By S. Siapha Mulbah
Students of the University of Liberia mainly on the Capitol Hill campus have reportedly been prevented from resuming regular classes since the last weekend’s break as a result of the faculty’s failure to return to the classroom because of some disagreements with government.
The students yesterday alarmed that it since the recent statement issued by the faculty association that they were disengaging from the classrooms to shut down the school until the settlement of their demands, the last two instructional days have been fruitless despite the administration response that active learning activities were ongoing at the state-run university.
In an independent observation to a public radio claim made by the vice president of UL relations that school were not close and remains opened, this paper established that majority of the classrooms on the campus including those in the Tubman Hall (TH), Greensleeves Hall (GH) buildings were all locked up from the early morning hours till after the midday hours.
Students around the campus said following the concerns raised by the faculty, they resolved to stay in their homes to avoid inconveniences till the administration gets to work with the staffers and lecturers in order to have the situation under control, but the statement made by the offices of the University Relation Department give them courage to go to school.
Sophomore student Bintu May-Cole expressed disappointment in what she called lack of coordination in the state-run university management team which came up with conflicting statements that still affecting the academic calendar for the year under review.
She explained that the calendar calls for final exams in few weeks to come but the go-slow action of the teachers and their abandonment of the classroom during regular school days signals that there could be problem in the nearest future of the semester.
“We know how things can happen on this campus especially when lecturers are involved, but exercising authority without putting in the mechanisms needed is the exactly what the relations office did to us for the last two days. Classes are closed, the buildings are locked and they administration is still telling us on radios that school remains opened,” Student May-Cole disclosed.
The student’s community also called on government to look beyond the real issues affecting the university in order to enhance a smooth learning process void of distractions and political manipulations as suspected over the years.
Moses Koffeh another three years student reading accountant said some of the reasons why it widely speculated that student at UL stay long pursuing degrees is because the government do not want to exercise political will taking total control over the school activities in relations to full funding of the university programs.
The Vice president for University Relations, Norris Tweh, reiterated that the university is opened but the poor turn-up of students on the campus is attributed to the scariness of the students to show up and attend their classes.
Tweh said, faculty association of the university is in no absolute authority to declare the closure of school because of complains and some issues with their personal benefit against government and other associated to the running of the school.
According to him, other staffers of the university are on course and working in their various departments while the board and other stakeholders are engaging day by day to have the plight of the faculty under total control.
“The faculty with the lecturers is the ones with a problem and decided to stay away from the classroom. We are engaging in different conversations with them but the students are scare that’s why they not coming to class,” he noted.
