The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association on Tuesday called upon the newly appointed Vice- Chancellor Santishree D. Pandit to restore the sanctity of statutory bodies and engage in transparent and dialogic processes for taking decisions.
The teachers had been at loggerheads with former Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar throughout his tenure for not letting them have a voice in the decision making process that had been the culture at JNU.
“The JNUTA on its part will present to the new administration demands for ensuring a non-partisan administration and restoring teaching-learning activities as per statutes and ordinances of the university. As the elected body of teachers, JNUTA will continue to exercise critical vigilance over all matters related to the wellbeing of the university,” the JNUTA said in a statement.
The teachers added that they call upon the V-C to maintain rigorous financial scrutiny in all administrative matters and ensure implementation of robust regulatory mechanisms to maintain checks and balances, such that the next five years of her tenure are peaceful, productive and academically enabling for the diverse spectrum of opinions that a university like JNU produces.
Ms. Pandit, while taking over on Monday, had said that she would focus on providing a clean administration, and a student friendly, gender sensitive environment for academic excellence of the university.
JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh said, “We wanted to meet the new V-C and hand over a charter of demands on behalf of the students’ community and were hoping for a discussion. We here, however, denied entry despite the V-C’s assurance to work along with students.”
