UDS STUDENTS STRANDED (PAGE 55)

Most of the 7,000 students of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) appeared stranded yesterday by the 4.00 p.m deadline given them by the authorities to vacate the university.
The students had been given that deadline following the decision by the authorities to close down the school, which was announced to the students on Tuesday, the same day they were to comply.
However, by the time the announcement got to the students to vacate the campuses, most of them said the Metro Mass Transit buses which was their main form of transport, and which they often booked in advance, had already left.
The most affected were the female students who occupied the 2,000-capacity hostel on campus.
The Dean of Students, Rev Prof. Abraham Berinyu, in a telephone interview told the Daily Graphic that the decision to close down the school was as a result of the rising insecurity, disruption of academic activities as well as a court action taken by the suspended student leaders.
Rev Prof. Berinyu said even though students, on the basis of a directive by the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, resumed lectures last Thursday, February 19, 2009, academic activities were disrupted by some people, who described themselves as NUGS executive members from Accra and who said they wanted to meet the Dean, to discuss the impasse between the leadership of the students and the school authorities.
He said the action of the university authorities was not to punish anybody but to instil discipline.
Responding to a question as to what he meant by insecurity on campus, since the students had not indulged in any acts of violence and had so far used appropriate channels to sought redress, Rev Prof. Beyirinyu said the authorities had no choice but to take such a decision.
Asked if the university authorities were not flouting the decision of the Education Minister that the university must not be closed down pending the constitution of a three-member committee to investigate the matter, the Dean of Students said the setting up of the committee was not on condition that the students went back to the lecture halls.
Meanwhile many of the students who spoke to the Daily Graphic said the action of the university authorities beat their imagination because they had used all legitimate means to reach an amicable settlement of the impasse.
They reiterated their call on the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, Members of Parliament from the Upper West Region and the Association of Vice Chancellors of Ghana to step in to bring the issue to its conclusion once and for all.
It would be recalled that academic work has not been very smooth at the Wa campus of the UDS ever since the acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kaku Sagary Nokoe, suspended the central Students Representative Council (SRC) President, Mr Alphonse Naab, and the NUGS Secretary, Mr Owusu Aboagye.