Although this is in the distant past, but in my time the student council was made up of many clubs, six different clubs as I remember, with three extra members. Therefore, the student council was made up of nine individuals, six represented the clubs and three the administrative council, which together made up the student council. I was the president of a club more than once and I was the head of the student council during, I think, 1974 or 1975. Before I left the University in my last semester there were student council elections in which I was nominated. There were two groups participating, and the resulting council was made up of two individuals from my group and two students from the other group, as well as the head of the student council. What was very bizarre was that the number of votes were equal. You will be surprised by the number, but my colleague and I each obtained 163 votes. I declined to my colleague for the presidency of the Council. Imagine, 163 votes used to decide the president of the Student Council at that time.

Times have certainly changed. In our time there was great resistance to the Israeli occupation and there was no visible Palestinian political power. Even talking of feelings (intima') for a political party or showing closeness to a political party entailed long years of imprisonment. The situation was very different. Today, from what I am witnessing, although I may be far from the issue, I would wish that the Student Council takes on students' union issues. There are many issues in the university that the students should be concerned about to improve their situation and the situation of the University in general. I hope that not just political issues, although they are important and need to be focused on somewhat, but also student union issues that deal with problems within the University are given importance.

I was the Dean of Student Affairs for one year. The first year I returned to the university I was the Dean of Student Affairs but I expressed my desire to not continue in this position after the first semester so that I may become totally free to teach. I had finished my Doctorates and I needed to get into the teaching process from the beginning without being hindered by administrative work. The work of the Dean of Student Affairs is important and the work with students is very important but it should have come afterwards and not from the beginning of my teaching.

There were different perceptions of the students due to the different events that had occurred. At that time, the student council was made up of political factions and there was always coordination of roles between the different student groups that expressed different political tendencies. If you want it in political terms, the political game was cooked up outside the framework of Student Affairs between the students themselves through coordination which took place between them. Then we used to try to direct the situation in an appropriate way, especially because there were always confrontations with the forces of the Israeli occupation. In the year that I was the Dean of the Student Affairs, the University was closed for seven months, twice for two consecutive months and a third time for three consecutive months. Honestly, it was a difficult period and students, when there was confrontations, at the end of the confrontation they used to get stuck in the University campus and always had to negotiate with the Israel Army surrounding the campus in order to release students from their imprisonment within the campus. It was a difficult period but it was also memorable because it was remarkable.

Elections in different sectors, and within that the student sector, are important indicators and are seen to be representative by as to where the power of different political groups lies and exactly how powerful they are within the community. I think from this you can understand their importance, especially in Birzeit University. I remember that before Student Council elections in Birzeit University for a long time were thought to be the primary indicator of the power of political parties and of the power of the Palestine Liberation Organization during the times of the Israeli occupation during the 70s and 80s. Today, due to the absence of organized political elections for townships or the legislative council, the elections that are held for different sectors are still regarded as important as they give an indication of the power of political parties. From here comes the importance of the student elections to observers in different areas to read the political map and the changes that are taking place, giving the student elections more importance than they should have due to the lack of other political elections as indicators.

20/4/2000