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)