Members of All Administrative Staff Association of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and faculty members have decided to boycott the university’s silver jubilee celebration scheduled for Sunday (July 19).
In a memorandum forwarded to the Governor and Chancellor of the university, they made made it clear that they would boycott the event. “The Vice-Chancellor, who will be demitting office on July 22, is conducting this celebration in a hasty manner for obvious reasons. Even as the administrative staff, who are being denied their retirement benefits, are suffering from untold agony, how can they expect us to participate in this celebration,” said G. Manickavasagam, president of MSU All Administrative Staff Association.
Though Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) has not taken any decision in this regard, its members were also not enthused about this celebration. “The administrative staff are undergoing the most agonizing phase of their service, as their retirement benefits are being denied. Some of them could not even meet their medical expenditure and we raised this issue in a few Senate meetings. Though MUTA is not at all happy with the present administration, we did not take any decision to boycott the event. Since it is being organised on a holiday, we’ll not participate in the celebration,” said R. Subbaraju, general secretary, MUTA.
When a circular from Registrar John De Britto announced that this Sunday would be treated as a working day, it triggered instant dissent from the teaching and non-teaching staff. Most of the Christian faculty members said Sunday (Sabbath) had been “commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest and worship or a day of religious observance and abstinence from work.” President of State Minorities Welfare Council Meeran Maideen told reporters in Nagercoil on Saturday that the function being organised by MSU on Sunday should be banned.
Dr. John De Britto said that his circular declaring the Sunday as working day had been altered. “Those who want to participate in the function may do so and it is not mandatory,” he said.
