Members of the students’ union raised ruckus at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University (DSPMU) on Wednesday demanding inclusion of student’s representatives in the varsity’s maiden senate meeting with the Adviasi Chatra Sangh (ACS) calling for rechristening the university after a Jharkhand personality.

ACS holds four of five berths in the students’ council of the university and renaming the university after a local hero has been a long-pending demand of the ACS. On Wednesday, some members of the student body gheraoed the office of the vice chancellor Satyanarayan Munda and allegedly manhandled him.

“How can you hold the senate meeting without including any member of the student’s council?” asked Sanjay Mahli, president of ACS, adding that his students’ union wanted to make the senate members aware of the growing demand of renaming the university among students.

However, officials from the university said that the tenure of the students’ council had ended, and they did not have the right to participate in the meeting.

“Around six student representatives attended the senate meeting today (Wednesday). Various issues related to the holistic development of the university were discussed,” said an official.

In April 2017, the then BJP-led state government of chief minister Raghubar Das approved the idea of renaming Ranchi College after Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, a barrister, a politician and a former vice chancellor of Calcutta University, which marked the beginning of a political war between student bodies here. Several protest marches and signature campaigns by student unions followed soon after the recommendation was made. Tribal student bodies also handed over memorandums against the rechristening to governor Droupadi Murmu and government officials, but their pleas went unheeded.

On Wednesday, governor Murmu was supposed to attend the meeting in person. But she eventually joined other senate members via video conferencing. With focus on improving the quality of teachers, she said that teachers not only imparted knowledge to students, but were also responsible for moulding them into responsible citizens.

“The mode of education may have changed due to Covid-19 with inclusion of technology, but the basis of education remains the same – even today, teachers continue to guide society,” said Murmu.

The senate meeting was delayed by over two hours following the ruckus by students. Talking about the achievements of the university, the vice chancellor said they had the best of teachers and students had from neighbouring states like West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha had enrolled. He said that the university was consistently striving to include new courses and add more facilities for students.

Around 20 items were on the agenda, mostly related to new courses, teachers’ recruitment, promotions, renovation and improvement of the library were discussed, sources present in the meeting said.