MADURAI: The Senate meeting of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) held here today had witnessed a heated discussion as few members demanded that Tamil Nadu Governor-Chancellor’s nominee should be included in the Convener’s Committee (CC) that is now looking after the day-to-day administration of the varsity in the absence of Vice-Chancellor.
Dr.N.Jegatheesan, Senate member nominated by the Governor and president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had moved an adjournment motion in today’s Senate meeting-March 28th 2025- requesting to include a nominee of TN Governor in the convener committee.
“The CC was originally constituted with four members to look after university administration. However, there are now only two members in that committee and that too only one Syndicate member is handling the varsity affairs presently and the chairperson of CC is in Chennai. Two vacancies arose the convener’s committee because two members had to leave the committee for some reasons. So, I am asking for filling up the CC vacancies because lot of routine work is getting pending and delayed in the university,” Dr.N.Jegatheesan has said.
E.Sundaravalli, chairperson of Convener Committee and Commissioner of Collegiate Education who chaired today’s MKU Senate meeting, had asked for details on what the university statute and rules say about the composition of CC.
At this stage, Syndicate member Dr.S.Theena Thayalan had intervened and insisted that the Governor’s nominee should be there in CC and by not including the Governor nominee “it amounts to disrespecting the Governor and it means purposefully denied.” The same view was expressed by Senate member Dr.M.P.Ganesan who said that he wants to know the reason why Governor nominee is not included in the committee.
The Senate members had pointed out that two vacancies in CC must be filled as two Syndicate members Mr.Vasudevan and Mr.Davamani Christober had to leave the committee. However, Senate member Dr.A.Velanganni Joseph has said that the CC matter should be decided by the Syndicate and not by discussion in Senate meeting.
While Dr.N.Jegatheesan had reiterated that the two vacancies should be filled up quickly in the interest of MKU, a staunch support for including Governor nominee in CC came from Syndicate member Dr.S.Theena Thayalan.
Other Senate members including Prof.Sankar Natesan (former Registrar in-charge of MKU) and Dr.G.Prabhakaran too have aired their views stating that there is no discrimination because the Syndicate members in CC as they are appointed only by the Governor. Prof.Chandrasekhar and advocate Mr.Mutharasan were among those who spoke on this issue that drew great attention in the house and the matter ended with Mr.Theena Thayalan stating that the reconstituted committee must have two members very soon for smooth running of MKU till a new Vice-Chancellor is appointed.
