TU on its part would have been wise if it had not left any room for misunderstanding regarding its revised fee structure in 2009, and strong enough to enforce the revised fee structure. When Nepal Students Union, one of the student unions protesting the fee-hike moved to court, the court ruled that TU could charge the revised fee structure only to the new students. But, TU argued that once students reached the second year, they are treated as new and as such they have to pay the new fee structure. Campus chiefs, being TU staff, had to go with the TU policy and charge the students accordingly. For the student unions, this became an opportune time to make their presence felt, and instead of solving the problems in a civilized manner, they resorted to acts quite unfitting to students anywhere in the world.
Not only the campus chiefs were locked in their offices, some were dragged out of their offices and subjected to humiliating treatment such as smearing soot on their faces. In the past too, student unions have abused the campus chiefs and teachers verbally and physically. Burning up libraries, beating up professors, locking campus chiefs in their offices have become so common that one is forced to ask what has gotten into our students these days. Could it be because of over politicization of academia?
It is a given that student unions have to stand up for students’ rights and interests, and it happens in numerous colleges and universities worldwide. However, in other parts of the world, we seldom hear of students beating professors or burning their college libraries. They talk, they negotiate and when they have to compromise, they compromise. In Nepal, it is exactly the opposite. Instead of solving problems in a civilized manner, students backed by political parties, resort to violence. Not long ago, student union affiliated with the UCPN (Maoist) physically abused the vice-chancellor of TU Dr Madhav Prasad Sharma.
To avoid such incidents in the future, TU should hold discussions with the leaders of various student unions, so that there is no room for confusion or misunderstandings later on. Political parties too should not turn a blind eye to the excesses of their student unions and discourage them to act in an uncivilized manner. Let our institutions of higher learning be places of higher learning, and nothing else.
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