By S. Siapha Mulbah
The scheduled launch of the Doctoral Studies Program at the State-run University of Liberia has faced a serious setback as the administration comes under huge pressure from the faculty in their disagreement in the abrupt closure crisis.The University of Liberia was accordingly set to launch its first ever doctoral studies program on yesterday June 19, 2024 at its capitol campus auditorium but early warning of unspecified actions from arising crisis among faculty members and administration led to the postponement of the program.
Hours ahead of the planed program, the office of the Vice president of UL Relations announced that the administration decided to have the launch of the Doctoral Studies Program postponed to a later date not specified.
Though the communication failed to show or explain cause of the latest action from the university administration, this paper has established that there were plans manipulated under cover to disrupt the introduction of the program amidst the many other challenges faced by the school.
From all indication it is reported that the last engagement between the Board of Trustee of the University of Liberia and the faculty association did not result to the necessary outcome and the authority got advised to put a halt to all basic activities at the university campuses.
Inner sources at the institution explained that the faculty association remains relentless in their advocacy and has informed the Board that there will be nothing done to have them back in the classrooms without having all the counts released to the public on Friday June 14, 2024 addressed.
These sources who are from some authoritative background of the university reported that the board as a means of resolving the contemporary closure of school called on the faculty members to resumed learning activities at UL but the call raised serious resistance and abruptly ended the meeting in heavy tension in the conference room of the Nathaniel Cassell building Tuesday.
The Vice president of UL relations Norris Tweh however confirmed to this paper that there has been no understanding yet between the aggrieved faction of the university staffers and the administration along with the involvement of the board of Trustee.
Tweh said the launching of the Doctorial Studies Program was a result of the Board cautioning the administration of taking into consideration the security implication that high profile personalities could face looking at the influence of the ongoing crisis.
He said the situation also posed serious challenges to the calendar of activities that the university has put in place for the semester going forward because there are days set aside from everything happening on the campus and if the aggrieve staffers cannot get to a common ground soon, the administration will have a determination.
He however did not specify how the determination is going to be met but expressed disappointment in seeing young people desirous time being wasted with lecturers calling for all problems to be solved in less than no time.
“The board of the university is working out modalities through dialogue with the faculty association because they are the ones calling for the president resignation along with couple of other things that are very hard to settle now. The students are willing to learning but because the university if challenged with a whole lot of other things they cannot come to school looking at the demand of their lecturers,” Tweh noted.
He explained further, “We could not overlook what has happened on the UL campus when the board cautioned about security implications and there were lot of things that signal our security for which we had to adjust these programs and focus on the situation on ground.”
It is now more than a half instructional week and normal learning activities at the university is yet to be restore for students to get back to completing their instruction requirements for the semester.
The Faculty have stepped out of the classroom with demands that the presidency of Dr. Sarwolo Nelson at the state highest institution of learning be terminated along with other issues resolved.
Since the issuance of the statement last weekend, the faculty and administration continue to battle over instruction of resumption at the school but several meetings and dialogues have failed to have a common ground from the angle of the faculty.
The Board however held another engagement with the faculty on the concerning matter yesterday with a hope to remedy the situation but up to press, the outcome and resolution of the meeting have not been released to the public.
