Dhaka University has held its first preparatory meeting for the next DUCSU election, led by Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr A B M Obaidul Islam with pro-VCs, the proctor and hall provosts. Authorities will consult students, active student bodies and the disciplinary council, with provosts tasked to assess hall conditions and report back as the administration shapes the upcoming poll process.
The University of Dhaka (DU) has held its first meeting to prepare for the next Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election, with the administration planning to consult students, student organisations and other stakeholders.
The meeting took place at 3PM on Thursday (22 August) as DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr. A B M Obaidul Islam confirmed. Two Pro-Vice Chancellors, Proctor and Provosts of various Hall were also present in the meeting.
“What needs to be done for the elections, how the elections should be conducted, who the stakeholders are, since students are stakeholders, we need to sit down with the students and with the various active student organizations, and also with the disciplinary council, we need to meet with them as well", DU VC told in media.
The hall provosts have also been assigned responsibility at each hall to report back to the administration on the situation in their respective halls. Provosts will hold meetings at the hall level and report to the administration. The university administration will also sit down with the student organizations.
“These are the matters we're currently focused on, and we'll soon begin meeting with the various organizations one by one,” Dr. Obaidul added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Vice-Chancellor met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman where they discussed about the DUCSU poll along with other agendas.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, the Prime Minister instructed him on how to move forward with the DUCSU poll, telling the university administration to proceed accordingly.
“He is also very keen about student leadership. He gave me guidance on that front as well”, Dr Obaidul said.
“Our visit was mainly to brief him on the University of Dhaka's various development projects and on the 20-year plan we're working on to move the university forward. And since we'll be holding our convocation next January, we also went to invite him, to let him know we'd like him to be with us at the convocation," the VC added.
The current DUCSU committee assumed office on September 14th last year and their tenure nearly ends, which might get prolonged till December 14th unless a schedule for DUCSU election 2026 is finalized before the current DUCSU's tenure ends.
Regarding the election schedule, the Vice-Chancellor said, “We haven't made any decision on that yet. We're still reviewing it, that hasn't been finalized yet.”