DU's billboard venture unveils bad taste
Tawfique Ali
The Dhaka University (DU) authorities have allowed business houses to erect scores of gigantic billboards and rented out space for commercial set-ups of various kinds at every nook and cranny on the campus destroying its landscape. Prof Nazrul Islam, honorary chairman of Centre for Urban Studies and a member of the DU campus master plan and beautification committee, said that billboards just spoil the academic sanctity and natural beauty of the university campus. President of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) Mubasshar Hussain said, "When we take the foreign students of architecture to the Dhaka University campus to show them some landmark works there, we find it difficult to see the marvelous buildings due to the huge hoardings." Noted economist Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said there is no such example of renting out a university campus for commercial installations at any other university in the world. "This is an example of degeneration of an aesthetic sensibility any academic mind should have," he said. Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury, a former teacher of DU, said, "Such commercial indulgence is obviously inconsistent and disharmonious with the concept and history of Dhaka University." Dhaka University had always been an academic and cultural pride of the nation, which in recent times has fallen prey to commercial encroachments, Prof Choudhury said. "During our student days, the charm of the university was its cultural activities of various kinds," he said. "But that cultural ambience is no longer in sight at today's DU campus." "The DU has not only lost its inner vitality but also outer atmosphere," he observed. DU Vice-chancellor Prof SMA Faiz said: "There are too many billboards on the campus. I will ask the treasurer why the scenario is like this, as he deals with the matter. I don't think the university authorities have approved all of them." When asked, treasurer of the university Prof Syed Abul Kalam Azad said the university syndicate approves commercial billboards at the university for rent at the rate of Tk 40 to 60 per square foot per month. "All the billboards within the campus are approved," he said. "It is true that such huge commercial billboards are not consistent with the concept and sanctity of a university," said the treasurer. "But it is an income generating source."
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