NEW DELHI: A
professor of
Persian will head the
School of Arts and Aesthetics, a professor of
Spanish will be at the
helm in the
Centre of French Studies, while an
Arabic professor will similarly manage things at the Centre for
Linguistics in
Jawaharlal Nehru University. These faculty changes were effected on Thursday after seven centre chairpersons and one dean received letters late on Wednesday divesting them of responsibilities for “not complying with and implementing” the controversial compulsory attendance rule.
The order for the incumbents’ ouster, signed by A D Bahuguna, section officer (Academics), stated, “The Executive Council in its 272nd meeting held on March 13 … authorised the vice-chancellor to replace the existing deans of schools/chairpersons of centres who have not complied with, or refused to, implement the attendance system in the university with the acting deans/chairpersons.”
The eight affected faculty members complained that they should have been first served show-cause notices. “I got a message from my colleague at 9.30pm about the orders mailed to him. I too checked my mail and found I had been removed as dean of the arts and aesthetics school and replaced by professor Mazhar Ashraf from the Persian centre,” Kavita Singh told TOI.
Ashraf said the university administration sent him a mail on Thursday appointing the acting dean of the arts and aesthetics school. When asked about the students alleging he was not qualified for the post, Ashraf retorted, “The JNU Act lists the qualification required of someone who is a dean.”
Predictably, there was chaos on the campus on Thursday when students and teachers came out in large numbers against the orders. Students of the arts and aesthetics school blocked the entrance to their department, with one of them declaring, “This has happened because our dean supported us when we protested against the arbitrary implementation of compulsory attendance.”
Former JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai was clear that “Ashraf’s appointment is against the rule” since “Rule 15 of the Academic Rules and Regulations to appoint an acting head of centres requires the sitting deans to be consulted”.
JNUTA has called a general body meeting on March 16 to chalk out its response to the order. Despite repeated attempts through phone calls and email, the JNU administration did not respond to the allegations.
