Students of Jadavpur University have started a hunger strike late on Friday night to protest the university decision to scrap admission tests for six departments of the Arts faculty.
They are demanding an explanation on the decision to do away with the tried and tested admission tests. They are also asking the authorities to hold a meeting to change the position. Students said they have given the Vice Chancellor time till 12 noon Sunday to take a call and if he refuses to budge from his stand, then they will go ahead with fast till death.
The university authorities had initially wanted admissions on 50:50 weightage of board marks and admission tests, but subsequently decided to drop it altogether. The whimsical change of stance has irked the students, teachers and the JU alumnus.
After offering a deadline till 3 pm Friday to reverse the administration decision, the students met university registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharya, but no solution could be reached and students threatened to hold a relay hunger strike.
Yesterday, Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das met state education minister Partha Chatterjee before going to Raj Bhavan to file a report on the crisis, after Governor Kesharinath Tripathi wanted to know the exact situation.
Das’s meeting with the education minister at the latter’s residence led to a controversy with both students and teachers asking how he could hold a meeting with a minister being the vice chancellor of an autonomous institution before reporting to university’s chancellor, the Governor.
After the English department teachers decided to disassociate themselves from the selection procedure, Comparative Literature teachers also announced that they want to stay away from the procedure sensing “dishonour and disrespect”. The teachers wondered why the administration couldn’t trust the admission procedure. Instead the executive council (EC) took the unilateral decision of scrapping the entrance test. The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association observed a cease day on Friday.
