18 April 2016
Dear Prof. John Ddumba Ssentamu,
As affected students of MISR, we have observed with deep-seated concern some challenges that we are confronted with, which if not addressed could derail the prospects of us achieving our academic goals. We, therefore, want to bring to your attention the following issues, hoping that your good office would work on them.
MISR has serious administrative challenges that need to be investigated immediately. Since MISR began in 2012 as a PhD programmes we have had unprecedented staff turn overs, and this has had serious implications for academic work at the institute. Lecturers are regularly leaving MISR because of the maladministration of Prof. Mamdani. Apart from institutional memory that is lost to the institute, supervision of students has been very challenging. There is no consistency since students have to work with different instructors as and when instructors leave.
We had a vibrant student union at MISR that was responsible for protecting the interest of MISR students, but the director of the institute conspired with some of his employee instructors to kill the student union. The student union was very responsible for ensuring that there is administrative sanity at the institute. Until 2015, students had no representation on decision-making boards at MISR. Grades were also arbitrarily changed to victimize students, who are/were not in the good books of Mamdani. However, since then the disbandment of the student’s body, which was addressing critical issues affecting students, student leaders as well as students, who were very active have either been victimized or are yet to be victimized. Some of these students have been called to Prof. Mamdani’s office and asked to apologize for their actions – or else! There were letters sent to these very students asking them to appear for disciplinary hearings before the Examinations Irregularities and Appeals committee at MISR, which is not legally mandated to hear disciplinary cases. When this failed because of legal intervention, these very students were called and threatened by Prof. Mamdani in his office. In addition, many of the so-called ‘dissident’ students are being victimized academically and their future is bleak at MISR.
Students who have challenges have done all they could to voice their concerns to the authorities of Makerere University, but sadly, no response has been given to students. This is precisely because Prof. Mamdani has blocked all possibilities for the bigger university to investigate into challenges confronting students at the institute.
Students who are perceived to be anti-Mamdani are intimidated and victimized by the director of MISR. We have had students who have lost their scholarship and were not given fair hearing on the repealing of their scholarship.
There are also serious conflicts of interest operating at MISR. For instance, one of the students is being supervised by his brother, who is now the Assistant Director at MISR.
One other major challenge at MISR, which renders Prof. Mamdani a demigod, is that there is no balance of power at MISR. The director employs some instructors who had not even graduated at the time of their appointment at MISR. These instructors are therefore vulnerable and they always have to follow the beck and call of Prof. Mamdani as a way of consolidating their position at MISR. Because these instructors remain at MISR at the mercy of Prof. Mamdani, they are unable to speak in defense of students even if students have their rights grossly violated. That these instructors depend entirely on Prof. Mamdani to even think is exemplified in the way they supervise students.
Several times, Prof. Mamdani has insisted that there is no democracy in the university. This, indeed, is emblematic of the way he mismanages MISR.
There is no scholarship contract between students and the institute. This gives the director the chance to use the scholarship to cajole and intimidate students. The absence of scholarship contract places students in a very precarious position. Students have to sing the praise songs of Prof. Mamdani in order to have their scholarship maintained. Those who refuse to kotow are intimidated.
As students, we are also concerned about the advertisement of the position of the director at MISR. Our concerns has to do with the change in the advertisement content that seems to provide a leeway for Prof. Mamdani to continue with his mismanagement of MISR. We would want the university to resolve the inconsistency and disparity between the first advertisement and the second one.
Since we support the MISR vision and would want the programme to be sustained, we would appreciate it if your office could respond to this petition and investigate into the issues we have raised. Here, we are requesting that student issues are included in the investigation that is to be done at MISR.
Dear Prof. John Ddumba Ssentamu,
As affected students of MISR, we have observed with deep-seated concern some challenges that we are confronted with, which if not addressed could derail the prospects of us achieving our academic goals. We, therefore, want to bring to your attention the following issues, hoping that your good office would work on them.
MISR has serious administrative challenges that need to be investigated immediately. Since MISR began in 2012 as a PhD programmes we have had unprecedented staff turn overs, and this has had serious implications for academic work at the institute. Lecturers are regularly leaving MISR because of the maladministration of Prof. Mamdani. Apart from institutional memory that is lost to the institute, supervision of students has been very challenging. There is no consistency since students have to work with different instructors as and when instructors leave.
We had a vibrant student union at MISR that was responsible for protecting the interest of MISR students, but the director of the institute conspired with some of his employee instructors to kill the student union. The student union was very responsible for ensuring that there is administrative sanity at the institute. Until 2015, students had no representation on decision-making boards at MISR. Grades were also arbitrarily changed to victimize students, who are/were not in the good books of Mamdani. However, since then the disbandment of the student’s body, which was addressing critical issues affecting students, student leaders as well as students, who were very active have either been victimized or are yet to be victimized. Some of these students have been called to Prof. Mamdani’s office and asked to apologize for their actions – or else! There were letters sent to these very students asking them to appear for disciplinary hearings before the Examinations Irregularities and Appeals committee at MISR, which is not legally mandated to hear disciplinary cases. When this failed because of legal intervention, these very students were called and threatened by Prof. Mamdani in his office. In addition, many of the so-called ‘dissident’ students are being victimized academically and their future is bleak at MISR.
Students who have challenges have done all they could to voice their concerns to the authorities of Makerere University, but sadly, no response has been given to students. This is precisely because Prof. Mamdani has blocked all possibilities for the bigger university to investigate into challenges confronting students at the institute.
Students who are perceived to be anti-Mamdani are intimidated and victimized by the director of MISR. We have had students who have lost their scholarship and were not given fair hearing on the repealing of their scholarship.
There are also serious conflicts of interest operating at MISR. For instance, one of the students is being supervised by his brother, who is now the Assistant Director at MISR.
One other major challenge at MISR, which renders Prof. Mamdani a demigod, is that there is no balance of power at MISR. The director employs some instructors who had not even graduated at the time of their appointment at MISR. These instructors are therefore vulnerable and they always have to follow the beck and call of Prof. Mamdani as a way of consolidating their position at MISR. Because these instructors remain at MISR at the mercy of Prof. Mamdani, they are unable to speak in defense of students even if students have their rights grossly violated. That these instructors depend entirely on Prof. Mamdani to even think is exemplified in the way they supervise students.
Several times, Prof. Mamdani has insisted that there is no democracy in the university. This, indeed, is emblematic of the way he mismanages MISR.
There is no scholarship contract between students and the institute. This gives the director the chance to use the scholarship to cajole and intimidate students. The absence of scholarship contract places students in a very precarious position. Students have to sing the praise songs of Prof. Mamdani in order to have their scholarship maintained. Those who refuse to kotow are intimidated.
As students, we are also concerned about the advertisement of the position of the director at MISR. Our concerns has to do with the change in the advertisement content that seems to provide a leeway for Prof. Mamdani to continue with his mismanagement of MISR. We would want the university to resolve the inconsistency and disparity between the first advertisement and the second one.
Since we support the MISR vision and would want the programme to be sustained, we would appreciate it if your office could respond to this petition and investigate into the issues we have raised. Here, we are requesting that student issues are included in the investigation that is to be done at MISR.
No comments:
Post a Comment