Presidency University to set up COVID task force to decide reopening date, after students scale front gate and demand classes

Presidency University in Kolkata has assured protesting students that the administration will soon form a task force to decide on the reopening of campus. The Dean of Students told the students, after they broke into campus on September 3, that the committee will include students and faculty as well.

The students scaled the main gate to get inside the campus on Friday after the authorities refused to let them in. "This is our campus. We are the most important part of the university. Why won't we be let in? We had no plans for a protest of any sort. We were going to the university for an open forum where we discuss ideas, perform songs, poems, etc. But when we reached, we saw that that the gates were locked. Soon, some police officers arrived. I don't know who sent them or if they came on their own. Even the police requested the administration to open the gates. When they did not comply we scaled the gates," said Atmajit Mukherjee, a second-year PG student on Bengali at the varsity.

The Dean of Students, Dr Arun Kumar Maiti finally met the students. "He told us that Presidency will also have a committee like Jadavpur University and Calcutta University that will decide when to resume classes. This committee will also have students and faculty members as students," added Atmajit.

While the varsity is maintaining a strict policy before even letting the faculty in, the front gate was jam-packed with students on Friday. The visuals are proof that there was no social distancing maintained. The students said that this situation would not have arisen if the varsity allowed them inside in the first place.