Palestinians Stay
The university is pledging financial and academic support
to Palestinian students studying at UiB. These students have
been invited to a luncheon meeting tomorrow with the university
president and the Office for Foreign Students.
– We have to assume some responsibility. Most likely, these
students won’t be able to travel home this summer. The most
important for us is that these students receive enough financial
support to live on decently. If needed, we can arrange an
academic program for them this summer as well, says UiB vice-president,
Rune Nilsen to Studvest. Though the university leader-ship
has sent out invitations to specific students from Palestine,
the actual number of students affected by the crisis in the
Mid-East is certainly higher. Several faculty members have
expressed their concern for the plight of Palestinian students
in Bergen as well as the general situation in the Mid-East.
The Norwegian Student Union also passed a resolution condemning
Israel’s acts of war against the civilian Palestinian population.
Cheap to live Central
The average price for a one-room sitter on Nygårdshøyden,
the university area, is NOK 3,000 per month. Only one in ten
students asked thinks this is too much. While most students
seem sanguine about housing costs, the president of the Tenants’
Union in Bergen, Stig Høisæther is livid. He deems housing
prices to be «sheer madness».
– These high prices are due to greed in the private housing
market, he claims. The president of the Renters’ Association,
Jannicke Lindtner, agrees that prices are sky-high for many
students, but has a different explanation for this trend.
– There are so many students who want to live centrally that
a tight housing-market has been created, leading to higher
prices, she says.
Pretty in Pink?
Tempers are boiling at Kvarteret. During Easter break all
the hallways were painted yellow, turquoise and in-your-face
pink.
– I’m embarrassed to arrange concerts here. These walls have
to be painted over! demands ASF president, Kari Kjøsnes.
– If we’d taken this to a vote, these colors never would have
been approved. The idea is to provoke people, says Gjemund
Bøthum gingerly. He was part of a project committee which
had decided to leave the color choices to a well-known British
light-artist.
RUSSEL SHULER
10.04.02
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