Despite in-progress students’ registration at the University of Liberia (UL) for the resumption of academic activities on Monday, February 19, 2024, the UL Faculty Association (ULFA) has voiced out that it has not received confirmation about that amid their unaddressed plight, laid before the UL administration.
On January 4, 2024 the leadership of ULFA expressed dismay over the alleged inhumane treatment 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, that the university administration is yet to pay its part-time lecturers, pay back money unnecessarily deducted from the monthly salaries of staffers and abiding by all agreements enshrined in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the UL and ULFA.
The release indicated that, as part of the teaching faculty, part-time colleagues signed contracts for the duration of 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 reporters on Friday, February 16, 2024 via a mobile from abroad, the Secretary General of ULFA, Eric Patten, maintained that the faculty is not in the position to return to classes on Monday when 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 authorities 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, our insurance that is not functional, to be able to refund all monies deducted, and other issues,” Patten stated.
The ULFA chief scribe stated that the leadership of the University of Liberia Faculty and Staff Association, a conglomeration of the faculty and staff association 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,” Patten continued.
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 Patten, the government, through the Finance Ministry, is fully aware of the situation but they apparently chose to disregard the payment because the issues at the university are not important to them.
The ULFA Secretary General also termed as troubling and not a good footing the beginning of the President Joseph Nyuma Boakai administration to downplay issues affecting faculty of the state-run university, calling on the government to find an amicable 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 was 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 he had been affected in terms of delay in payment of salaries and benefits and also initiate the speedy process of ensuring that the benefits of our colleagues are provided in a timely manner,” Patten asserted.
