Monrovia – The President of the University of Liberia (UL), Dr. Ophelia Inez Weeks, said registration for the first semester of academic 2017/2018, which begins September last year, would not be extended.
Dr. Weeks decision has dashed the hopes of students who could not meet the final registration deadline due to financial constraints or other conditions, terming it as disservice to the administration of the university if allow.
She made the decision Wednesday January 31 at the University of Liberia Fendall Campus during a dialogue meeting between the UL administration and the students’ leadership.
“We can’t constantly continue to extend registration and expect students to believe us when we say something.
Besides, it will be an administrative nightmare to extend registration this time; it is not as easy as you look at it.
“To continue extending registration is very costly, so we have to be real this time because this is a university and we all want to see our students going through the process but we have to be serious.”
“So, the only thing we can do for the students who are facing this problem is for them to do re-admission next year without paying any money”, Dr. Weeks said.
President Weeks said the state run university always had problem with students’ registration, while cautioning them to respect the administration as it strives to improve the system.
She told faculty members and the students’ leadership to graduate from the days of extending registration process and trying to be on par with other sister universities in the country.
“You can disagree with me, I have no problem with that but rudeness as university students, disrespect to the President is disrespect to the institution that you are trying to get education at. For me, I don’t care, you can be disrespectful to me but is disrespect to the institution that you are calling your university,” UL President said.
The University of Liberia Students Union (ULSU) Interim President, Flomo Mao Moa, said the delay in the registration process is as the result of the UL administration inability to employ more staffs at the Electronic Data Processing Unit (EDP) to afford students easy access to the registration process.
Mao Mao called on the administration to re-think its decision and allow over 8,000 students complete their registration process
“It is the UL administration and the students body that make up the university, so we, as students leaders are appealing to the office of the UL President to open up the registration for our colleagues who are still going through the registration process.
“Because the UL administration has a hand in the prolongation of registration because they did not hire enough EDP and BFO workers to process thousands of students at the university.”
Report by Jackson F. Kanneh,
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