New Delhi: Amid ongoing protests demanding elections to the Jamia Millia Islamia Students’ Union (JMISU), over 1,500 teaching and non-teaching employees of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), along with Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mazhar Asif and Registrar Prof. Md. Mahtab Alam Rizvi, convened a meeting at the Ansari Auditorium lawns on Saturday to deliberate on the prevailing campus situation and chart a course forward.
The meeting came after four rounds of discussions between protesting students and a seven-member high-level committee of senior university professors constituted on October 18 to mediate the impasse. It also followed an appeal issued by the committee late Friday urging students to withdraw their protest.
Expressing concern over alleged incidents of vandalism and the defacement of university walls with objectionable slogans, faculty members and staff said such actions were detrimental to the academic environment and inconsistent with the values of the institution, which recently completed 106 years of existence. The gathering unanimously adopted two resolutions.
The first called upon the protesting students to vacate the protest site and end their agitation to restore normalcy on campus, particularly at the Ghalib Statue lawns, where demonstrators have been camped despite Gate No. 18 being the university’s designated protest venue.
The second resolution authorised faculty and staff to repaint vandalised walls and remove slogans that they described as objectionable and harmful to the nation’s integrity, security and sovereignty. Participants maintained that such acts had the potential to inflict lasting damage on the university’s reputation and should not be allowed to overshadow the institution’s academic legacy.
Faculty members also voiced concern over what they termed misinformation being circulated on social media regarding the protest movement, warning that such content could adversely affect the university’s image. They asserted that, as longstanding stakeholders of the institution, they could not permit circumstances that, in their view, threatened JMI’s functioning and reputation.
Addressing the gathering, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mazhar Asif and Registrar Prof. Md. Mahtab Alam Rizvi expressed serious concern over the alleged defacement of university property and the display of slogans they said could undermine the institution’s standing and affect the future academic and employment prospects of students.
Members of the mediation committee stated that the university administration had taken significant steps to address the longstanding issue of student union elections. They noted that the JMISU was suspended in 2006 following repeated incidents of campus violence, attacks on teachers and disruptions to academic activities. According to the committee, the current administration had recently constituted a JMISU Constitution Draft Committee, marking the first such initiative since the suspension of the union two decades ago.
The committee further highlighted that the university had issued a notification on October 21 announcing a review of disciplinary measures initiated against students participating in protests related to issues arising between October 12 and October 21. However, it claimed that these concessions failed to bring the protesting students to the negotiating table.
Faculty members also expressed apprehension over the involvement of leaders and representatives from various political organisations in the ongoing agitation, warning that external participation could escalate tensions and further disrupt the academic environment.
Following adoption of the resolutions, a large number of teaching and non-teaching staff marched from the Ansari Auditorium lawns to the protest site near Gate No. 7 in an effort to engage with students and persuade them to end the agitation. According to the university, faculty members spent nearly two hours attempting to convince protesters to restore normalcy. However, the discussions failed to yield a breakthrough, and the employees eventually withdrew from the site.
In the wake of the developments, the university administration announced that all classes across JMI would be conducted online with immediate effect. The decision, it said, was taken to safeguard students and ensure continuity of academic activities.
The administration has advised students to attend classes virtually and avoid visiting the campus. University gates and libraries will remain closed until further notice while online teaching remains in force.
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