THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, in his capacity as Chancellor of state universities, has appointed CT Aravindakumar and L Sushama as interim Vice Chancellors of Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) and Thunchath Ezuthachan Malayalam University respectively. Aravindakumar and Sushama will hold the posts till Vice Chancellors are appointed on a regular basis in both varsities, a notification issued by the Raj Bhavan said.
Aravindakumar was the former pro-Vice-Chancellor of MGU and is presently a professor at the School of Environment Sciences in the varsity. Sushama is a professor of Malayalam at Sree Sankaracharya College of Sanskrit, Kalady. Both of them were mentioned in the panel of names submitted by the government for appointment as interim Vice Chancellors.
The new appointments were necessitated following the retirement of MGU Vice Chancellor Sabu Thomas who also held the charge of VC in Malayalam University.
The government had initially sought the reappointment of Sabu as MGU Vice-Chancellor. However, on the directions of the Governor, a panel of names was submitted that also included Sabu. The Governor rejected the panel on the grounds that Sabu was not a serving professor, as he had retired last year.
As per MGU rules, the VC charge should be given to the senior-most professor in the varsity. The government then amended the panel by removing Sabu's name and including the name of a senior professor. The Governor finally picked Aravindakumar for the post as he is the senior-most professor at MGU in Malayalam University. The government had proposed the names of two other professors in Malayalam besides Sushama for the interim VC post.