latter year things are unpredictable and confusing, mainly because of the big societal impact that the war brought up and the delicate, sophisticated equilibrium between TAU and Shikun and Binui, the company that owns the Broshim dorms. We demanded clarifications on two topics in particular: The situation on the waiting list The housing time limits At this moment (Dec 2024- Jan 2025) the waiting list is "not very long", due to the war, and the International  School is committed to assist in every possible way when someone requests to leave the dorms mid-contract. Unfortunately, we asked several times to have more public transparency on the waiting list, but our demand was not met. Therefore, we don't know neither how long the list is, and which position one holds while waiting.  When we asked about the tim...

Here I report the letter I received from the chief representatives of SEGEL on some of the issues that we are addressing. Notice that SEGEL is also working for employees and personnel of the whole university, which means that they are dealing also with stuff that is more general or not relevant for us, but very important for the welfare and the rights of everybody on campus.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear committee, Some interim updates regarding issues that came up at the last committee meeting: 1. Online teaching: Shahar made it clear to the university administration that it is unacceptable for us to send out emails from the rector and vice rector about online teaching without them consulting us. In response, we scheduled a meeting with Sharon, the academic secretary, and Dana, VP of Human Resources, to discuss the matter. We forwarded them a list of conditions under which we would be ready for online teaching during combat only,...

 Today SEGEL (The Teaching and Research Faculty Organization) sent out this email, which might be interesting for the TAs and people who started working in this month. The email has been translated from Hebrew to English. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello friends, Our hearts go out to all the families whose loved ones were murdered, fallen in battle, missing or kidnapped, with the wounded and with the regular and reserve fighters. In order to prevent financial damage to our teaching and research staff, the management of the organization and the management of the university are making sure that we receive a salary for the month of October on 01.11.2023, according to the letters of appointment issued to us for the PhD. The salary will be paid as an advance subject to the fact that we complete the classes that were not held due to the postponement of the start of the school year. All this on the assumption that the school y...

Main highlights of the post (for the rushing people 😆) This article discusses a situation involving research scholarships and postdoctoral positions at a university. The SEGEL organization, representing students and researchers, had been advocating for fair scholarship adjustments based on the cost of living. The university administration initially failed to raise scholarships according to the consumer price index (CPI), leading to protests. After negotiations, the university eventually agreed to increase scholarships for the upcoming academic year. However, postdoctoral fellows were excluded from the compensation. The international community raised concerns about this disparity and engaged with university administrators. Despite discussions, the university remained dismissive of the situation and released new scholarship conditions without additional compensation. SEGEL proposed a "forfeit bonus" as an interim solution for postdocs facing financial challenges. This bonus w...

In this post: Forfeit bonus as a CPI compensation to the outgoing postdocs Further initiatives to raise our voices and get some more! A collaboration with the International Office: the Rosh Hashana happy hour! Forfeit bonus as a CPI compensation to the outgoing Post docs (updated 28.08.23) -->The forfeit bonus became available to all of the post doc fellows as a CPI compensation (Plan B)! With this initiative, we want to help the postdocs who are leaving the country before the next academic year and who cannot benefit of the 10% raise of scholarship.  The idea behind is that we find necessary a compensation to these people, since the university management refused to give any CPI compensation to its postdoc fellows, while PhDs and Master students got a little help (the bonus compensation in May). With the increasing prices in the last months, we all lost the game: we had to pay more, with the same money, while the average wage was adjusted (+12.5%) to cope with the inflation in t...

 From the SEGEL TRFO organization (mail sent on 02.08.23) Hello,   At the end of June this year the organization sent a demand to the Director General of the University to increase scholarships by 12.5% in the upcoming academic year for all recipients, except postdoctoral fellows for whom we demanded more. This, in accordance with the increase of the average salary between 2021-2023, and taking into account that 2021 was the last year in which scholarships were updated according to the Consumer Price Index, which continues to rise. For Postdoctoral fellows who have not received any compensation, and whose scholarships remained stagnant for several years, the organization demanded a double raise of 25% as well as raising of the minimal scholarships level to 200% (which is currently 100% for Israeli postdocs and 150% for international postdocs). A full postdoctoral scholarship for researchers with a PhD currently a...

Yesterday 19.07.23 three SEGEL representatives (Tuvaal, Elinor, Valentina) met some international scholars (mostly post-doc, but also PhDs). There were 10 people present, among them our team member Bhavana, who is kindly helping and supporting our campaign. We decided to focus on the following topics: Status of the scholarships and compensations The meeting between the postdocs and the VP of research and development and the VP of the International scholars Next steps to take in order to escalate or progress with the campaign At first, Tuvaal gave us a summary of the current situation: the various demands have been forwarded to the administration body of the University. In particular, the chairperson of SEGEL (Shachar) has reached out the CEO of the University, presenting three demands: increase of the Master and PhD students scholarships of 12.5% (percentage set according to the current status quo in Israel, resembling the general increase of salaries in the country due to the CPI); in...

