BGU’s Campus Spirit is Sorely Missed in Beer-Sheva
BGU’s Campus Spirit is Sorely Missed in Beer-Sheva
November 19, 2012
Less than a month after the first day of BGU’s 2012-2013 academic year, the University’s Marcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva was forced to close last week because of missile fire from Gaza, and remains closed indefinitely.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces informed BGU’s administration that the air force had just assassinated Ahmed Jabari, head of the Hamas military organization in Gaza, after a spike in rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians. The IDF, expecting Hamas retaliation, ordered the University to cancel all classes and send everyone home.
BGU security officers sent out e-mails and text messages to all students and staff, according to the University’s security director Rafi Sarussi. Classes were halted mid-lecture, and thousands of students, faculty and staff on the campus quickly filed out the gates.
Now the deserted campus looks more like a ghost town, where only Beer-Sheva’s stray cats are showing up to class.
The closure of BGU, the flagship academic institution of southern Israel, is a type of damage not as visible as a damaged house or a burnt-out car. Nonetheless it demonstrates one of the important effects of this latest round of fighting between Israel and the rocket squads of Gaza.
It is another blow to the daily lives of some 200,000 people living in Beer-Sheva, the capital of the Negev, a city that has been effectively shut down.
“The University has become so central to the life of Beer-Sheva that its closure is immediately felt across the city,” says Sarussi. “This is a joyous place, and when it’s shut you feel that the routine and the real happiness here have been cut off.”
Read more on The Times of Israel Web site >>
ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY
By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.
About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.
We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.
BGU at a glance:
20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.
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