BANGLADESH NEWS
President Zillur Rahman on Tuesday appointed Prof Anwar Hossain as the vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University for four years from an elected three-member panel.
Confirming the appointment, the VC told that his first priority would be to work together with his colleagues of different opinions. "Those who were demonstrating withdrew their programmes showing respects to the court order. I am very much thankful to them."
He also said he would take initiative to reform the academic council, the highest decision making body of academic affairs of the university, and hold the long-due elections to the deans and syndicate.
Prof Anwar said three other universities - Dhaka University, Chittagong University and Rajshahi University - that follow the 1973 order should hold the VC panel elections to uphold the dignity of the university law.
The JU Senate members on July 20 elected the panel amid agitation from a section of teachers in the first-ever VC panel polls during the Awami League-led government.
Prof Shariff Enamul Kabir, the immediate-past VC who was forced to resign in May following protests by students and teachers, bagged the highest 50 votes. Incumbent VC Prof Anwar got 38 votes while Prof Nurul Alam, a physics teacher, 37 votes.
Earlier on May 17, Prof Shariff finally stepped down as vice-chancellor of the university, ending a months-long standoff and unrest on the campus.
Soon after his resignation, President Zillur Rahman, also the chancellor of the university, appointed Prof Anwar, professor of biochemistry at Dhaka University, as the new vice-chancellor of JU.
Apart from indiscriminately chopping down trees over the last three years, Prof Shariff leased out the university lakes, compromising the beauty of the campus, teachers and students had alleged.
During his tenure, he appointed over 196 teachers, many of whom were less qualified and selected on political considerations.
The authorities under his administration also allowed the admission of 78 ward-quota-admission seekers who even failed to get the pass marks in the 2011-12 session.
Teachers and students started demanding his removal after the murder of Zubair Ahmed, a student of the English department, by some BCL activists on Jan 9.
It is alleged that those involved in the murder received Prof Shariff's blessings on many occasions.
On 10 March, a large number of teachers and students of the university joined in force to gear up the movement.
Under the banner of Shikkhak Samaj, agitating teachers enforced a strike in the university while students launched a fast-unto-death on April 24 demanding the ouster of Prof Shariff.
On May 4, teachers postponed their demonstration on assurances from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that she would look into the matter. The day before, Hasina separately met the pro-VC and anti-VC factions at her Gono Bhaban residence in efforts to end the crisis.
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