The main campus of the University of Liberia was a scene of drama when members of the campus based Student Unification Party (SUP) staged a protest in demand of the cancellation of E–Learning. The students are contending that the program was not well thought through as most students at the University of Liberia were incapacitated to purchase smart gadgets and in some cases, buy data to stay online for the entirety of their classes.
The University of Liberia on June 30, 2021 announced that the institution was going 100% online due to emergence of the new wave of Corona virus. “Following a Joint Faculty Senate and Administrative Council (JFSAC) meeting held online via Zoom on Friday, June 25, 2021, the University of Liberia (UL) has decided that all classes will be conducted fully online in adherence to the latest health protocols in the wake of the resurgence of Covid-19 in Liberia.”
The statement continued, “The decision cuts across all degree-granting programs and followed a series of engagements by the Administration with stakeholders, including the Government of Liberia, Faculty, Students and academic directors, on the University of Liberia’s appropriate operational and policy response to the new and deadlier variant of the Coronavirus in Liberia as well as the associated alarming death rate.”
The Chairman of SUP Momo Peters quickly released a statement in which he intoned, “In this, many schools around the world have given their students options wherein they are to decide on the face-to-face classes or the e-learning, which best suits them for subscription.”
He continued, “In Liberia, a democratic state like others, this seems the reverse and comical to the core. The University of Liberia which happens to be the state premier and most genuine area for education where the mass of our people send their children to acquire tertiary education is in reverse mode being under a simple dictator in Julius Sawolo Nelson who doesn’t meet the credential or standard of being a president of a community college but was appointed by the ex-soccer star now president of Liberia to the post of the presidency of the University of Liberia.”
The SUP Chairman in July of 2021 threated that, “SUP will not hesitate to march into history if our demands against the imposition of hundred percent (100%) e-Learning on the suffering university students this semester are not met.”
The campus turned chaotic when Police intervened in curbing the protest, something that was heavily resisted by the protesting students. Though Police Spokesman Moses Carter has neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the Police in the spilling of blood as alleged by student activist Martin Kollie in a facebook post. Activist Kollie wrote, “Heavily armed police officers are shooting live bullets at unarmed students on UL main campus. Conscious university students have been protesting against an ill-fated and rash E-learning system. “
The Police is yet to issue a statement on the matter. Details of this will come in our next publication.
