At the end of a meeting held last week, the department of legal studies and economic sciences at the Polydisciplinary Faculty of Safi decided to suspend the S1, S2 and S3 exams while calling on the dean to enforce the law and the decisions taken by this department. It also decided to cancel the transfer authorisation signed for the benefit of the former president of the department while placing him at the disposal of the dean and the presidency of the Cadi Ayyad University without any pedagogical mission. "These are important decisions that come in a conflictual climate marked above all by excesses that were unfortunately treated with a lot of tolerance on the part of the dean. No party has the right to take students hostage in the context of a strictly personal settling of scores!", indignantly says a union actor, referring to the illegal actions that motivated the department's decision. The professors of legal studies and political sciences have in turn signed a petition in solidarity with their colleagues who are the target of a smear campaign orchestrated by certain parties who are doing everything in their power to slow down the department's reform process for a few months. A solidarity reiterated by the local branch of the National Union of Higher Education in Safi. The latter called for a general assembly to be held during this week in order to debate the pedagogical and administrative problems of the various departments. A general assembly from which important decisions will emerge, concerning above all the exam calendar and the relationship with the dean. The Polydisciplinary Faculty of Safi has been in a turbulence zone since last year. Remember, the student Asmaa Bouday had filed a complaint with the King's prosecutor at the court of first instance in Safi for sexual harassment against the former president of the department of legal studies and economic sciences. A case that had experienced several twists and turns, starting with the fraud report written by the said professor against the complainant. The same professor had been the subject of a wave of protests initiated by Asmaa's comrades who had in turn received grades implying their re-enrolment in one of the modules. Grades that they had described as unfair and reflecting a punitive measure taken by the professor whose departure they had demanded. Asmaa Bouday had won her case following the decision of the Council of the Faculty of Safi which, after an expertise of the handwriting and the hearing of the student who had testified against Asmaa, finally ruled in favour of the latter, while suspending the student who had given false testimony. The local section of the National Union of Higher Education had in turn reacted to this regrettable affair, and condemned the excesses undermining the reputation and image of the faculty and research professors. The professors of the department of legal and economic sciences had, for their part, taken a position by organising an extraordinary assembly in order to elect a new president to replace the professor accused in this case. Political parties, unions, human rights associations, women's, educational and cultural associations, students and parents had also raised their voices and participated in the sit-in organised by the local coalition for the defence of the inviolability of university establishments in Safi in front of the wilaya headquarters last July. They had all chanted slogans against the sexual harassment of female students and the various forms of depravity that tarnish the image of university establishments while reiterating their full solidarity with Asmaa Bouday.