31 university students rusticated

By Elkass I. L.Sannoh

Reports reaching this paper indicate that one of the constituent colleges of the University of Sierra Leone, the Fourah Bay College, has rusticated thirty one students in different departments ranging from Year One to Final Year for illegally occupying the hostels without the legitimate permission of the University administration.

The reports state that the students who are mostly coming from the provinces and few who come from Freetown went to occupy the hostels on the campus because they could not access accommodation in the city.

It is further stated that these students were asked by the administration in a press statement asking them to leave the premises but that they refused to leave, and appealed to the Senior Deputy Registrar of the University, Mr. Sorie Dumbuya to retract the release and allow them to stay.

Speaking to AYV yesterday, the Secretary General of the Fourah Bay College Student Union, Mr. Abdul Richard Mansaray, said the college administration wrote an expulsion letter to the thirteen one students without meeting with them to iron out the issue.

He explained that even after the university administration has made several promises to renovate the hostel before the 2011-2012 academic year they have not done so to this very moment.

He said that most of these illegal occupants come from the provinces and face a lot of accommodation problems in freetown.

“We are therefore calling the attention President Ernest Bai Koroma who is the chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone and the Government to kindly intervene in this matter and see how these students can be give lesser punishment and reinstated so that they can finish their courses,” he appealed.

Commenting on the matter, the President of the National Union of Sierra Leonean Students, Mr. Ibrahim Mansaray said they have decided to mount a peaceful protest so that they will have the attention of the appropriate authorities to reverse this decision and reinstate the poor students who, he said, are now suffering both physically, mentally, and psychologically.