Varsity staff protest fresh search for vice chancellor
The Kyambogo university acting vice chancellor, Prof Eli Katunguka, at a past event. Some university’s employees want him to stay. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Mr Jackson Betihamah, the chairperson of Kyambogo University senior staff administrative association, said more than half of the university’s management positions don’t have substantive people. He said this has affected the university’s operations. For instance, he cited that Kyambogo has not had a substantive University secretary, university librarian and dean of students for almost two-and a-half years.
Kampala. A section of Kyambogo University staff are protesting the directive for a fresh search for the new vice chancellor, saying it is a wasteful venture, which has consumed up to Shs500m from the university account.
Mr Jackson Betihamah, the chairperson of Kyambogo University senior staff administrative association, said more than half of the university’s management positions don’t have substantive people. He said this has affected the university’s operations. For instance, he cited that Kyambogo has not had a substantive University secretary, university librarian and dean of students for almost two-and a-half years.
“The university has suffered for two years-and-a half without a substantive vice chancellor and many personalities have been in acting capacity, which affects the quality of management.
“The University Council cannot recruit a new vice chancellor because their term expires on July 20. We are disappointed in them. Shs500m has been spent on the process from an already underfunded university account. The Council should apologise to the taxpayer for this mess,” Mr Betihamah said on Friday at Kyambogo Guest House.
His counterpart for the academic staff association, however, thinks otherwise. Mr Grace Lubaale, the Kyambogo academic staff chairperson, said the council was right to reject the initial candidates for the vice chancellor that were submitted by the Search Committee. The vice chancellor search committee had recommended only two names to the Senate instead of three as provided for in the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act.
He said the Search Committee and Senate erred when they submitted only two names to the Council.
“As academic staff, we are happy with the decision. The entire process was wrong. The search committee should have written to Council to notify them early that they had failed to find the candidates as in the law,” Mr Lubaale said. (NMG)
