Academic activities of three departments at Jahangirnagar University have remained suspended for over a month as teachers and students of the departments are in a dispute over accommodation at the newly-constructed science building.
Campus sources said teachers and students were not obeying decision of university syndicate regarding accommodation allotment.
Computer science and engineering (CSE) department and geological science department set up on the ground and first floor of New Science Building launched separate protest movements against the decision in which the authorities had allotted the second floor to environmental science department.
Twenty-seven teachers of CSE and geological science department have submitted resign letters to the university authorities protesting the syndicate decision while some 15 students of these departments launched a hunger strike till death to press home their demand, said the sources.
The crisis began on March 28 when the teachers and students of computer science and engineering department and geological science department seized the second floor of the building and claimed the floor.
The protesting teachers and students kept the entrances of the building locked and resisted the environment science department from shifting to the new science building while the rejected teachers and students launched a separate protest on campus to meet home their demand.
Since then, most of the classes and examinations of these three departments have been paused due to the ongoing movements.
Although previous authorities of the university assured CSE and geological science department to hand over the second floor of the building to them, the floor was officially gone to environmental science in the syndicate meeting in 2002.
Later, the authorities formed a five-member review committee on April 7 over the problem and on April 30, the JU syndicate again allotted the second floor to environmental science department.
Since then, the academic activities of CSE and geological science have remained stopped for indefinite period. In the meantime, the environmental science department cannot start their classes and examinations as the entrances of the second floor have been kept locked.
Acting chairman of geological science department Mazeda Islam said: “The protest movement would continue. Ten teachers of the department have decided to resign as the department is yet to get necessary classrooms and laboratories.”
Mashiur Rahman Saikat, a masters student of English department, said: “It seems that the protesting teachers and students are creating pressure to the authorities by resigning from the department and launching hunger strike. There is no way for disobeying syndicate’s decision as it is against of the university rules and regulation.”
JU Vice-Chancellor Prof Farzana Islam said syndicate’s decision would remain unchanged because the authorities were determined to solve the problems of all departments.
She said: “There are many problems in different departments and the syndicate has taken its decision considering these problems.”
