Suspension of students illegal, says IUSF

Charges against the 72 students who were suspended in the UvaWellassa University are baseless as demanding students’ rights is in no way an act of ‘ragging’, the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) charged yesterday.

According to IUSF Convener Sanjeewa Bandara, the 72 undergraduates who were suspended on the very day of the campus reopening on Thursday had been charged under the Prohibition of

Instead of providing effective solutions to students’ demands, the university administration had taken steps to suspend students

Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Educational Institutions Act (No. 20 of 1998). “These students had not engaged in any act of ragging act. The suspension is just a reaction to the students’ protest against the administration’s laxity regarding the students,” Bandara said. He said the students had been protesting against the delay in examination results, inability to organize a students’ union within the university as well as against the university administration’s decision to fix fingerprint machines to mark attendance of students for lectures.

“Instead of providing effective solutions to students’ demands, the university administration had taken steps to suspend students who were involved in the protest against ignorant attitudes concern- ing the students’ grievances,” Bandara added. The Uva –Wellassa campus was closed following a clash on August 9 and was reopened for academic activities on August 16.