from the National 8th March

"University in turmoil. By FRANK RAI and JULIA DAIA-BORE.
THE University of Technology in Lae is headed for turmoil with court orders for police to move onto the campus today and arrest executives of striking National Academic Staff Association (NASA) members.The 100-plus academic staff, over a day-long barbeque at the university yesterday, pledged to offer themselves to be arrested as a group.Meanwhile, the Students Representative Council (SRC) leaders led by acting president Cathy Magalu returned to Lae yesterday after unsuccessful talks with the Commissioner of Higher Education Simon Kenehe, director of the Office of Higher Education Dr William Tagis, Chancellor of the University of Technology Philip Stagg and Minister for Higher Education David Basua. If no resolution is reached by today, the SRC representatives would resign en-mass and let the university administration deal directly with the whole student body. “If this happens, it can easily get out of hand because there are lot of radicals among the students who are already very angry about the situation,” a senior university official warned last night. An open forum is expected to be held at about 11am in front of the Vice-Chancellor Misty Baloiloi’s office today, where students would seek an immediate resolution to the crisis. Several members of the governing council of Unitech flew to Lae yesterday along with Mr Stagg and are expected to address the student body at the forum. Ms Magalu told The National last night they were not taking sides with either the university administration or NASA. “We just want to get back into classes. It is really unfair to us; we paid to come to classes only to find that we are being victimised,” she said.She said she and her SRC executives had decided to resign from their positions if the matter is not resolved by today. She said their meeting with Mr Basua wasn’t helpful as the minister said he could not do anything while the matter was in court. He also said the university was governed by an act of Parliament but he said he would express his concerns to Chancellor Philip Stagg. Among the points raised by the students is for the administration to stand down pending an investigation so that staff could return to normal duties. NASA members are on strike over allegations of mismanagement and want the Baloiloi-administration to stand down. The National Court in Waigani yesterday ordered the immediate arrest and detainment of the four executives of NASA after they defied a previous order to return to classes by 8am on Monday. It is understood this order will be affected today when police in Lae move into the campus to arrest NASA president Pulas Yowat, his deputy Robert Songan, and secretary Raymond Bure and treasurer Gibson Tito. Justice Ambeng Kandakasi said one would hope that as true Papua New Guineans, NASA members would consider the welfare of the innocent students. “Instead, we are bleeding the country, when we should be thinking of what we can do for our country than what our country can do for us,” Justice Kandakasi remarked when ordering the arrest of the executives. Mr Yowat told The National yesterday that they had expected that decision and were prepared to face the consequences. “All along, we were saying that we were prepared to go to jail. If it so happens that we are arrested, we will go to jail,” Mr Yowat said."