Dhaka University Day today

Today is the 89th founding anniversary of the University of Dhaka, the premier public university of the country.
With the theme of this year ‘Higher Education for Building Digital Bangladesh’, hundreds of former and present students, teachers and employees will celebrate the day called Dhaka University Day, holding colourful programmes.
No class and examination will be held on the day but the offices will remain open.
The university authorities have chalked out daylong programmes to mark the day.
A colourful procession will be brought out at 9:15am from the registrar building and it will end at the Teachers and Students Centre while cakes will be cut after hoisting of flags at 9:30am.
The Dhaka University Debating Society will hold a debate show at the TSC about 2:30pm. Friendly football, cricket and volleyball matches will begin at the university sport field from 4:30pm onwards.
The music department and former and present students will perform at the TSC auditorium at about 6:00pm.
Voluntary blood donation, photo and manuscript exhibition, and reminiscences by former students will begin from the morning till 5:00pm, the campus sources said.
The day was observed as Dhaka University Day till the 1980s but it was ignored since the 1990s.
On the first day of July in 1921, the University of Dhaka opened its doors to students. It was set up on 600 acres of land at Ramna with Sir PJ Hartog as the first vice-chancellor.
Despite manifold problems, including session jam, lack of library accommodation and transportation facilities, student’s enrolment is increasing every year.
At present, roughly 33,500 students have enrolled in this university and are taught by about 1,805 teachers in 67 departments under 10 faculties, eight institutes and 38 centres for advanced research.
The university began its journey with only 192 students and 60 teachers in three faculties consisting of 12 departments.
Scholars in humanities like Haraprasad Sastri, FH Turner, Mohammad Shahidullah, GH Langley, Haridas Bhattacharya, Roy Ramesh Chandra Majumder, Sir AF Rahman and Naresh Chandra Sengupta were among the teachers in the university’s early days.
The name of Satyendranath Bose, famed for Bose-Einstein Quantum Statistics, must be mentioned. KS Krishnan and SR Khastgir in physics, Gyanchandra Gosh and Mokarram Hossain Khundker in chemistry, Quazi Motahar Hossain in statistics and Kamaluddin Ahmed in biochemistry, pharmacy and nutrition science, were famous for their contributions to science.
From the beginning a distinctive feature of the university was its residential system. All the students of the university were either residents of or attached to the halls. The three halls established for this purpose were Dhaka Hall, Jagannath Hall and Salimullah Muslim Hall.
The university played the central role in all the nationalist movements for democracy and autonomy in East Pakistan, including the Language Movement of 1952, the education movement of 1962, the autonomy movement of 1966, the mass upsurge against the military junta in 1969, and the election of 1970.
Several hundred students, fourteen teachers, one officer and twenty-six employees of the university sacrificed their lives for the country’s independence in 1971.
The students of this university were also on the frontline in the struggles for people’s rights and democracy even after the independence of the country and ensured fall of then military dictator HM Ershad in 1990.
Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, meanwhile, suspended their strike, which was earlier announced following a clash with ruling party-backed Chhatra League, JCD president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku told New Age.

Via: NewAge