UI students threaten to sue rector over suspensions

JAKARTA (JP): Six of nine University of Indonesia students suspended for staging a rally against an additional education fee have threatened to sue the university's rector.

"We will file a lawsuit with the Jakarta Administrative Court on Tuesday demanding the revocation of the suspensions," Christina Rini of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, which is representing the students, said on Friday.

Rini said the lawsuit would be submitted to the court if university officials refused to meet with the students and their lawyers on Monday to discuss the matter.

She said the institute has asked to meet with university officials three times to discuss the suspensions, but each time they were refused.

The six students, four from the university's law school, one from its industrial technology school and the other from the School of Letters, face the threat of expulsion if the suspensions are not revoked, she said.

The students were suspended in November for between one and two semesters for protesting the university's decision to adopt an extra educational fee, called the Quality of Education Improvement Fund.

Students who enrolled in the university beginning in 1999 must pay an extra fee on top of the Rp 500,000 (US$52) in tuition each semester.

The extra fee is Rp 1 million for students in the School of Engineering and the School of Mathematics and Exact Sciences, and Rp 750,000 for students in the School of Social Sciences.

Only nine students were suspended although hundreds took part in the rally last February.

The decision to suspend the students was based on photographs taken by university officials during the rally, Rini said.

Contacted by The Jakarta Post on Friday, the university's deputy rector for student affairs, Umar Mansur, said the university was prepared to respond to any lawsuits filed by the students.

"The suspension is final. If they are dissatisfied and plan to sue, we are ready to face it," Umar said.

He said the students were given 14 days to respond to the suspensions, but they declined to do so.

He also said the university would not discuss its internal affairs with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

"It's like a father and his sons; why should other people interfere in our problems?"

The university has said it will revoke or reduce the suspensions if the students apologize for their roles in the rally.

One of the six students, Fauzan Gustano Razak, said he refused to apologize for taking part in the rally "because we are right". (jun)