TWO news items occupying the lead status in the New Nation on Monday were exclusively focused on Jahangirnagar University which had mixed impacts on the readers mind. One of the reports was on the appointment of the first-ever female Vice-Chancellor of the country at Jahangirnagar University — undoubtedly a milestone in the academic history. It has not only removed gender disparity at the highest seat of learning, it also proved that the nation is moving fast to achieve all its socio-economic transformations in a democratic polity.
As we see, in our poor political journey to democracy, though we have inherited two female leaders as the heads of government, but the overall administrative controls remain in the hand of the male dominated administrative system. The appointment of Dr Farzana Islam as the Vice- Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University will undoubtedly go a long way to inspire more such appointments at other important places to free our society from a gender-biased political attitude.
Moreover, most previous VCs of the Jahangirnagar University had come from outside and were essentially based on political loyalty to the government. Prof. Farzana is the first VC appointed not only from within the varsity, she is also elected by the Senate as one of the three-member panel from which the VC is appointed by the President. We also believe Prof Farzana’s appointment may further encourage more democratic selection of VCs at other universities from elected panels instead of direct appointments based on political considerations.
The other story of the day related to a noisy factional clash between the cadres of two groups of the ruling party backed Bangladesh Chhatra League. They locked in fights over extortion and such other criminal activities which were enough to give a bad start to the new VC to remind her of the challenges that lie ahead.
One may not be wrong at all to say that the two former VCs of the varsity Prof Shariff Enamul Kabir and Prof Anwar Hossain almost totally destroyed the varsity academic environment and political peace using the party backed student groups to stay in power. Teachers were agitating for their removal while one group of students was fighting another to maintain their control on the campus and run extortions without challenge from others. Ruling party politicization is at its highest now when Prof Farzana has taken over with the daunting task to return the varsity to serious academic exercises in one hand and restore political co-existence among student groups on the other.
Public expectations from her are too high and while we welcome her appointment we also wish her success in meeting the new challenges to set a new example for other universities that given the dedication and apolitical outlook, a university may regain its glory again as the highest seat of learning instead of killing and such other crimes. Parents send their wards to the varsity to become worthy citizens and build a professional career which are unfortunately missing at most of our public universities at the moment. We would like to see that the VC Farzana will be able to bring the change.
