VCs want to resign ‘en masse’ for SUST VC
Bangladesh Bishwabidyalay Parishad, the organisation of the vice chancellors of the public universities of the country, has taken a stance in favour of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology’s (SUST) vice chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed.
Students of SUST have been demonstrating for over a week demanding the SUST VC’s resignation. At least 12 out of 24 students of SUST, who have been fasting purportedly until death demanding the VC's resignation, have been hospitalised until Friday.
Expressing solidarity with SUST VC at a virtual meeting organised on Thursday, the association members said they are ready to resign en masse if SUST VC is to resign.
At least 35 university VCs including Farid Uddin took part in the meeting. There are 50 public universities in the country.
Several participants said the meeting discussed the situation in SUST. The VCs said that the students started demonstrations demanding the resignation or withdrawal of a provost. Despite saying that he would accept the demand, the SUST VC was chased by the demonstrators on the way to a meeting. The students also confined him.
The VCs think running a university would be impossible if a handful of persons insult a VC and chase him this way. Such a situation can be created in every university. If Farid Uddin has to resign, all the VCs are ready to follow suit.
Sources from the meeting said, Jashore Science and Technology University VC Anwar Hossain mainly brought up the issue of resigning en masse.
Asked about the matter on Saturday, Anwar said the VCs heard the incident unfolded in SUST from the embattled VC Farid Uddin. Upon hearing from him, the VCs reactions were that he cannot resign under such circumstances. The other VCs said they are with the SUST VC.
“Many things are discussed in a meeting. But no such proposal was accepted. We want the problem to be resolved through discussion,” he said.
The VCs said such opinion of the meeting was not communicated to the government or education ministry officially. The president of the organisation and vice chancellor of Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET) Habibur Rahman was present in the meeting between education minister Dipu Moni and the delegation of SUST teachers. The meeting took place in the minister’s residence on Friday.
Asked about the stance of the VCs following the meeting, the education minister said, “I’ve heard no such thing. But It's true that teachers from all around the country surely get hurt when another teacher is insulted.”
She said an acceptable solution must be found, taking every aspect of the incident into consideration.
Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) also took a position in favour of SUST VC Farid Uddin. The organisation in a statement on Friday urged the intelligence agencies of the government to look into the matter with due importance.
The students of SUST started the agitation on 13 January to realise their 3-point demand including the resignation of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall provost Zafrin Ahmed. They accused the teacher of misbehaviour. Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on 15 January attacked the demonstrators. Police attacked the students the following day after the students confined the VC in the ICT Building on the campus.
Following this, the authorities declared the university shut on the night and asked the students to vacate the residential halls. But the students defied the order and launched their one-point movement demanding the VC’s resignation.