After nine weeks of hoping that government talks with university professors and other academic staff members would resolve a dispute over deterioration of wages over the past six years, university heads now say the semester is in jeopardy. Talks between the lecturers' union and the Finance Ministry are deadlocked.

The Coordinating Council of Faculty Associations agrees, and will meet in an emergency session Thursday night to discuss the option of canceling the semester altogether.

The Finance Ministry threatened Wednesday to redirect funds earmarked for universities to private colleges instead, a plan that outraged Education Minister Yuli Tamir, who said "any attempt to strengthen the private education sector at the expense of public education is deplorable."