The teachers’ association of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNUTA) has stressed the immediate appointment of a regular vice-chancellor since the tenure of M Jagadesh Kumar had expired.
JNU is among a dozen central educational institutions that are working without a regular vice-chancellor or director. These institutions include the IITs at Indore, Mandi, Patna, and Bhubaneswar.
Today marks a month of Prof. Jagadesh Kumar’s expansion as caretaker vice-chancellor. While the process of discovering a replacement started in October 2020, it is painful that the search committee made up for the purpose has not been able to substantially progress its work, said a statement issued by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Friday.
The association alleged indiscretion in the nomination of members for JNU’s search panels. One of the applicants for the post was present at the meeting of JNU’s Executive Council that assigned the search panel members, the JNUTA alleged.
JNU teacher said the university administration under the leadership of Kumar took decisions and actions to appease certain faculty members while victimizing others who opposed his way of functioning.
The JNU vice-chancellor had issued show-cause notices against 48 faculty members in 2018 for taking part in a protest on the campus.
Presently, Delhi University does not have a regular vice-chancellor after the suspension of Yogesh Tyagi. The tenure of the incumbent vice-chancellors has been extended.
On July 14, 2020, the Pokhriyal panel had held online interviews of shortlisted competitors for the three IIT heads. After the posts were publicized by the education ministry on November 26, 2019, the process of selection of the chiefs of all the three IITs was carried out simultaneously. Last month Rajeev Ahuja was appointed IIT Ropar director.
The IIT faculty members were wanting that the directors would be appointed in July itself as the issuance of appointment letters usually does not take more than two weeks after the conduct of interviews. After the interviews, the education ministry sends the names to the President, who is the Visitor of the central universities and IITs. The Visitor opens the names expeditiously.
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The absence of a regular director is affecting the recruitment of faculty and the planning of academic activities amid the pandemic. Development activities to have been held up. The order last month ordaining the IIT Ropar director has created more questions about transparency, said an IIT Bhubaneswar faculty member.
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