Expelled students mull legal fight
The authorities of the Asian University of Women in Chittagong have decided to stick to their stance on the expulsion of 12 students, who, the authorities said, failed to achieve the required marks in the semester examinations.
The university authorities held a scheduled meeting with the expelled students and their parents Saturday morning.
The authorities also ordered the expelled students to vacate their residential hall by 3:00pm on Saturday.
Till filing of this report at 5:50pm, the students were mulling legal fight and informed that they would go to former city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury at 7:00pm on Saturday.
After the meeting with the parents of expelled students, the AUW authorities also held a meeting with newsmen at about 1:00pm on the day.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Mary J Sansalone, vice-chancellor, AUW, Rehana Khan, director for admission, and Omar Shareef, chief operation officer.
Explaining the ground of the expulsion order, Mary J Sansalone told New Age that the AUW sat individually with the parents.
‘Unfortunately there was no way to allow them to continue their academic career. The expelled would not get any certificate; however, we would give the academic transcript,’ informed Mary.
Replying to a question, the vice-chancellor said the AUW had a very rigorous curriculum and they could not compromise their high standard of academic excellence.
Omar Shareef, chief operation officer, supplied a copy of grading system (August 2010) to the newsmen at the meeting.
The copy contained no signature or date of issuance from the authorities either. It reads: if a student’s GPA for a semester falls below a 2.0, the following action can be taken: a warning can be issued and the students’ performance would be closely monitored through the next semester or the student can be suspended for one semester or one year or the student can be expelled.
Khaleda Sultana, a student of AUW who was expelled on January 1, 2011, for poor academic performance, told New Age that there was no such provision of expulsion in ‘Student Handbook for Second Year Undergraduate Students 2010-2011’.
‘The AUW is running without any transparent or concrete policy. The policy they follow is choppy and changing. We managed to collect a copy of Grading System August 2010 which reads that teachers should not share Grading System August 2010 with the Students, given the faculty will use different approaches to using percentage’, added Khaleda.
Mentionable that the expelled students are of the first batch of AUW, which was set up in 2008.
Of the 12 expelled students, two are from Sri Lanka, one from India and the rest nine from Bangladesh.
The university students went on demonstrations on Thursday following an expulsion order served by the AUW authorities on June 12 on behalf of the then provost Mary J Sansalone.
Since the inception of the university, more than fifteen professors and teachers have been fired and two deans have resigned without fulfilling their terms.
More than nine professors and writing assistants were fired while on vacation in 2010, while five access academy teachers were fired later the same year.
-With New Age input
