By Tony Hiriasia Jnr
The University of the South Pacific (USP), Laucala Campus is currently under the spotlight, due to a strike organised by the USP Fiji-based staff union, demanding the resignation of the current vice chancellor and president Pal Ahluwalia.
The strike has raised some serious concerns amongst students, as staff members were out in numbers on Friday to participate in the strike.
The president of the Admin and Support staff unit at Laucala Campus, Ruben Colata highlighted the dissatisfaction of staffs with the current leadership of the university as one of the major issues prompting the strike.
“We are dissatisfied with the current leadership of the university,” he said. “Even though we protested, they had the vote, he got an extra three votes to continue with a two-year contract after turning 65 years old, which is a retirement age at the university, but the council still gave him two years”.
Employees of the Suva-based regional university are urging the university council to conduct an investigation on the vice chancellor. As concerns have been raised over the extension of the vice chancellor’ probe, many employees believe that the delay in the investigation is impeding efforts to address their complaints and rebuild administrative trust.
“We just wanted the vice chancellor to be investigated and move on from the university because he has taken the university down, students and staff numbers have declined over the past years and staffs are doing extra work without any pay,” said Colata.
“The investigation is taking too long, when we had the strike mandate, they convinced the council to meet in September to do an investigation, but it’s been a month now and we are still uninformed about the investigation”, he added.
“We want the investigation to go on as soon as possible and we want the vice chancellor to go on leave to allow the investigation to go ahead and to ensure good governance”.
Students have also shed light on the current issue affecting the University of the South Pacific – with many expressing their frustrations over the disruption to their education.
“My personal take on the situation is that the timing is unfavourable, they should have carried out the strike few weeks ago or maybe after the final exam”, said Alphonce Ngasi a second-year student at USP.
“We are approaching the final exams, and these remaining weeks are very important for both students and lecturers to focus on academic related activities, the strike has diverted the attention of the staff,” he added.
“I think the strike is for a good cause because this issue has fallen on deaf ears and it has been an ongoing issue for couple of years now,” said Nathan Baravilala, a final year student at the university.
“Its not the first time that the staff has been fighting for something that has been long overdue, vice chancellor and the council need take a reality check and ask themselves why this is happening,” he said.
The University of the South Pacific strike is expected to continue into the coming days given that administration is still at a standstill.
While university management has not yet offered a viable solution, staff members are still adamant about their demands. The students are anxiously watching the strike unfold as examinations week approaches.
