Colombo University student violence:

University teachers call for stern action

The University of Colombo Arts Faculty Teachers Association (AFTA-CU) in a media release issued yesterday called for stern action against students resorting to violence in the University. During a clash between two groups of students on July 21, 2009 extensive damage was caused to the University property. In addition, teachers who intervened to hold the unfolding violence were verbally abused and physically threatened.

The AFTA-CU has called for the expulsion of the ring leaders and decisive punishment for participants in the violence. They also demand that damages to University property be charged from the students involved or from student welfare funds for the next two years.

"We note with dismay that an unruly minority segment of the student body has been able to cripple the teaching activities of the University of Colombo simply because they have opted to extreme violence as the first resort in solving differences which seem less than minor at best," the AFTA-CU media release said.

The text of the release: "As the country has been informed through the national media by now, two student-factions in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Colombo resorted to extreme forms of violence on July 21, 2009 causing injury to fellow students and extensive damage to university property. This has resulted in the closure of the Faculty to all undergraduates except final year students. This situation, which has been evolving since last Friday and reached its climax on July 21 was finally brought under control after riot police were summoned to the University.

In this incident, not only were students injured and damage caused to public property, but academic staff of the university who attempted to intervene to halt the unfolding violence were verbally abused and threatened with physical violence in the most unpleasant language. Since such situations have been emerging in the Faculty over and over, threatening the lives of teachers, students and other staff, we urge that the authorities in the Faculty as well as the University take decisive action at this juncture that will send a very clear message to both students and citizens in the country whose funds maintain the University.

Since this incident marks a serious deterioration in the intellectual conditions in the Faculty and poses a threat to the wellbeing of both academic staff and students, AFTA-CU's Executive Committee which met at 12.00 noon July 22, 2009 resolved to make its position clear to both students as well as citizens of the country by issuing a statement of protest. We note with dismay that an unruly minority segment of the student body has been able to cripple the teaching activities of the University of Colombo simply because they have opted to extreme violence as the first resort in solving differences which seem less than minor at best. It is unfortunate to see such primordial actions in a Faculty which is supposed to be a seat of advanced learning.

In addition to a breakdown of the learning environment which has been facilitated by the silence of the great majority of students who also collectively suffer as a consequence of the actions of a minority, this state of affairs also reflects a larger malaise affecting our society at large where institutionalized political violence has been accepted as a normative form of governance and control by most political formations active in national politics. What we have seen at the Faculty of Arts is a reflection of this larger breakdown of ethics and common sense in our country.

AFTA-CU would also like to urge the Dean of the Faculty to reactivate without delay the Faculty-Student Liaison (Grievance) Committee that was set up some time ago with representation from students and academic staff as a viable mechanism to institute a dialogue and address emerging problems before they reach a boiling point."