BNU Students Present Charter Of Demands To Admin

Lahore: A delegation of students from the School of Liberal Arts (SLA) at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU) submitted on Friday a charter of demands to the administration. Wearing black clothes to register their protest against the proposed merger of their department with the School of Social Sciences (SSS) and the termination of their Dean Naveed Shahzad, the students said they were committed to opposing the merger and were awaiting the administration's response to their demands.


However, BNU Vice Chancellor Sartaj Aziz said he held a meeting with the faculty of SLA and informed them that the merger decision is still under consideration and a final decision would be taken in the next few days after a meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG).

Painted black: Students wearing black clothes continued their protest inside the campus and put up posters all over the university against the merger, in favour of Naveed Shahzad, suggesting a merger with the School of Media and Communication and against the mostly-economists BoG. One of the students said that they had submitted their demands in writing to formally register their protest. In the charter the students said other departments should also be merged along with the current merger, importance be given to subjects pertaining to liberal arts as BNU claimed to be a liberal arts university, they are satisfied with their dean's performance and she should be restored, include people with knowledge of liberal arts in the BoG, tell the students the administration's clear plans about their claims of promoting Naveed Shahzad, and in case of her replacement someone of equal or higher capabilities should take over as the dean.

Degrees: The student said their main concern was the status of their degrees after the merger. A female student said most of the SLA students and those from other departments also supported them, while they were concerned that their departments would also be merged soon. She alleged that the administration was warning them that their protests would not bear any fruit, adding that it was unfair different tactics were being used to stop them. Sartaj Aziz said both the administration and the students were satisfied, adding that they would soon resolve the university's administrative and financial matters and call the BoG meeting soon. He said no department would be eliminated but would function under a common dean. A BNU faculty member said that they informed the VC that the merger was not in the favour of the varsity, department or the students. He said the SLA faculty was upset for not being taken into confidence before deciding to merge the two departments. Daily times