Persaud was officially suspended by the University Council after an investigative committee had found that the allegations against the lecturer were valid and had submitted its findings to the council. It is unclear whether Persaud will appeal his suspension, but the decision is said to be a blow to the lecturer who was previously on the job despite the allegations raised.
The council has also invoked Statute 25 of the UG Statutes, which deals with disciplinary action against academic staff.
Stabroek News was told that Persaud had presented an appeal to the findings of an earlier investigative committee at a meeting.
UG Pro-Chancellor Prem Misir had mentioned the special committee when he called a press conference last month to explain the procedure when any complaint was lodged against a lecturer. At the time he noted that talk of the committee, among other things, was premature because the issue had not reached that stage as yet.
Misir had stated that members of the University Council would have to set up a special committee comprising three members who were not members of the council. Secondly, the Academic Board would also have to select two members of the special committee but again those persons must not be members of the council.
“That committee hasn’t happened yet; we are not even there yet, nobody has been fired or anything like that. It is not a case where somebody is going to lose his or her job. We don’t know how all of this is going to work out,” Misir told reporters. He said the matter would not conclude until the special committee held its final hearing, and it could even throw out the investigative committee report.
In letters to UG Registrar Vincent Alexander, students alleged that Persaud had victimized and intimidated them, particularly students sponsored by a mining company. One student related that on the first day in class, Persaud told them, “Leave y’all God at the [expletive] door,” saying that he was god in the classroom. Further, the student charged that most of the time spent in class was “sex talking time” and as such Persaud was given the name “Sex Man” by students. The student also reported that a 2008 examination supervised by Persaud was held at a city hotel and students who opposed this were victimized.
The student said too that after a decision was made by UG for Persaud’s examinations to be invigilated, he told students that he would give them information about the examination. He said too that Persaud spoke openly about using his political links to victimize the sponsored students.
Two other students claimed that they were prevented from writing an examination on the claim that they had not passed their course work. They maintained, however, that they had submitted their work to Persaud but never got any results back. They said he had done the same in two previous courses he had taught.
