University bans provincial days

UNIVERSITY of Papua New Guinea vice–chancellor Prof Frank Griffin has stopped provincial day celebrations by students.
“The UPNG council made a decision after the 2016 unrest that we would not support provincial day celebrations,” Griffin said.
“This is a national institution and not a provincial government institution,” Griffin said during a forum at the university on Wednesday.
He told the students that the university council decision of 2016 was clear that there would be no more supporting or promoting of provincial days and groupings on campus.
“We may belong to different ethnic groups but we all belong to one country, PNG.
“We need to start thinking as Papua New Guineans and leave our regions out.”
Griffin made the comments after recent stories of deaths and other incidents that had been posted on social media.
He said a student was found dead in campus after he had gone out to celebrate his provincial day.
Griffin said the incident was brought to his attention at his residence.
He said he was informed that the student died as a result of several injuries but did not know the cause of it.
“We still have to find out the actual cause of that. This is a totally unnecessary loss of life.”
Griffin told students to leave their provincial and ethnic groupings and instead join and build professional groupings.
Meanwhile, he encouraged the students to celebrate the country’s 44th Independence on Monday in a responsible manner.