Avinashilingam University has declared holiday till July 5 even as members of the management and representatives of faculty reached New Delhi to take their battle to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Without assigning any reason, a University communiqué said, “The University declares holidays from July 1 to July 3. Reopening will be on July 6.” The Vice Chancellor in-charge had issued the announcement.
Sources among the faculty said that the University management had declared holiday to prevent the teaching and non-teaching staff, students, and retired faculty from gathering at the institution to continue their protest.
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The move to close down, they said, was a consequence of the staff staging a sit-in protest at the campus till 2 a.m. Tuesday.
The faculty reported for work but no classes were held on Tuesday as the teachers gathered near the Avinashilingam Education Trust office to hear the latest from a few of their colleagues who had rushed to New Delhi to present their case to the Ministry of Human Resource Development officials.
Representing the management, the Chancellor T.S.K. Meenakshisundaram, Vice Chancellor Sheela Ramachandran and a couple of others were also in New Delhi, the faculty said.
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The bone of contention is the continuance of T.S.K. Meenakshisundaram as Chancellor, which is against the new rules for publicly funded deemed universities. The faculty want him to step down but the management does not. The rules say that no member of a society or trust that runs a funded institution should hold post in the latter.
Meeting
At the meeting with the Secretary and Director-Higher Education, the management representatives had reportedly said that they would like to maintain status quo – continue getting funds from the Ministry and also let Mr. Meenakshisundaram continue his Chancellorship.
The faculty said the management representatives’ reiterating their stand was not accepted but the officials after explaining the rules had asked them to once again meet the Director-Higher Education on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the protesting faculty in Coimbatore got support from the Puthiya Tamilagam leader K. Krishnaswamy who called on them and promised to take up the issue in the ensuing Tamil Nadu Assembly session.