Make room for freshers in JU halls

It is unfortunate that students of the 2022-23 academic year in Jahangirnagar University could not start their classes in person because the university administration could not provide them with accommodation facilities in the residential halls. The students had to start their classes online, on November 30, having waited for five months since their admission test. While the administration previously said they would start classes after opening the newly-built residential halls for freshers, they apparently failed to do it. Meanwhile, more than 500 seats in various halls remain occupied by non-students tied with Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), according to a report by Prothom Alo. The question is: why didn't the university evict outsiders to make room for freshers?

At present, JU has 17 old residential halls as well as four new ones that have been inaugurated recently. Why couldn't the administration make accommodation facilities for the newcomers in these halls? Moreover, why can't they evict the non-student cadres of BCL? Reportedly, earlier this year, the administration ordered them to vacate the seats they were occupying "within seven days." Seven months have passed since then, but no one did so or was expelled from the halls. Why? According to a teacher of JU, the administration does not want to drive them out because it uses them to run the university and to suppress dissent, which is not surprising at all.

Over the past 15 years, we have seen how unruly members of the ruling party's student wing have ruined the educational environment in most of our public universities. The BCL leaders—many of whom are non-students—not only keep the residential halls under control by forcing general students to abide by their rules, but also engage in seat trades and have cultivated the gono (mass) room culture for their own interests. The situation is so dire that sometimes it seems as if it is the BCL members—and not university authorities—that run public residential halls and campuses.

Recently, we have seen how BCL goons have attacked a journalist at Chittagong University, and held the JU vice-chancellor hostage at his office for about two hours for not appointing a certain BCL leader as teacher. They are also engaged in all types of criminal activities, including mugging and extortion. But strangely, nothing is being done to prevent them by the university administrations or the higher authorities. And it is the general students who are suffering as a result. The BCL, therefore, must be reined in to improve the overall educational environment of our public universities. And at JU, we urge the authorities to take stern action against the outsiders and solve its accommodation crisis.