JNUTA observes black day to protest against decisions taken during academic council meeting

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Wednesday observed a 'black day' in the campus to protest against decisions taken during the academic council meeting without any consultation.

Some teachers wore black bands to express their anger at the decisions taken in the meeting held on Tuesday.

They claimed that the meeting brought in "sweeping changes" in JNU without even an agenda being moved on several issues and without any deliberations or discussion on the floor of the academic council (AC).

"The AC meeting saw only a blatant abuse of office by the vice chancellor," the teachers alleged.

The JNUTA claimed that the proposal for the "School of Indian Traditional Music and Dance" was passed without any discussion.

The teachers also said the newly-elected students' union "was not invited to the meeting merely on the technical grounds of notification".

"During the course of the meeting, the vice chancellor kept mentioning that the M.Phil program will be scrapped very soon," the JNUTA claimed.

This elicited serious objections from the floor which were again pushed aside, it said.

No immediate reaction was available from the university.