Teachers of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur kept the pro vice-chancellor Sarifa Salwa under siege for about seven hours on Thursday.
A section of the teachers, under the banner of ‘Odikhar Surokka Parishad,’ confined her to a meeting room, demanding the presence of the vice chancellor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah on campus.
The blockade was lifted the assurances were made of bringing him to the university campus. Odikhar Surokka Parishad said they went to meet the pro VC Prof Salwa at noon to press home their demands including to ensure the presence of the VC on the campus and to stop all irregularities. She had been in the syndicate meeting room at the time. The teachers went there and handed her a memorandum.
Quoting the conditions of appointment given by the president, the memorandum said that VC should be present on campus round-the-clock. But the VC ignored this regulation and remained absent from the campus for months.
The teachers demanded that he be brought back to the campus immediately [by Thursday] to stop the various misdeeds carried out. They confined Prof Salwa to the syndicate meeting room.
Prof Matiur Rahman, convener of this Parishad, said “Those who are involved with vice-chancellor’s misdeeds cannot avoid responsibility either. They will have to move away from these activities.”
During the demonstration, professor of the physics department and the former president of the teachers' association Gazi Mazharul Anwar told Prothom Alo that many misdeeds would be stopped had the five to six persons from the university stopped going at the liaison office in Dhaka. He requested all the syndicate members including the teachers of the university not to attend the meetings in Dhaka.
Associate professor of the Bangla department and former president of the teachers' association Tuhin Wadud, speaking to Prothom Alo, said the pro-VC has assured the demonstrating teachers that she would try to bring the VC back to campus and also try to meet the other demands. Accordingly, pro-VC Sarifa Salwa was released a 7:15pm.
Later, pro-VC Sarifa Salwa told newspersons that “I will talk to the VC regarding the matter.”