CUET Students Call Monday Shutdown Protesting One-Day Routine Charge for Vice-Chancellor

Students at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) have called a one-day shutdown on Monday (November 2) in protest at Professor Kazi Delwar Hossain being given the vice-chancellor's routine duties for a single day. The programme was announced in an emergency statement on Sunday evening (November 1).

The students had returned to classes and examinations after a long deadlock, but the decision to hand over the vice-chancellor's duties for one day has sent them back to protest. They allege that such a decision in appointing a vice-chancellor raises questions about the university's administrative stability and academic environment.

Campus sources said that as Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Sheikh Shariful Alam went to Dhaka to attend a University Grants Commission (UGC) meeting, Professor Dr Kazi Delwar Hossain, dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, was given the vice-chancellor's routine administrative and academic duties for one day.

In an email, the vice-chancellor said he would be in Dhaka on November 2 to attend a government UGC meeting. To keep the university's administrative and academic activities normal during that time, Professor Delwar Hossain was requested and empowered, under statutory provisions, to perform the vice-chancellor's routine duties alongside his own. The charge took effect on the afternoon of November 1 and will remain with him until the evening of November 2.

The students announced that during the shutdown they will boycott all classes, examinations and any administrative activities run on the basis of the one-day vice-chancellor's routine charge. They also demonstrated on campus on Sunday afternoon.

The students said further programmes will be announced if their demands and objections are not properly considered.

On the matter, Professor Dr Kazi Delwar Hossain said, 'It is a regular issue.' He declined to say anything beyond that.

Earlier, on September 21, former CUET vice-chancellor Professor Dr Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem was removed and KUET Professor Dr Sheikh Shariful Alam was appointed as the new vice-chancellor. Protesting the appointment, CUET students, teachers, officers and employees have been observing shutdown and non-cooperation programmes since September 22.

The crisis over the reinstatement of the vice-chancellor has now passed 41 days. Campus sources said the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor Professor Sheikh Shariful Alam has not returned to campus even though a working day has passed after the Puja holiday.