In a collective effort, 51 faculty members of The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) submitted a representation to the registrar yesterday, November 8, expressing concern over the events that have been transpiring on the campus over the last few weeks.
The faculty members, in a statement released to the press, say that the representation “shared our anguish at the incident of assault and the subsequent events on our campus.”
“It expressed our solidarity with the students in their fight for justice and called for serious efforts on all sides to resolve the situation,” the faculty members further disclose and say that the representation put forward certain demands.
What do faculty members demand?
In the representation, the faculty members call for the EFLU administration to:
- Ensure that the police enquiry into the incident of sexual assault is conducted fairly and without further delay
- Conduct an immediate internal enquiry into the defamation of two faculty members in an FIR
- Withdraw the two FIRs filed against students, one of which also mentions the names of two faculty members immediately
- Withdraw the show-cause notices issued to students
- Withdraw the police personnel from the campus immediately
- Conduct an immediate enquiry into students’ allegations of sexual harassment by some faculty members by a properly constituted Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) with student representatives
A recap
On October 18, a student of EFLU was allegedly physically and sexually assaulted by two unknown men on the campus. Following this, students have staged an agitation on the campus, demanding the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Prof E Suresh Kumar, the (now former) Proctor T Samson, and the Proctorial board, as well as justice for the victim.
When the students staged a hunger strike on November 7, it was reported that they were detained by the police, who entered the campus. Students from Osmania University and the Hyderabad Central University, who arrived at EFLU to show solidarity, were also detained.
