EL AL | Atmosphere

Drone photo: Nir Hoffman

“We hope to be back on our beloved campus by the start of the second semester”. Sapir Academic College in happier times I Photos: PR

was to make sure all the members of our community were ok. We contacted all the students, all the members of faculty, all the employees, to find out who was hurt, who needed help finding somewhere safe to stay, who needed psychological support, financial help, etc. We opened a support group that has helped hundreds of people, and an emergency fund for basic needs and mental health support was created to help students and faculty members. Our community is very strong, but its members are scattered across the country, staying in hotels or temporary housing, dealing with extreme uncertainty and trauma. The next challenge was making sure the college continued to operate and that employees were still getting paid, even though most of the staff had been displaced, including our salary calculator who is living in a hotel room with her entire family – a human and logistics challenge of truly immense proportions. The third challenge we had was to encourage our students to get back to their studies. We demanded and obtained full tuition scholarships from the state, for each Sapir student, and I thank my fellow members of the Council for Higher Education who made that possible. I’m proud to say that despite the war,

the number of students at Sapir has even increased”. What does the current academic year look like? “We came back with a lot of desire to teach and meet the students. Classes are remote – either taking place via Zoom or in various locations across the country. Our film school for instance is holding classes in Ashdod, in four different locations in Tel Aviv, and in Bar Ilan. The challenge here is two-fold: we both need to take into account the needs

of our displaced students and faculty members, still living in hotel rooms or staying with family, and still need to maintain standards of academic excellence. We hope to be back on our beloved campus by the start of the second semester”. What kind of support does the college need right now? “Our current focus is getting our students back to living, studying, working, and volunteering here in the Western Negev. Before the war, our students were active local residents, part of the growing population here, contributing the region’s success and economy. We’ve launched a fundraising campaign for living stipends and rent support for those coming back to live here. Being the powerful social and educational hub that we are, it’s our job to attract young people to come here to study, and live and revive the region. Sapir will be a game changer in the recovery of the area. We have no right not to maintain classes at Sapir College”, concludes Professor Kedar, “our college isn’t merely a center of higher education. It is a symbol and one of the country’s main strategic assets, and we’ll continue to be a social and financial engine in the region and beyond”. For donations: www.sapir.ac.il/en/ node/4807

Photo: Adva-Odaya Ogen

Professor Nir Kedar, president of Sapir College: “Our current focus is getting our students back to living, studying, working, and volunteering here in the Western Negev”

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FEBRUARY 2024 ATMOSPHERE