Musings by Shahidul Alam
?The Awami League-isation of public universities, of which Jahangirnagar is a prime example, has entered a critical stage.
And so, has resistance. Continue reading “Update April 30, 2012: Reclaiming Jahangirnagar from a ?godfather? VC”
by rahnuma ahmed
Is it an exaggeration to speak of Jahangirnagar university’s vice-chancellor professor Sharif Enamul Kabir as a `godfather’?
Press reports of the last one and a half years doesn’t incline one to think so. They strongly indicate, as do protests by students and teachers, that the VC provides protection to criminals. That he has violated every possible rule regarding teacher recruitment and promotion (to other posts, as well). That he has built up a regime where his ‘henchmen’ — students, teachers, administrators — located at every tier, maintain control over the campus through a combination of violence and the disbursement of favours. Continue reading “CONCLUDING PART Reclaiming Jahangirnagar from a ?godfather? VC”
Its been a bit over a decade since I left Jahangirnagar to become a fulltime writer, but I discovered soon after that no one really leaves Jahangirnagar. I’m still as attached to the place as I’d been when I was a faculty member. For good reasons too, for, when push comes to shove, one is bound to encounter a group of teachers and students, who, however powerful be the forces they are up against, however fractured they themselves might be, are willing to overlook ideological differences or personal rancour, to forge together a collective front. To protest, in order to reclaim JU as a place of higher learning and academic dissent, one where women students too, have equal claims to freedom of movement and association, free from sexual harassment and intimidation. A campus which, like its open and unfolding landscape, nurtures diversity and tolerance, nourishes the creation and re-creation of cultural inventiveness. Continue reading “PART-I Reclaiming Jahangirnagar from a ?godfather? VC”