Ex-students still occupying seats at DU dorms

Dhaka University logo.

A huge number of students, who had graduated from Dhaka University years ago, are still staying at its Ziaur Rahman Hall illegally, a house tutor of the dormitory said at a meeting with top university officials yesterday.  

All first-year students, who have been allotted seats at the hall, can be provided with accommodation if these illegal occupants are driven out, a meeting source quoted the tutor, ATM Shamsuzzoha, as saying.

“Even students of 2008-09 academic session are staying at the dormitory.

The situation is almost the same at most other dormitories of the university … They are staying there illegally under different banners [of various student organisations],” the tutor said.

He was speaking at the view-exchange meeting attended by DU Vice Chancellor Prof Akhtaruzzaman, two pro-VCs, and the provosts and house tutors of all the 19 halls at the Senate Building.  

The DU authorities convened such a meeting after more than 12 years amid growing concern among students and guardians about security at university dormitories following the killing of Buet student Abrar Fahad.

Abrar was beaten to death by a group of Buet unit Chhatra League leaders and activists at its Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 7.

“We asked them [the illegal occupants] to leave the hall by October 30… What will we do if they don’t leave after the deadline?” Shamsuzzoha questioned at the meeting.

The teacher further said the regular students are being deprived of different facilities as the reading rooms of dormitories and libraries are occupied by “influential” non-students.

On October 9, the DU authorities issued a notice asking students to leave dormitories within 15 days of completing their Master’s degree examinations.

Defying the notice, hundreds of such students, mostly affiliated with pro-ruling party student body BCL, are still staying at male dormitories, several teachers and students told this newspaper. 

At the meeting, at least two teachers alleged that many of the house tutors do not visit their halls regularly.

“We tried to oust the former students, who have been staying illegally at the hall, several times but we had to fall back, which was uncomfortable for us as teachers,” the meeting source quoted Shahidul Hasan, a house tutor of Kabi Jasimuddin Hall, as saying.

Shahidul told the meeting that they sometimes felt helpless and were ashamed of holding the post of house tutors.

Jewel Mia, a house tutor of Bijoy Ekattor Hall, proposed that every hall should maintain an online data base on students so that the authorities could know with a single click about those staying there illegally.

Another teacher told the meeting that the time has come to analyse whether the university authorities are making efforts to fulfil the students’ expectations.

AKM Iftekharul Islam, a house tutor of Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall, said when a student gets admitted to the university, he is deprived of the right to stay at a hall because of non-students.

Following the meeting, the DU VC in a press statement said the hall authorities must make collaborative efforts to solve the problems that have been piling up at dormitories for years.

Non-students should not be allowed to stay at the dormitories, the VC said, adding that seats should be allotted among the first-year students on the basis of merit.

The VC further said the hall authorities should engage the hall sangsads in their initiatives. He also requested the house tutors to visit all floors of the dormitories regularly.

Meanwhile, the DU authorities suspended four students for possessing drugs and firearms.

They are Hasibur Rahman, fourth-year student of Institute of Education and Research; Imran Hossain, fourth-year student of World Religion and Culture; Iftekharul Islam Tusher, fourth-year student of Pali and Buddhist studies; and Abu Bakar Alif, first-year student of Philosophy.

The university authorities served show-cause notices on the four, asking them to explain why they would not be expelled from the DU. They have been given a week to reply.

Earlier on October 8, Hasibur and Alif were arrested with yaba pills, a pistol and sharp weapons from Mohsin Hall of the university.