Seven academics holding key administrative posts in the University of Kerala — including that of the Finance Officer, Planning Director and the Vice-Chairman of the credit and semester system — on Thursday submitted their resignation from these posts to Vice-Chancellor A. Jayakrishnan.
Finance officer C. Ganesh; Planning Director J. Rajan; Vice-Chairman of the CSS A.R. Rajan; coordinator of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell K. Sasikumar; Coordinator of the University Consultative Cell Manoj Changat; warden of the men’s and teachers’ hostel G. Prasad; and the UIT coordinator A. Gopikkuttan; were the academics who submitted their resignation from the respective administrative posts.
Their move comes in the wake of disciplinary action against university teachers decided upon at the meeting of the varsity Syndicate on Wednesday.
Prior to submitting their resignations, university teachers under the banner of the Kerala University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) held a demonstration on the varsity campus.
KUTA president T. Rajamohan told The Hindu here on Thursday that the punishment meted out to university teachers by the Syndicate was too stringent and would only serve to demoralise them. “Shaji Varkey of the Politics Department and A. K. Ampotti of Islamic Studies were removed as heads of their departments for an unintentional error in the conduct of the CSS examinations. Their increments have been barred. They were never asked for an explanation. Similarly, K.S. Chandrasekar the former registrar too has been suspended. Punishments should be commensurate with the offences,” he said.
The teachers who resigned on Thursday told the Vice-Chancellor that they did not get adequate support or backing from the varsity to do their job, Dr. Rajamohan added.
