Three ITB lecturers and two students expelled

Three ITB lecturers and two students expelled

JAKARTA (JP): Three junior lecturers and two students have been expelled from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) following the controversy over the death of a freshman during an initiation week program recently.

The lecturers, identified as Ade, Singgih and Aulia, used to teach Building Design and Structure at the Department of Architecture, while the two students, Muhammad Ridjal and Budhi Sumarso, were senior students of the Department of Physics.

The head of the Department of Architecture, Sri Rahayu, told reporters yesterday that the ITB did not expel the lecturers.

The institute merely decided not to extend their contracts, she said, without explaining the reasons for the decision.

"It is an internal problem between the Department of Architecture and the three lecturers," she said.

Sri Rahayu also said that the three architecture lecturers were hired on a contract basis, and that their performance was evaluated every semester.

"They have been here for one semester and we never promised to extend the contracts, or appoint them permanent lecturers," she said.

Sources said that the three lecturers were actually expelled because of their involvement in the initiation week at the architecture department.

Meanwhile, Indra Djati Sidi, the deputy rector in charge of students affairs, said the two students were expelled because they went beyond the customary practices of initiation weeks.

These two students ordered freshmen to eat grass and forced them to do strenuous physical activities, Indra said.

Indra said the institute had not reached the decision arbitrarily. The rector and his deputies held three meetings and set up a commission to launch further investigation on the case.

The students have also been questioned, Indra said. "I believe this is a just decision," he said.

Copies of the rector's decrees expelling Muhammad Ridjal and Budhi Sumarso from ITB, to be effective as of the start of the second semester of the 1995/1996 academic year, which is next month, were made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

However, none of the decrees, signed by Indra Djati Sidi, spelled out the grounds for the decision taken.

Zaki Tiffany Lazuardian, a 18-year-old freshman at the department of physics died early last month after joining the rigorous 12-day initiation period organized by his seniors in the department.

At least two other students also had to be hospitalized, while the ITB's polyclinic reported that 176 first year students sought medical treatment after taking part in the initiation week.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro has dismissed requests that the annual campus initiation program be abolished.

Wardiman described the death as an "accident" and said it should not be used as ground to abolish a system which, he said, was still the best way of introducing first year students to the realities of college life.

The expulsion of the two students has raised criticism among students organization in ITB.

Chairman of the communication forum for students organization (FKHJ) Adi Purboyo, and coordinator for the ITB student congress Lucky Djuniardi separately said the rector's decision had not solved the problem. (17/imn)