Ambedkar varsity V-C meets faculty amid protests to resolve issues
A committee of Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD) officials will prepare a report on the basis of the issues discussed with the AUDFA
The vice chancellor of Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD) met faculty members on Friday, to discuss several long-standing issues that teachers had been protesting about since Monday. The primary demand upheld by the AUD Faculty Association (AUDFA) was immediate revocation of punishment transfers, allegedly handed out by the university administration to one non-faculty member and one faculty member.
A letter written by AUDFA to the VC on Monday, regarding their issues and demands included alleged denial of promotion, demotion without substantial reasoning as well as gender and caste-based discrimination. AUDFA members had been staging a relay hunger strike from Tuesday in the Kashmiri Gate campus of the university.
An AUD official, speaking on Saturday, stated that every issue was discussed in detail during the meeting, with AUDFA members and senior university officials present. “AUDFA members were satisfied with the solution on all the points. The VC directed for the topics on which additional action was required,” the official added.
Key among the discussions was the punishment transfer of a non-teaching staff member, who had also complained to a dean for allegedly making discriminatory comments based on gender and caste, AUDFA members said. “We have been told that the report of the committee will be out in the next two to three days. Regarding the punishment transfer of a fellow professor, the VC has said that she will meet the professor and resolve the issue very soon,” said an AUDFA member.
AUD officials also discussed with teachers other long-pending issues like pending promotions. AUDFA members said that they have been assured that a committee will be formed immediately, and all pending promotions will be addressed within the next two weeks.
AUDFA members also informed that the management admitted to anomalies in the structure of the Internal Complaints Committee that considered the faculty member’s complaint of gender-based harassment and reported that she was not given a hearing because a preliminary inquiry considered the complaint not valid enough for a such an inquiry.
Meanwhile, childcare leaves for employees, medical facilities, upgradation of infrastructure in the current four campuses of AUD and construction of the two new permanent campuses of the university at Dheerpur and Rohini were also discussed in the meeting.
Another member of the teachers’ association said, “The AUD administration has made many promises to the faculty members in the meeting. We just need to keep following up to make sure the issues are resolved in real-time. As of now, the protest will be temporarily halted pending the report’s release.”