The Alumni Association of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, (worldwide) has given reasons to why the Oyo State government should should back down its move to rename and convert the institution to conventional university, as the bill to effect the change passed second reading in the state house of assembly.
The alumni association argued that the university and its students, as well as old students, would suffer greatly if the name was changed from LAUTECH.
The graduates of the technology institution made their stance known in a communique issued on Tuesday following an emergency meeting of the association called by the Global President, Solomon Onilede.
The communique which was signed by LAUTECH Alumni Global Secretary, Prof. A.O Ige, was made available to Punch on Tuesday.
The communique read, “That the enabling documents and technical papers that established the university had already captured all the programmes in different fields of study. These programme are to be rolled out in phases as the university advances; such as agriculture, engineering, medicine, sciences, environmental sciences, pharmacy, law, education, arts,social sciences.
“That licence to establish the University of Technology was given after due diligence and evaluation were carried out ab initio to the technical report.
The word “Technology” does not reside in Engineering exclusively instead, it connotes advancement in different fields of study. Therefore, there is technology in law, technology in arts, technology in education, Technology in pharmacy, technology in agriculture etc.
“That the unique name is LAUTECH
That thousands of graduates of LAUTECH at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional levels, would suffer a huge setback in their places of work which might be irredeemable if the university is renamed.
“Renaming of LAUTECH would demoralize all stakeholders (Staff, Parents, Students, Immediate community, members of Alumni Association and would return the University to zero level.
Global and national correspondences of would be greatly affected. Celebrating LAUTECH, the best state university should continue with proper funding for teaching and research so as to occupy a vintage position globally.
“There are several universities of Technology within the country and abroad that run numerous programmes such as laws, technology, education etc.
We sincerely appreciate Governor Seyi Makinde for his unalloyed support to the University.
“It is our prayer that the branded name of LAUTECH be retained even to accommodate the name LAUTECH is strong enough to accommodate all other programmes as envisaged in the technical paper that established the university.”