Student hug prompts call for return of campus police

An Egyptian government-run university has requested the reinstatement of police guards on its campus more than six years after a court order paved the way for their removal from the country’s various campuses.

The request was made public last week after an online video went viral showing a man and a woman hugging at an unauthorised party on the campus of the university amid cheers from students.

The provincial Tanta University has officially requested the Supreme Council of Universities, a state body in charge of academic institutions in Egypt, to discuss the possible return of police guards, who answer directly to the Interior Ministry.

The hugging incident triggered an outcry in the conservative Arab country and prompted the university’s authorities to open a probe involving students, who appeared in the video, and civilian guards.

Investigations have revealed that the man is a computer science student at the provincial state-run Menoufia University and that he went to Tanta University where he held the party for his fiancé – the woman student who appears in the video, and a student at the Tanta University law school – in a gesture of love for her.

Penalties

Both students and their colleagues have been referred to the university’s disciplinary board for questioning. They are facing penalties ranging from suspension for one semester to final dismissal for violating the campus rules of good conduct.

“The university's board has sent a request to the Supreme Council of Universities to try to find a suitable solution in order to ensure the return of police guards to the campus,” Tanta University’s Vice-President for Student Affairs, Mudather Taha, said.

“The university has taken this step after a rise in misconduct among students, who don’t take civilian guards seriously. The latest example is the incident of the two students, who hugged each other in the presence of others on the campus,” Taha told independent newspaper Al Watan.

There has been no comment from the Supreme Council of Universities.

Police guards were removed from Egypt’s campuses under a landmark 2010 ruling by the country’s top court, although the ruling was not enforced until the toppling of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak the following year. At the time of the ruling, the court said the presence of police on campuses undermined the independence of universities enshrined in the Egyptian constitution.

The police guards were replaced by civilian personnel from private security companies and administrative employees from the universities.

Before then, state police had been in charge of securing campuses in Egypt since the 1980s. Advocates of academic independence and the opposition accused Mubarak’s security services of interfering in university activities, including student elections, and repressing dissidents.

The situation has since changed, according to Taha.

Political stability

“The police were removed from campuses when the political climate was unstable. Now political stability is prevailing in the country,” he said.

Egypt experienced widespread political unrest in the post-Mubarak years. The country’s universities were rocked by violent protests following the military’s 2013 toppling of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected ruler.

Dozens of Islamist students and lecturers have since been detained and given jail sentences on charges relating to inciting or participating in violence.

Over the past four years, authorities have heavily restricted political activism in universities, mainly targeting Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and allied groups.

The call for the police’s return to the campus has reignited an academic debate. “Each university has its own circumstances that prompt it to take the measures it deems necessary,” said Maged Negm, president of the government-run Helwan University in southern Cairo.

“Tanta University’s request will be discussed by the Supreme Council of Universities in order to reach the proper decision,” added Negm, who did not say whether his institution would follow suit.

Student view

Some students have opposed the move.

“The return of the police to the campus will be a harsh blow to freedom in the universities,” Tamer Mustafa, a law student at Ain Shams University in Cairo, said. “Their presence in the Mubarak days was always linked to abuses and oppression. I think civilian guards have largely done a good job in securing universities, especially in the turbulent years that followed Morsi’s toppling,” he added.

Hossam Abdul Wahab, a student at the same university, was critical of Tanta University for what he called its “hasty request and overreaction”.

“The world has not collapsed because a student and his fiancé hugged each other in public. Would it have been better if they had the hug in secret?” he said. “Even if they acted wrongly, they should be punished in proportion with their mistake. We don’t need morality police on the campus. I am afraid the overreaction to this incident aims at opening the door for the return of police to universities.”