Respect students – UG VC warns lecturers

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, has cautioned lecturers of the university to show respect to students after violent protests at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Speaking at the official launch of 4th College of Humanities International Research Conference, the Vice-chancellor said both the Otumfuo and all persons who toured the KNUST campus Wednesday were left in shock.

“Going to KNUST yesterday was a great lesson for me…to be honest we were shocked at the extent of the damage. So we picked great lessons and one of them being the fact that those of us in management and those of us teaching the students should try and look for innovative ways of engaging these students.

“If you are a lecturer and you are teaching these students in the classroom, or in the laboratory, courtesy demands that you must show enormous respect to the students…we do not want what happened at KNUST to happen here at the University of Ghana…I will not sit for things to escalate.”

Prof. Owusu, however, charged students to use the appropriate means to address their grievances and not resort to violence.

“For you the students, the advice is that you use all possible means, all the internal mechanisms to address your grievances, you have no business going violent and destroying properties. Immediately we get the hint, I get the intelligence report that you are going, the university will be closed before you start your demonstration,” Prof. Owusu said.

The comments by the VC of the University of Legon comes days after students at the KNUST went on rampage and destroyed properties in excess of GHC1.6 million.

The students were protesting what they described as brutalities meted out to them by campus security and a lack of respect by the universities authorities.

source: starrfmonline