The brewing tension at KNUST; Beware the Ides of October….
Less than a month after the investiture of a new Vice-Chancellor, the Governing Council of KNUST has decided to end a practice that has been part of KNUST's academic governance for generations: faculty will no longer elect their own Deans and Pro-Vice-Chancellors. They will be appointed. The timing alone should make everyone pause. A new administration has barely settled in, and already one of the University's longest-standing traditions of academic participation is being dismantled. Even more troubling is that Council is proceeding despite formal petitions from the major recognized staff unions, UTAG, GAUA and TEWU-TUC, strongly opposing the change. These are not peripheral voices; they represent the staff whose participation in the governance of the University is now being removed. It is therefore much bigger than a change in procedure; it is a transfer of power from the academic community to the centre.