The Wonkavator can go sideways and slantways and longways and backways...and squareways and front ways...

There a scene at the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory--the 1971 version--sans Johnny Depp although that was a mighty good film... where Charlie and Mr. Wonka enter the glass elevator to leave the factory. It's not just any elevator-- it's the Wonkavator-- and it can go in all these crazy directions... depending on what button you press. Similarly, I'm thinking of the university teachers strike as a sort of Wonkavator.

As of right now-- from what I've gathered from speaking with students here, reading online newspapers and the updates we've received from Shlomo, the director of OSP--this whole strike is a glass elevator and is literally hanging by a string ready to crack and break into a billion little pieces. Inside the elevator stands the government-- specifically the ministers of finance and education... then you have the university presidents... oh... and now the judge-- but as we all know-- he's just kinda chillin' there for now. Anyway...

These people are in this very fragile glass elevator and have for the past eighty some days pressed EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE BUTTON IN THIS CRAZY ELEVATOR... there are buttons on the floor, on the ceiling, walls...everywhere... and while they've all gone somewhere... some went forward, some back, some sideways and upways and longways and shortways (I think you get the point)... they're still stuck inside the Wonka Factory (the strike... umpaloopas being the students stuck inside this mess) The university presidents decided to press another button... almost like an emergency stop... the "Close all Campuses until the Ministry of Finance Reaches Agreement with Striking Lecturers"... GREAT... fabulous choice. (ugh...) Proof and more information about this button can be found here:

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944928.html

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/945375.html

Now... what does it mean for the umpaloopas...? For the Israeli students--it means they can't take their semester exams for the classes they are taking and if an agreement isn't reached, this semester and most likely the next will be lost. For us OSP students-- it means we're going on an extra tyul (trip) on Sunday!! YAY... seriously... I think we are... but again... for real... it means that if the campus remains closed, our ulpan courses are going to be moved to the old Ben-Gurion Univ. campus about a 10 minute walk from the moanot (dorms). There will still be some Israeli students there-- they're taking courses to prepare themselves to enter the university--kinda like community college-- it'll be a very different experience.

HOPEFULLY... someone will be cool and press the 'UP AND OUT' button--- you know... the one Charlie presses at the end and the elevator gains speed and goes bursting through the glass ceiling... that button here means they reached an agreement and universities can get back to normal.