Jadavpur University V-C allowed to leave after 30-hour gherao over scrapping of entrance test

Kolkata: Amidst agitations by the Jadavpur University’s students and teachers in protest against the authorities’ decision to scrap admission tests for undergraduate courses of six humanities subjects, Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das met the Chancellor and Governor KN Tripathi. Das called on Tripathi hours after he and other university officials were allowed to leave by members of the Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU) who gheraoed them for around 30 hours from 4 July. “No comments,” the vice-chancellor told reporters waiting outside Rajbhavan when asked about his meeting with the governor. Officials of the state-run university said Tripathi wanted to know from the VC about the recent developments at the university in the wake of the scrapping of admission test to six humanities subjects by the Executive Council (EC) and subsequent agitation by students and the teachers belonging to the Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA). [caption id=“attachment_4175481” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Jadavpur University. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The EC is the highest policy-making body of the JU and the AFSU members gheraoed its members after they decided to scrap the admission test system “for this year only” on the evening of 4 July. They were allowed to leave late last night. “We allowed the VC and other EC members to leave at around 11.45 pm yesterday. But our demonstration before the Aurobindo Bhavan (the main administrative building) will continue till the EC withdraws its decision to scrap the entrance tests,” AFSU chairperson Somashree Choudhury said. Stating that the AFSU would not obstruct the movement of anyone, Choudhury said that various students’ bodies of the JU observed a class boycott today to press for their demand. “We had told the VC last night that we can take any drastic step after 24 hours, if the authorities did not re-introduce the admission tests, and announce a decision at the earliest,” she said. Choudhury claimed the AFSU has the moral support of the JUTA and the non-teaching staff on this issue. A JUTA spokesman said the association observed a ceasework in the university today, taking exception to the EC decision to admit students to six humanities streams based solely on marks obtained in the board examinations. “We are also participating in a three-hour sit-in demonstration before Aurobindo Bhavan today to voice our protest against this move, which may lower the academic standard of the JU arts faculty,” the spokesman said. The English Department has also decided to join the protest and said none of the teachers will take part in the admission procedure. In a notification, the JU announced new admission dates to humanities streams on 27, 28, 30 and 31 July. The EC had announced in the evening of 4 July that the JU would admit undergraduate students in English, Comparative Literature, Bengali, History, Political Science and Philosophy only on the basis of marks, reversing its last week’s decision to hold entrance tests. The VC had on Thursday said he failed to understand the reason behind the students’ protest. “The decision to scrap the entrance test was taken by majority of the Executive Council members. I, as the VC, will have to abide by the decision,” he had said. JU Registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharya had told reporters on Thursday that the decision comes following “displeasure” among a section of teachers over its previous decision to involve external experts in the admission procedure. “There was little possibility of conducting entrance tests after addressing the concerns of our teachers, given the little time we have in hand,” Pro-VC Pradip Ghosh said. “In view of the uncertainties faced by thousands of candidates, we decided to go by the marks criterion for this year,” Ghosh added.