{"id":95133,"date":"2013-07-11T20:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=95133"},"modified":"2013-07-16T02:25:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T20:55:07","slug":"banned-press-conference-outside-the-campus-release-the-student-leader-futa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/banned-press-conference-outside-the-campus-release-the-student-leader-futa\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Press Conference Outside The Campus: Release The Student Leader – FUTA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vice Chancellor<\/a><\/span> of the University of Colombo and the Registrar today tried to prevent\u00a0 the Federation of University Teachers\u2019 Associations (FUTA<\/a><\/span>) from holding a press conference at the University of Colombo Faculty Club, by deploying the university security services and Marshalls who prevented journalists from entering the premises. \u00a0The UGC circular that banned the media from entering university premises during last year\u2019s FUTA trade union action was repealed according to an agreement reached between the Ministry of Higher Education \/UGC and the Federation as part of the FUTA\u2019s suspension of their four month long strike. Hence, today\u2019s actions by the University of Colombo authorities was unlawful. This is symptomatic of the increasingly undemocratic and intolerant cultures within universities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, the FUTA officials went ahead to address the media outside, near the gate of the Planetarium entrance to the University. The Federation expressed its disgust at the authorities\u2019 treatment not only of the university teachers\u2019 freedom to hold a press conference, but at the way in which the media was prevented from doing its job.\u00a0 The President of FUTA, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri<\/a><\/span> said in his statement\u00a0 that the last weeks have seen a series o f incidents involving university students and that unprecedented numbers of students have been suspended from state universities.<\/p>\n

FUTA said that the Convenor of the Inter-University Student Federation, Mr Sanjeewa Bandara<\/a><\/span> has been arrested and that in almost all universities, student union activities are being suppressed blocking all legitimate channels for students to express their grievances. While academics have often disagreed and critiqued student politics and certain types of student activism, even in the darkest moments of our past, university academics believed in the right of students to have representation in decision making and to form unions and organisations.\u00a0 One of the reasons for this is that these bodies provide students with forums to express and resolve their grievances. The FUTA said, at the press briefing today, that it condemns in the strongest possible terms, the manner in which the authorities are dealing with student issues.<\/p>\n

FUTA reiterated that \u00a0the authorities and especially the Minister of Higher Education and other officials at the Ministry, see students as a threat to their agenda and are seeking to suppress any activism and action from university students.\u00a0 They reiterate that the state must take the responsibility of appointing suitable persons to such positions.\u00a0 FUTA will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the public are aware of these devious agendas and will also take whatever necessary steps to make sure the plans to undermine the national universities are thwarted.<\/p>\n

Since many of the Vice-Chancellors of universities are political appointments, it is not surprising that the senior management of the universities also remain indifferent to these problems and are in fact, incapable of responding appropriately to them.\u00a0 After all, they were appointed to these positions not for their ability to further university education in this country, but to serve the wills of their political masters.<\/p>\n

FUTA said: \u201cWe call for the immediate release of Mr Sanjeewa Bandara and a cessation of hostile moves against student unions and their leaders.\u00a0 We demand that the grievances of students and staff due to short-sighted and distorted education policies are addressed immediately.\u00a0 We hold the authorities responsible for the wellbeing and safety of students and university staff and we will continue to call to account the authorities for endangering the wellbeing of the university community\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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