The Association of University Teachers has written to Governor-Chancellor R.N. Ravi, appealing to him to check the “serious deviations” jeopardising the edifice of higher education in the State and protect it from polemic forces.
In a two-page letter to the Chancellor, the association has pointed out the various issues where actions of Vice-Chancellors have triggered controversies. “The constitutional head of the State should be above board. It is in the interest of the institutions that the Chancellor’s office takes action to prevent such breeding of controversies in universities,” said AUT former president K. Pandiyan.
The association criticised the appointment of Jagadeesh Kumar, former V-C of Jawaharlal Nehru University, as the Governor’s nominee in several V-C search panels. It pointed out to the dissolution of the V-C search panel for Alagappa University. The committee was dissolved as there were complaints that better qualified persons had been ignored by the panel. The Governor had interviewed three short-listed candidates after which he dissolved the committee since none of them qualified for the post.
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The association has pointed out instances where Vice-Chancellors or Syndicate members, nominated by the Governor had courted controversies. The Governor had nominated T. Periyasami, an associate professor, to the Syndicate of Periyar University despite the row over his Ph.D and his certificates. R. Mangaleswaran, who is the Chancellor’s nominee in Bharathidasan University, has been called for an inquiry in a case registered under Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act and in the first week of January he had been called for inquiry by the police as well, M.S. Balamurugan, AUT general secretary pointed out.