BGU | PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2023

Jewish-Arab dialogue circle as part of the Let's Talk event. Photo: Irit Berezin A prospective student speaks at the launch of the Momentum Program for Bedouin high school students who excel in math

from underrepresented communities who are at risk of dropping out and help them persevere. At the same time, a committee was established to manage complaints about discrimination and racism. The committee is working on developing a course to train faculty and raise their awareness of these issues. We have already piloted a training program on dealing with crisis situations for employees of the Security Department. It was so successful that it will now be integrated into their regular training schedule. Finally, a conference on ultra-Orthodox integration into academia is being planned. Celebrating Differences: Events marking diverse holidays and days of commemoration were held, including Ethiopian Eid al-Sijd, Muslim Ramadan, International Women's Day, and more. We held a conference to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and are organizing a conference for 2023 focused on racism in the healthcare system that will be aimed at students and staff in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Strengthening Dialogue in Daily Life: Where Do We Go from Here? The Living Together Program was launched to promote dialogue and rapprochement between diverse groups on campus. The program uses existing platforms and creates new ones to help make the issue of a shared life part of the University’s DNA. As part of the program, a two-credit interfaculty course introducing minority groups in Israeli society is being developed. It will be offered as part of the humanities and social sciences requirements for students in engineering and natural sciences.

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President's Report 2023