WHEN ALL EXISTING UNIVERSITIES BECAME CAMPUSES

Persons traveling by bus would have heard the conductor bellowing “campus bahinda” when the bus has come near a university situated on a main road. They never use the Sinhala word for university. This is so in Sinhala teledramas too. They always use campus and not university. Many persons must be wondering how these people got used to using the word campus for university.

This did not happen prior to 1972 when there were four universities in Sri Lanka, namely, University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, University of Ceylon, Colombo, Vidyodaya University of Ceylon and Vidyalankara University of Ceylon. In 1972, with the promulgation of the University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, the existing four universities were amalgamated to form a single university with the existing universities becoming “Campuses” with a new Campus added as the Katubedda Campus which was the former Katubedda Technical College.

It is with the creation of the Campuses that the word campus became instilled in the minds of most of the people. Thereafter, the word university was not in their vocabulary. This terminology continues to this day and may not be erased from the minds of future generations teledrama addicted youth. Even some of the undergraduates of today use the word campus when referring to their university. This was during the era prior to 1972 as thereafter, the undergraduates used the shortened form “Uni” if not the full word when referring to their university.

As mentioned earlier, the single university was established in 1972 with the promulgation of the University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972. This change was as a result of the recommendation of the Dr. Osmund Jayaratne Committee which was established by the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government.

With the establishment of the single university and the setting up of the Campuses, Prof. BA Abeyawickrema was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, The Registrar was Dr. Pep Jayasena from the Medical Faculty at Peradeniya and the Treasurer (which was the new designation for the familiar Bursar in a university) was Mr. Christie Navaratne from outside the university system. The Additional Registrar (to be in charge of establishment matters) was Mr. Chandra Gunasekera, seconded from the Sri Lanka Administrative Service. These Officers were based in the Senate House, which was the apex body of the single university.

The office of the Senate House was originally located in a building which had been the office of the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) of which Prof. GP Malalasekera was the Chairman and located on Bauddhaloka Mawatha near Thummulla. This is now part of the United Nations office. During the tenure of Mr. LH Sumanadasa (brother of the famous LH Mettananda), who was the second Vice-Chancellor, the office of the Senate House was shifted to No. 18, Ward Place, where the present Ministry of Higher Education is housed.

The five Campuses were Peradeniya, Colombo, Vidyodaya, Vidyalankara and Katubedda. Each Campus had the President at the helm with a Deputy Registrar and a Deputy Treasurer in charge of establishment matters and financial matters respectively. As the single university came into being on the recommendations of the Osmund Jayaratne Committee, the members of the Committee were appointed as Presidents of the new Campuses, with Dr. Osmund Jayaratne as President of Colombo, Dr. Shelton Kodikara at Peradeniya, Prof. VK Samaranayake at Vidyodaya, and Dr. Keerthi Dissanayake at Vidyalankara.

Dr. BA Jayasena was appointed as the first Registrar of the new University. Prof. Upali Kuruppu (who was not a member of the Committee) was appointed as the President of Katubedda Campus. The sixth Campus was added in 1975 when the Jaffna Campus was established with Prof. Kailasapathy as its first President. Prof. Kailasapathy did yeomen service to get this new campus established.

As far as the appointments of staff were concerned, the members of the academic staff were selected by a selection committee to which the Vice-Chancellor’s nominees were included. After selection, the selected person/s names had to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor for approval.

The appointment of the Administrative Officers and non-academic staff members were done at Senate House, which came under the Additional Registrar at the beginning until he reverted to his substantive post in the Administrative Service, after which the Registrar was in charge of same.

While the Senate House had a Board of Governors, with representatives from within and without, which functioned as the Councils of the present-day universities do. The Campuses had their own Campus Boards to attend to administrative purposes and a Senate to attend to the academic matters.

This university remained until the Universities Act, No.16 of 1978 was promulgated when the single university was decentralized and the new universities were formed as the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, University of Sri Jayewardene, Sri Lanka, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

However, even with the reverting back to the old system of the previous universities, the term campus remained in the minds of most of the people and that will be embedded in others too in the future. As such, the term “campus” has come to stay.

HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE