AMU: Faculty members raise issue of delay in appointing teachers’ representatives

ALIGARH: A group of senior faculty members of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has written to the Vice-Chancellor expressing concern over the delay in the appointment of teachers’ representatives in administrative bodies, including the University Court and the Executive Council.

In their letter, the 25 faculty members pointed out that apart from the representation of teachers in such statutory bodies, the elections to the AMU Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) have now been pending for more than three years now. The issue stemmed from the lockdown period during the pandemic and has still not been addressed though normal functioning of the institution restarted several months back, they said.

While elections for selecting teachers to the University Court have been pending since May 2018, the election for teachers’ representatives to the Executive Council was to be held on April 2021, the letter said. The election to vacant seats of the Academic Council has been pending since May 2020, it said.

The election to the AMUTA was scheduled to be held in October this year after a gap of three years but at the last minute, it was postponed on technical grounds, it added. The signatories to the letter included Dr. Naved Khan, Prof Mohd Shameem, Prof Mohd Khalid, Dr. M Arshad Bari, Prof Yogendra, Dr. Musavvir Ali and Dr. Ashraf Mateen. According to a spokesman of the teachers’ group, they are now awaiting a response from the AMU Vice Chancellor on this matter.