Jaffna University Sexual Harassment: AL Students Demand UGC Inquiry

By Ruba Ratnasingam –April 29, 2016

As has been reported in Colombo Telegraph Dr. S. Dharshanan, Head of the Department of Music and a close relative of Jaffna VC Vasanthi Arasaratnam, was suspended from service without pay following numerous accusations of sexual harassment by his students and staff colleagues at the Ramanathan Academy of Fine Arts (RAFA). These accusations had been there from 2011 but the Council inquiries had asked the accusers to cooperate with their accuser. Action was forced only when numerous students complained in writing and were ready to riot, and one student was on the verge of committing suicide.

Prof. Vasanthi Arasaratnam

The four years of licence to do anything with the women under his authority that the Council effectively gave Dr. Darshanan is now showing its consequences. These consequences are undermining the academic standards of the university. Darshanan is gone, albeit temporarily, but the effects of his stewardship of the Department of Music refuse to go away. His ghost is haunting the university.

University admissions are based on the z-score, a normalized system of marks that allows a comparison of performance in subjects where it is easy to score with that in subjects where it is difficult to score. Unlike raw marks, the z-score yields a 1.0 for the medium of the raw marks and forms a common basis for comparison. Those on the merit lists for say engineering and medicine get a z-score of around 2, way off the norm on the upper side. In subjects that no one wants to do, even a z-score under 0.5 may merit admission. The RAFA is a place where the score is well off the norm in subjects like music that few want to do. As such the students too are from families where there is no culture of protesting when there is injustice.

Generally the z-score system gives a good way to base admissions on. However, there are some subjects where it is claimed that aptitude is important and has to be measured as a part of the admission process. Thus Architecture is a subject where academics measure aptitude to depart from the strict use of the z-score and it is common and not surprising to see the children of academics being assessed to have high aptitude and getting admission. Although many recognize this as unfair, it is difficult to change because academics run the university system and want that system retained. However, keenly competitive subjects like medicine and engineering also demand aptitude but it is never assessed because favoritism there will result in a riot.

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