From the  website The organization of the teaching and research faculty at Tel Aviv University was established with the aim of representing young researchers, practitioners, as well as lecturers without tenure. This is in order to ensure fair teaching and research conditions (as well as benefit from collective insurance and consumer power). The organization includes male and female fellows, as well as teaching staff at the university who do not have a senior position: teaching assistant (master's and bachelor's degree students), assistant and instructor (doctoral students), teaching associate, teacher from abroad, as well as faculty in the track the equivalent The organization represents these populations and has signed collective agreements regarding them. As you know, everyone is entitled to have rights and representation in the job environment. Unfortunately, in a foreign country, it is a big challenge to get to know your right, although you are granted them! Don't be sh...

As you might know, in these days SEGEL members fronted the high level Administration personnel in the University, proposing a condition for better scholarship amount for everybody. If you did not read or received the email of today, here we forward it. PS Nevertheless, we are still looking for Postdoc fellows to join Valentina for a personal meeting with the Vice President of the Research of the Uni. Possibly, we need someone from the Indian community(and not only), to show more internationality. For now we have 2 Europeans and an Asian person -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear members, We have a new committee - Good luck to us all! The elected representatives  In the general annual assembly that took place on 22.06.23, the current chairperson Shachar Frank was reelected as chairperson. The new elected Committee members are: Valentina Alberti (Life Sciences), Noa Gedi (Humanities), Ben Flickstein (Neuroscience), Tuvaal ...

  Dear all, we are glad to announce that the elaboration of the postdocs' issues and the Introductory letter to the Vice president of the Research and Development are ready and we are now planning the actual meeting. Here below, there is the text of the letter and the claims we want to discuss with the relevant authority. Before we proceed, we need to be as brave as possible: some postdocs should tag along during the meeting, to be the actual spokespersons and representatives of the entire community, to change in better the working conditions of all of you guys! Please give feedback as soon as possible, we are about to send the letter!  We must stress that THIS IS NOT a battle against PIs but an offering to the TAU administration to improve their contribution to our scholarships and experience on campus. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Draft Post Doc Demands Letter - by Sunday 2.7 To: Prof. Dan Peer Vice Pres...

Good afternoon everyone!  As we are in a complex time in relation to the continued attacks of the government, including on academia, and the rising cost of living crisis, this is an important opportunity for you all to affect the policies and activities of the union for the coming year.   As far as the scholarships are concerned, at the end of the assembly we will have a discussion about what demands we should place towards the university.  The cost of living is still rising and inflation is expected to reach nearly 10% by the beginning of next year -  since the last time the scholarships were raised.  The university has so far promised only a 5% raise, which is in effect a decrease in all of our scholarships.  We need to fight for raises for everyone, especially as scholarships are far too low for many people already.   Therefore, we need some help from you!  What can you do? Tomorrow at  10 in the Dan David 110 Room , we will meet...

 Segel representative asked us to spread the word. Here's their message! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following our protests, the university's administration agreed to the demand to update the scholarships, according to its commitment. The university promised a partial compensation for the CPI rise, which was paid in a lump sum in May - but because of the technical mechanism the university chose for the payment, it ended up not paying the scholarship receiving students the full amount of the compensation. Furthermore, the university did not provide adequate responses to students who asked questions about issues with the payment. We, scholarship receiving students in Tel Aviv University, demand: 1) Specific answers to our questions about the calculation of compensation 2) That the university upholds its commitment: full payment of the compensation to all those entitled to it, as soon as possible. ------------------------------------...

Today 21.05.23 various post docs were present (via Zoom or in person) to the meeting we scheduled for progressing in our campaign for the Post-doc working and financial conditions. At the meeting there was present also a reference person from TRFO Segel, who helped us clarifying doubts and concepts. In particular, we focused - as said before- to these points. 1. University could (or should) hire Post docs as workers?!     the common opinion (more than 6 people in favor, 3 against) is that possessing a working visa would be advantageous for the post docs for a series of reasons: better pay, more welfare, account for pension years, easier visa management (renewal etc...). This has the disadvantage to put the post doc in a compromising situation with their supervisor, which would be the most affected person financially speaking. Hiring a worker is a higher cost that the PI has to cover (considering that in average, 100% of the scholarship is paid by the PI and 50% by the faculty)...

 Here below we report the summary of the meeting we had on 14.05.23 with the post docs and Segel (Teaching and Research Faculty Organization) and the conclusions we came to. The meeting was attended by 18 people, mostly Postdocs, from the schools of management, medicine, zoology, astrophysics, engineering, history, plant science, among others. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abbreviations:  Postdoc (Pd), principal investigator (PI), Tel Aviv university (TAU), Segel (Teaching and research faculty organization), CPI (Consumer price index) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT HAPPENED First point: an introduction by representative of the Segel was given to all of the participants. Here the most important points: The 2023 started with a +5% increase of CPI, while scholarships of post docs were no...

 In these days we are keeping on eye on a controversial situation happening on campus: the university "promised" to refund the Scholars (Master and PhD students) with a one-time bonus in April (obtained in May), excluding the post-doc. This action was made to compensate TAU (Israeli and International) students for the sharp 5% increase in the CPI (Consumer Price Index) in Israel. What happened is: post-doc are not entitled to receive the compensation and they will have to wait till next academic year, where the university promised to adjust the scholarships of all of the researchers (from master student to post docs) by increasing them roughly 5%. Many international PhD students did not receive the "promised" amount of compensation, namely the one that one can calculate with the formula that was given. A minority of international PhD students did not receive the bonus at all, and another minority got exactly the expected amount. (See our previous post on this matter...