Feature

Celebration of 'CU-Day' in University of Chittagong
An event to remember…

Shushmita Ahmed

THE University of Chittagong observed its very first 'Chittagong University Day' on 17 December 2009 after 42 years of its establishment. Hundreds of former students as well as teachers participated in the day long programme that marked the 43rd anniversary of the university, which was set up in 1966.

The University of Chittagong (CU) is a public university situated at Hathazari Upazila of Chittagong. The campus is 22 km to the north of Chittagong. It has shuttle trains service for students and bus services for the faculties and staffs. The University is surrounded by hills, and is bisected by a small stream. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who was a faculty member at this university and 2006 Nobel prize winner, started his first experiments from this campus at the neighbouring village of Zobra. Dr. Jamal Nazrul Islam, a noted mathematician and physicist, is an existing faculty.

With a modest beginning of four departments in 1966, the University of Chittagong has grown eight individual faculties, 35 departments, 3 institutes and three research centres. It has three affiliated Medical colleges under the Faculty of Medicine and one Veterinary Medicine College under the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The veterinary medical college has recently been upgraded into a separate University. As such the number of faculties at present is seven and current student enrolment is more than 15,000.

The programme of CU-day was inaugurated by Dr. Alauddin Ahmed, advisor to the Prime Minister on Education through opening a hanging bridge built over the canal between Social Science and Arts Faculties. The programme saw Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr. Afsarul Ameen, Chief Whip Abdus Shahid and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Mayor Alhaz ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury as special guests while CU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Abu Yusuf presided over the chair and Pro-VC Prof Md. Alauddin provided the welcome speech.

Though the centre of the event was the ground in front of the Social Science Faculty, the festivity of the day spread through entire varsity. Every department managed to get a stall, in which they kept books and instruments to portray their own department.

Photo: Md. Jahirul Islam

Jannat Ara Parveen, Associate Professor, Dept. of Finance and Banking, CU and the ex-student of that department; Md. Emdadul Haque, Associate Professor, Department of Statistics; Md. Kamal Uddin, Deputy Officer, Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science; Dr. Jafar Ullah Talukdar, Chairman, Dept. of Law, CU are some of the name of the delighted faces right there.“ We are really happy for such celebration, it seems like a gigantic festival”, said all these people and expressed their joys on the eve of the CU-day.

Dr. Alauddin Ahmed, advisor to the Prime Minister on Education assured the authorities to provide all kind of assistance regarding the development of the University. Dr. Afsarul Ameen emphasized on the contribution of CU students, faculty members and staffs on the war of liberation 1971. The minister called for an allocation of Tk 25 crore for infrastructure development of the university in the current fiscal year.

Chief Whip Abdus Shahid in his speech thanked the authority of CU for such wonderful arrangement while Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Mayor urged the students to become the worthy citizens of the country and uphold the image of the university.

CU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Abu Yusuf in his speech urged the students to boycott those who disturb the academic atmosphere and sought cooperation of all in maintaining congenial academic atmosphere on the campus.

A cultural event was arranged in the second part of the programme where artistes from the University of Chittagong performed along with the famous singer Subir Nandi and Kanak Chapa.

A reception to the University Cricket Team who were the first runner-up in the Second Asian Inter-university Cricket Invitational Tournament-in Malaysia, prize giving of an essay competition, traditional dance-drama titled 'Malka Banu'. Even the shuttle train of CU was decorated every compartment portrayed the tradition and history of Bangladesh like pictures of the festivals of Noborsho; Heritage of Mahastangor; the speech of the father of the nation on 7th March 1971; language movement of 1952 etc.

Above all, the day was one of those unforgettable events in the history of the University of Chittagong. We, the students of University of Chittagong firmly believe that, this day will be celebrated every year with great festivity and ecstasy.

(The writer is a student of 3rd year, Dept. of Law, University of Chittagong.)