It was the rector and not the government who decided to close the university during the Commonwealth summit, the organising task force said.
Phyllis Muscat, who heads the CHOGM task force, told the Times of Malta the decision was made by Juanito Camilleri “out of prudence and in the interest of safety and good order” following a request for one of the campus car parks to be closed.
The University of Malta campus, along with the junior college, will close its doors to lecturers and students between November 27 and 29, when Commonwealth leaders will be meeting in Malta.
The university’s autonomy was respected at all times
The decision has been met with scathing criticism by academic staff members, who described the move as “an assault on the institution’s autonomy”.
Lecturers contacted by this newspaper said closing the university’s doors on the government’s whim went against the principles the campus stood for. “The government should not have the ability to close the university at will,” one lecturer said.
Ms Muscat, however, said the government did not tell Prof. Camilleri to close the campus but merely asked for a section to be closed off for security reasons.
“The university’s autonomy was respected at all times. The decision was taken by the university administration after carefully considering the logistical implications of the requests by the CHOGM task force,” she said.
The task force, Ms Muscat said, had asked for the clearance and unencumbered use of the university’s main car park, adjacent to the main entrance, for helicopters to land and easy access of ambulances to and from Mater Dei Hospital in case of emergency.
‘University asked to clear car park’
The area was also to be cleared of cars approaching the university’s main entrance, she said.
The university will close its doors to lecturers and students between November 27 and 29.Ms Muscat said Prof. Camilleri had decided to go ahead and close the entire campus once the main parking area and bus terminus would be off limits, to avoid logistical problems for students and staff.
A university spokeswoman yesterday confirmed that the decision was taken by the rector after internal consultation, following the request by the organisers.
“As you may imagine, if a large part of the ring road is closed to all traffic, entry and exit can only be from the east and south gates. This would surely create a great amount of confusion. The free flow of traffic would be significantly impaired and security on the ring road would, thus, be reduced to an unsustainable level,” the spokeswoman said.
Some lecturers who were contacted about the decision suggested that the govern-ment was closing down schools “to give the impression that there are fewer cars on our roads”.
Ms Muscat, however, insisted the temporary closing down of schools had nothing to do with traffic management and was the result of security planning.