Students stage protest

By JUNIOR UKAHA
CLASSES at the University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae, Morobe, were suspended indefinitely yesterday after its 3,000 students decided to hold a protest to demand the return of deported former vice chancellor Dr Albert Schram.
The students boycotted classes after learning that Schram was deported to Brisbane, Australia, by immigration officials last Saturday after arriving on an Air Niugini flight at the Jackson International Airport in Port Moresby.
The students gathered in front of the university’s administration building in their provincial groups with placards and shouted “No Schram, no school”.
They demanded that the man who had instigated key changes to the troubled university be returned to the country and reinstated to his former position.
The students then presented a petition to their acting vice-chancellor Prof John Pumwa to deliver to the government.
The petition called for:
lSchram’s return to the country and for his reinstatement as the university’s VC within 48 hours,
lSchram to answer to allegations against him regarding his academic credentials,
lStudents to only return to classes upon Schram’s arrival on campus.
Students’ representative council president Livingston Hosea, on behalf of the boycotting students, gave the Immigration department 48 hours to bring Schram back to the country. 
“We won’t attend classes. We will sit here until Schram is brought here,” Hosea said.
“It took us three weeks of diplomatic negotiations but it has brought us to nothing.
“After 48 hours if nothing happens, the lion and the president will come out.”
Hosea said Schram had a valid work visa and his contract with Unitech was never terminated.
He questioned why Schram was deported from the country twice.
Hosea said when Prime Minister Peter O’Neill visited the university on Jan 14, he assured them that Schram would only be “sidelined with full pay” pending an investigation into the university’s management by a special government team headed by retired judge Mark Sevua.
“Schram was never terminated by the university. He was sidelined with full pay,” Pumwa said after receiving the petition.
“There was no directive from his employer, Unitech, to deport him.
“Albert (Schram) should be here to answer to his allegations. I don’t know why they put a stop to his entry into the country.”
Pumwa commended the students for a peaceful boycott but urged them not to venture out of the campus premises during the boycott.