Making his first public appearance of note since students started a campaign to remove him, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) Vice-Chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed on Monday pledged to make the institution "100 per cent student-friendly".
SUST VC said this while attending a celebration for the 31st founding anniversary of SUST at Gol Chattar area in the campus.
He said, ”We have come out of the things that were embarrassing for the university with everyone’s joint effort and regained our honour. SUST has 99.99 percent of good governance that a university should have.”
“Students can make mistakes but teachers will have to be forgiving towards them. We teachers will always support the students,” he added.
The founding anniversary of SUST was celebrated at the campus along with different festivities of Pohela Falgun, reports UNB.
At 1000 am VC Farid Uddin Ahmed and Treasurer Dr Anwarul Islam hoisted the national flag and university flag in front of academic building -2.
After placing a wreath at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's mural, a gorgeous rally was brought out on the campus.
The general students however did not attend the rally, apart from members of Bangladesh Chhatra League.
After remaining shut for around a month SUST announced it would resume all its academic activities online from Tuesday after the students suspended their movement demanding resignation of VC Farid Uddin Ahmed on Saturday.
The residential halls for students were reopened Monday following a decision made at the emergency syndicate meeting on Sunday.
SUST authority announced a shutdown following a clash on the campus between police and the protesting students on January 16. The students were asked to leave the dormitories by 12pm the next day.
The police action on the students triggered a long protest and hunger strike in campus rejecting the authority’s orders.
The students of SUST suspended their movement on Saturday following a successful meeting with Education Minister Dipu Moni on Friday.
They suspended the protest after VC Farid Uddin Ahmed expressed regret over the police action on protesting students on January 16 and apologised earlier on Saturday.
On Friday, regarding the students' demand for VC's resignation, Dipu Moni said it will be placed before the President as he is the Chancellor of the university, holding the power to appoint and remove someone from the post of VC.
Regarding the two cases filed against the protesting students, she said arrangements will be made to withdraw those cases as soon as possible.
The protests began in the middle of January. Over two dozen SUST students who went on fast unto death ended their strike on January 26. They broke the fast after former SUST Prof Zafar Iqbal intervened.
The students embarked on the hunger strike on the university campus on January 19, demanding the resignation of the VC over the police crackdown on their fellows.
The strike was launched after police swooped on the protesting students, charging batons and firing sound grenades and shotgun bullets. On the other hand, the police had filed a case against 300 unnamed protesting students.
The alleged attack was carried out to free the VC from confinement in the university’s IICT building, and it had left 40 people hurt, including teachers, students and cops.
