Friday, December 08, 2006

Riots at Yarmouk University

A large fight broke out yesterday at Yarmouk University between Irbidi and Ajlouni students. This resulted in damage to windows, cars and buildings on the campus, as well as the injury of four people, including a security guard.

The reason cited for the fight was student elections. It is notable that Yarmouk University is one of the few universities where student council elections are for the entire body. Other universities appoint half of the members.

Anyway, this is not the first time university students get into a brawl. There have been incidents at the University of Jordan and at various private universities. There seems to be a lack of respect for the finer points of debate and argument, and an alarming reversion to tribal and regional loyalties. This is occurring in the very places where the future of the country is being cast.

Universities are not simply places where knowledge is transferred. They are centers for forging attitudes and ethics. It is true that many of students’ attitudes are set before they enroll in universities. This raises a challenge but does not provide an excuse. An aggressive effort needs to be made to instill the desired attitudes into our students. Ethics of work, respect, tolerance, reasoning, meritocracy and curiosity should replace those of expedience and tribal and regional bonding. Only when this begins to happen will we be on the right path.

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6 Comments:

At 1:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is so sad!
It is very discouraging to have people in that level.

I do remember when I was in YU the election shit! It is all about discrimination.

 
At 5:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ethics of work, respect, tolerance, reasoning, meritocracy and curiosity should replace those of expedience and tribal and regional bonding. Only when this begins to happen will we be on the right path.
Amen to that Khalaf. Our universities have a long way to go in establishing such values. While the focus should be on producing a new generation of tolerant and well rounded young men and women, it appears that the focus of these administrations is much more superficial.

 
At 7:59 PM, Blogger Abed. Hamdan said...

let me correct your information


The Fight HAS NOTHING to do with the elections..

my friends in Yarmouk Uni, and I have some videos of this fight.

The reason of this fight is not know yet. They found a student killed in one the toilets, and the following day three busses came and start an attack.

 
At 10:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i work at yarmouk uni, and elections have nothing to do with it, i know that prof's are involved in the "making" of the fight...but the least to say is that it was a barbarian act

 
At 12:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no information on the cause of the conflict but I can relate this and all other university fights to the growing trends towards supporting tribalism in universities as a tool to work against the Islamists. This has been orchestrated by the intelligence and the governments in the 90s and now the violence is going back to rooster.

 
At 1:35 PM, Blogger Isam said...

The link to the news about yesterday's fight leads to the news of the decembers fight.

i've talked abt this before ... i dont know when will there be drastic actions done to prevent this !

really depressing

 

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