Amita Chatterjee

Calcutta, Oct. 5: Amita Chatterjee, the Presidency University vice-chancellor whose term ended today, has said she would reconsider her decision not to accept an extension if she is offered a fixed tenure.

Chatterjee had sent a letter to the chancellor, governor M.K. Narayanan, yesterday expressing her unwillingness to accept the extension.

The day before, the governor had faxed a letter to Chatterjee. “In the letter, I was told that the term of the VC was being extended by two months, or till the appointment of the new VC, whichever may be earlier. I did not like the way terms were set for my continuation,” Chatterjee said over the phone from Delhi, where she has gone to attend a meeting.

She told The Telegraph that she would have readily accepted the offer if the extension had been for a fixed period, even if it were for two months. “The fixed term would have allowed me to prioritise my tasks accordingly. But continuance till the appointment of a new VC meant that I would have had to leave office any day. It is not possible for any VC to work under such conditions,” she said.

“I will reconsider my decision if I am offered an extension for a fixed term,” Chatterjee added. The chancellor’s office had not got in touch with the outgoing VC with a revised proposal till late this evening.

Soon after conveying her decision to the chancellor’s office, Chatterjee posted a message on the official website of Presidency University, www.presiuniv.ac.in. “The difficulties I faced included outside interference, damage to university properties by outsiders and of course the proverbial delays of our government bureaucracy. However noble the wishes of the legislature and government may be, an acute shortage of personnel in every category of the university is hampering its progress,” the message read.

She also defended the existing Presidency teachers. “With regard to our Faculty Members, I disagree with the adverse comments about them and firmly state that barring a few exceptions, most of them are knowledgeable, competent and dedicated to their profession in teaching and research befitting that of an Institution of international repute as was in the past.”

The mentor group formed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to turn Presidency into a centre for excellence had stressed the need to recruit world-class teachers.

A Presidency teacher in charge of running the website said the message was posted on the night of October 4. “She wrote her valedictory speech on September 30 (a day after the site became operational). But since we were expecting a fixed-term extension for her, we had not posted the message. After she informed us that she had declined the offer of extension, we posted it with her permission,” he said.

The office of the university will open on October 11. Since there is no administrative head available at the university — registrar Pradip Sengupta is on leave till October 17 — the government has to name Chatterjee’s successor by October 11, an official of the higher education department said.

“The education minister and the chancellor will soon sit together to take stock of the situation and announce the name of the new VC at the earliest,” the official said.