Hunger strike over Entrance Tests: JU officials give in to students’ demands

The resolution adopted in the EC meeting read, “That in six departments of Arts faculty (Bengali, Comparative Literature, English, History, International Relations and Philosophy), admission to UG courses will be on the basis of 50 per cent weightage on an admission test and 50 per cent weightage on the marks obtained in the plus two board exams. In view of the inability of the admission committee, Faculty of Arts to decide upon the modalities for conducting the admission test in these six departments…”

Registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharjee abstained from the deliberations, while Dr Monojit Mondal, who is the nominee of the state higher education council to the executive council, gave his note of dissent to the resolution. The admission committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide on fresh dates for conducting admission tests.

Four of around 20 students, who had gone on hunger strike last Friday to protest against the scrapping of admission tests, were admitted to a hospital after falling ill Tuesday. The Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA), which had also registered its protest against the varsity’s decision, welcomed the decision.

“We have been saying that the autonomy of the university should not be compromised under any circumstances. We always wanted admission tests in concerned subjects,” said JUTA assistant secretary Partha Pratim Ray.

The student protesters said it was a moral victory for them. “It is a moral victory for us as we have been demanding that admission tests be conducted in six Humanities subjects. However, we have to see that external teachers are not involved in the admission process and the academic autonomy of the university is protected,” said a student. On June 27, the JU executive council had decided to give equal weightage to admission test marks and board exam marks. It had reversed the decision in another meeting held on July 4. This had led to Arts Faculty Students Union students starting their protest on Friday.

Following this, faculty members of all six departments affected by the decision also announced that they would not take part in the admission process, as a sign of protest. The varsity authorities had then written to the Governor, seeking his intervention. Tripathi had on Monday told the authorities to abide by the decision of the executive council and asked Das to use his power as per the statute of the university to take necessary action to resolve the impasse.

Meanwhile, both students and teachers express their surprise following reports that Das has expressed a desire to step down. “We never demanded that the vice-chancellor should step down. He has taken a personal decision. But we want him to stay in the university and guard its autonomy,” said a student.