NEHU (North-Eastern Hill University) impasse over Vice-Chancellor continues

A REPORTER

SHILLONG: The North Eastern Hill University Teacher Association (NEHUTA) and Meghalaya Tribal Teacher's Association (MeTTA-NEHU) has expressed their deep concern at the inordinate and inexplicable delay in the appointment of a suitable selected candidate as new Vice-Chancellor of NEHU, which is in the process for at least last few months back.

"As we understand from media reports that the search cum selection committee for appointment of Vice-Chancellor has completed its job since long and the file is stuck at some administrative level without the new incumbent being announced at the right earnest,'' said NEHUTA general secretary Dr. Marbhador M. Khymdeit .

He added that both the associations have reiterated that in the absence of a new Vice-Chancellor, the progress of the university is practically stalled, as NEHU suffers from serious administrative, academic and financial lapses over the last five years that brought down the status and the rank of the University.

"Given such an unwarranted slide of NEHU, the earliest central university for the north-eastern region, the cause of higher education and specialized and professional training of talents from the region and the state of Meghalaya is stunted, as the institutional frame has wilted during the tenure of Prof.S.K.Srivastava,'' he said.

He further stated that it was highly expected of the Ministry of Education to complete the statutory procedure of appointment of a new VC, as the process is completed by the search-cum-selection committee long back.

"Now that the new Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has taken charge, it is incumbent upon his good office to appoint a new VC for NEHU, as the last step at the end of the process of search cum selection. The panel is with the Ministry and it is of utmost necessity that the Ministry appoints the right candidate with the specific necessary qualification that is needed to lead the University from its present state of freefall,'' he said, adding that ''the Association once again reiterate that NEHU needs a Vice-Chancellor who is familiar with the specific ethnocultural and linguistic background of the state of Meghalaya and the north-eastern region, so that the appropriately qualified candidate can correct the course of NEHU, to which it has deviated, leaving the right course of progress and development.

"NEHU needs a qualified Vice-Chancellor from the local community who is grounded in the specific reality of the University and its cultural context so that students coming from the myriad ethnic, tribal and non-ethnic background of the north-eastern region and other parts of the country can be given due care and attention for the bright future, which requires a direct connect,'' he said adding that ''in all likelihood, any academician coming from outside the region and removed from local cultural context shall not be able to establish the needed connection with students and the larger academic fraternity.

"Keeping in mind the unique matrilineal ethos of Meghalaya and the need for a healing touch to NEHU after nearly six years of not such an uplifting experience, we request the Union Government and the newly appointed Minister of Education to kindly consider the case of a tribal woman Professor, who figures in the consideration of search cum selection committee so that NEHU gets a VC who can not only lead but can bring in a healing effect to the mismanaged affairs of the University and can take it to the path of progress and all-round development,'' he said.

"The Association also reminded the Union Government of its commitment towards NEHU objective of social, cultural, scientific and economic development of the tribal people of the Northeast and Meghalaya that calls for the appointment of an acceptable, qualified and reasonably academically endowed person as VC, who can also strike the much-needed gender balance in a predominantly matrilineal social context that provides the catchment for students and researchers in NEHU.

''We demand the immediate appointment of qualified local tribal woman professor as VC of NEHU, without any further delay, in the best interest of the university and the society. The demand is raised considering the all-around positive impact of such an appointment, purely from the academic interest and the interest of future of NEHU,'' he pointed out.

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