RUCSU GS Ammar calls for University Teachers’ Network to be shut down

He responds to the platform’s call to “stop the unauthorised activities of student representatives on campus"

Rajshahi University Central Student Union General Secretary Salahuddin Ammar has called for the University Teachers’ Network to be shut down.

He made this call in response to a statement made by the platform on Sunday titled “Stop the unauthorised activities of student representatives on campus."

Ammar wrote in a comment on the statement made on the platform’s Facebook page, “I call for the University Teachers’ Network to be shut down.”

When asked about this, he said: “I commented and did not delete it. If [Teachers’ Network] sees my work as a misdeed, then I also view their statement with suspicion.

“They reached out to me, and I reached out to them. If that is their freedom, then this is mine too.”

In the statement, the University Teachers’ Network said various “mob” tendencies persist under Ammar’s leadership, with the resignation of deans and the harassment of students and teachers continuing.

Instead of holding the administration accountable, it said, he demanded the resignation of six deans and allegedly threatened them in arrogant language, acting as though he were part of the administration.

The statement also alleged that he visited various departments, seeking out deans, and wrote their resignation letters outside his jurisdiction, apparently to humiliate them.

Although all 12 deans were elected during the Awami League regime, the statement said Ammar considered only six of them to be “politically involved” and therefore did not seek the resignations of the others or make any derogatory remarks about them.

In what it described as a “humiliating situation”, the remaining six deans, identified as “progressive teachers”, said they were unable to continue performing their duties.

The statement further added that to establish a “reign of terror” on the campus, RUCSU GS has repeatedly declared beyond all bounds of grandeur that if pro-AL teachers enter the campus, they will be “dragged by the collar and tied outside the administration building”.

What the elected representatives are doing is beyond the jurisdiction of RUCSU, and their behaviour is also “aggressive and terrorist-like”, it said, demanding accountability from the university administration.

The statement claimed the behaviour by RUCSU leaders has destroyed the educational environment at the university and posed an attack on academic freedom.

Masum Reza, a professor of the Bangla department of Rajshahi University, told bdnews24.com: “The University Teachers’ Network started its journey in 2014. If jobs were lost or dismissed for having different ideologies, then many of the teachers in the network would have lost their jobs during the AL regime.

“The 1973 ordinance gave us a safeguard, which is why we teachers have not lost our jobs even though we have always spoken out against injustice.”

He said, “It is beyond the jurisdiction of a student to [threaten] teaching officials with different ideologies, dismiss them or force them to resign.

“Even the vice-chancellor of the university does not have this power. However, teachers are not above the law.

“They can be punished according to the law, but not by creating a mob. If someone has directly attacked or brokered, a case should be filed against him.

“The university administration can take legal action against [RUCSU GS].”