Senate accused of not representing students

SEMARANG: Representatives of students at the state-run University of Diponegoro are calling on Rector Muladi to disband the present students' senate which they say does not truly represent the interest of students.

The students presented their demand during a meeting with Muladi on Saturday, pointing out that the senate has simply become an extension of the university's bureaucracy.

The senate and its members have been coopted by the system, they said, and it is not an independent body that could fight for the interests of the students it is supposed to represent.

They pointed out that the formation of the senate is regulated by the 1989 National Education Law and a number of decrees by the minister of education and culture issued in 1990, which together virtually "marginalizes" the position of students vis-a-vis the university administrators.

The government in the 1970s and 1980s barred the establishment of student senates at universities because they had been heavily politicized by its elected members. The senates were allowed in the late 1980s but under strict conditions, including making its members subordinate to the rectors.

The government also barred any politicking in universities, saying that any students wanting to enter the political arena should join one of the political parties and not conduct their political activism in campuses.

The Diponegoro students said the senate rules deprive students of any political rights in campuses and that senate members are not democratically elected but rather were selected and appointed by rectors.

They said the university should disband the current senate and allow students to form their own body which would be more democratic.

Muladi in response ruled out the likelihood of granting their demands, pointing out that the establishment of the senate at the university is governed by the rules, for which a rector does not have the capacity to change.

Their demands for changes should instead be addressed to the House of Representatives or the Minister of Education and Culture, he said. (har/emb).