Aceh students demand free tuition
Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
Hundreds of Syiah Kuala University students protested on the Banda Aceh campus on Thursday to demand that their tuition be waived and that the rector resign for attempting to force them to pay tuition beginning on Feb. 14.
Muhammad Subhan, vice president of the Unsyiah Students Big Family association, told The Jakarta Post some 500 students held the protest in response to a circular from Rector Abdi Abdul Wahab requiring the students to re-register and pay their tuition starting on Feb. 14.
"Many students were victims of the (tsunami) disaster and many of them are still living in shelters after losing their homes. How can the rector not see (their suffering) and issue a regulation requiring them to re-register and pay their tuition on time? If we don't pay, we might not be able to study this semester," Muhammad said.
The students, he said, want their tuition waived this semester and are demanding the rector step down for his failure to recognize the students' suffering.
"We (students) demand the replacement of the Unsyiah rector. Find another person who understands the students' situation," he said.
The protest started at 10 in the morning and lasted until about 1 p.m.
"I am now live under Lamnyo bridge because there's nowhere else to live. I came to Banda Aceh from Sigli because I have to re-register. I wonder how the rector can ignore our suffering," said Usman, a 24-year-old student in the university's School of Law.
Students are required to pay Rp 450,000 (US$50) every semester in tuition, a huge amount for those students who lost everything in the tsunami.
"If we didn't have to pay tuition, we could use the money to buy a bed or to find another boarding house. I only have the clothes that I am wearing now. All of my books and my bed were lost in the tsunami," Usman said.
Rector Abdi Abdul Wahab was not at the university during the protest.
The rector's deputy of student affairs, Azhar Puteh, met with the protesting students and said the university would make exceptions for students affected by the tsunami.
He said students affected by the disaster had to fill in a form to have their tuition waived. Those students not affected by the tsunami were still required to pay tuition.
According to data from the university, of its 23,000 students, 9,000 of them lost their houses or relatives in the Dec. 26 tsunami. There is no available data on the number of students who died in the disaster.
"The policy is very reasonable. We hope the students not affected pay their tuition, considering the high operational costs of the campus," he said. "I hope the students understand."
He said the university's operations costs would be about Rp 5.6 billion this semester.