…As ULFA might not resume teaching, if!
By: G Bennie Bravo Johnson I
Despite ongoing registration by students of the University of Liberia for the resumption of academic activities on Monday, February 19, 2024, the UL Faculty Association has voiced out that it has not received confirmation about that amid their unaddressed plights laid before the UL administration.
On January 4, 2024, the leadership of ULFA expressed dismay over the alleged inhumane treatments accorded to its part-time colleagues by the UL Administration, headed by its President, Dr. Julius Sarwolo Nelson.
In its release, the association said among other things, the university administration is yet to pay the part-time lecturers, pay back money unnecessarily deducted from the monthly salaries of staffers as well as the administration abiding by all agreements enshrined in the memorandum of understanding between the UL and ULFA.
The release indicated that as part of the teaching faculty, part-time colleagues signed contracts for the semester (4 months), with the first payment of two (2) months supposedly to be made after the midterm exams but nothing has been done despite several engagements.
Speaking to our reporter on Friday, February 16, 2024, via a mobile from abroad, the Secretary General of ULFA, Mr. Eric Patten maintained that the faculty is not in the position to return to classes on Monday when of course the UL administration has not addressed the lingering issues about the welfare of part-time and regular staff.
“We have seen no recent confirmation by the authority of the University of Liberia that school is going to open on Monday and as stated in our last release calling on the University of Liberia to be able to handle issues such as the pay of our part-time colleagues’ salaries, such as the issue of our insurance that is not functional to be able to refund all monies been deducted and other issues.
The ULFA chief scribe further told this Newspaper that the leadership of the University of Liberia Faculty and Staff Association, a conglomeration of the faculty and staff associations has unanimously agreed to convene an Emergency Joint General Assembly on Friday, February 23, 2024, to come up with a strong decision.
“As you know, ULFA and ULSA are collaborating as one association now, and as long as those issues are not addressed, we will not be able to convene any class until the decision of the General Assembly on Friday so whether or not there’s going to be resumption of classes Monday, that is not to our knowledge; as far as we are concerned, there are pressing issues that affect faculty and staff and those issues will be discussed on Friday and we are poised to come up with some critical decisions making point in the interest of the faculty and staff,” Mr. Patten stressed.
At the same time, Eric Patten said both the Minister of Finance and Development-Planning Boima S. Kamara and his Deputy Minister for Budget and Development-Planning Tanneh Geraldine Brunson were engaged by the ULFA leadership regarding the same issues and they acknowledged the situation thus promising to do the needful.
“The former government (CDC) had already done a check. The last thing that was required was their approval before the inauguration. Minister Kamara and Madam Tanneh Brunson met with the leadership of the University of Liberia administration and the faculty and they did commit that yes indeed, the check was available and they assured that within the following week, the payment of part-timers was going to commence but as we speak, well, that is just story,” he recounted.
According to Mr. Patten, the Liberian government through the Finance Ministry is fully aware of the situation but they chose to disregard the payment because the issues at the university are not important to them.
The ULFA Secretary-General was also termed as troubling and not a good footing at the beginning of the part of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s administration to downplay issues affecting the faculty of the state-run university, calling on the government to amicably find a solution.
“We know that the signs are troubling for the fact people who once worked at the university and now they are in position, they care less about issues coming from the university I think it’s troubling and we hope that the Minister of the Ministry of Finance who once an instructor of the Department of Economics, who was a part-time instructor of the University of Liberia Graduate School of Business and Public Administration in the immediate past semester will not forget that had been affected in terms of delay in payment of salaries and benefits and also initiate the speedy process of ensuring that the benefits our colleagues are provided promptly,” Mr. Patten asserted.
