UPNG move to resume semester classes ignored

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Students at the University of Papua New Guinea have decided to continue their boycott of classes despite calls from the university administration for some classes to resume this week.

The students protests, which began on May 2, are calling on the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, to step down and face corruption allegations.

Last week, the university said classes at the school of medicine and health sciences would recommence on Monday while classes at the Waigani campus were to begin next Tuesday.

But a student leader, Gerald Tulu Manu-Peni, says the Students’ Representative Council met with medical students and it was agreed that the boycott would continue.

Manu-Peni, who was at the medical campus Monday morning, says classes were empty and everyone was attending a public forum.

“We had a meeting with them and the outcome was that we will still not attend class. We will not attend class although it may have whatever ramifications, academic ramifications against us.

“We believe that what we are doing is for the good of this nation and that is why we can put our education on the line.”

“It is to maintain the momentum of our campaign and maintain the solidarity and support of the students to continue on with the boycott. As it is the majority of them through their student leaders who have expressed their desire, so we are just facilitating.”

UPNG acting Chancellor Dr Nicholas Mann has reiterated that any students who refuse to return to classes this week and next week will be held responsible for his or her own actions.

Dr Mann said this after student leaders claimed that students will continue boycott of classes despite the uplifting of the suspension of the semester and the university council’s appeal for students to return to classes.

Dr Mann announced last week the Council’s decision to lift the 10-day suspension after the six-week-long student boycott of classes.

He said the decision to lift the suspension still stands and students have been asked to return to classes this week for health and medical science students at the Taurama campus and next week for students studying on main Waigani campus.

The chancellor also said that in the meantime, public meetings, including news conferences by students that are to be held on campus, must be cleared by the university administration, as this was the standard practice.

Representative Council president Kenneth Rapa said the majority of students would continue the boycott.

He claimed that only a handful of students wanted to return to classes.

“Our fight was for Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to step down from office – it was not about the suspension of semester and resumption of classes,” he said.

“I am also a member of the University Council and I have no knowledge of the meeting to lift the suspension.

“There is no referendum conducted between the students, through the SRC, and the university to lift the suspension.

“So whose interest is the Council serving?

“We now see that the Council is becoming a puppet and has been used by some forces outside of the university’s jurisdiction to attack the students.”

Rapa said students at UPNG and sister universities would continue the boycott of classes and would continue to reside on campus because the court had stayed the Council’s decision to evict them.

Meanwhile, the University of Technology academic year will not be suspended despite the students’ boycott of classes heading into its sixth week.

Unitech vice-chancellor Dr Albert Schram said yesterday that the management of the campus in Lae can tolerate a five-week student boycott but six weeks was “stretching matters”.

Dr Schram said the boycott, spearheaded by the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), followed a valid and lawful referendum and complied with the SRC constitution.

He said the Unitech management including the National Academic Staff Association (NASA), the SRC and the University Council and management have a shared interest in successfully completing the academic year while dealing with the current boycott.

- RNZI/PNC