MONROVIA, April 28(LINA) - The President of the University of Liberia (UL), Dr. Emmett Dennis, has appealed to the University of Liberia Faculty Association (ULFA) to reconsider their planned strike action.

Recently, the association threatened to withhold students’ grades and stay away from classes next semester until the university administration pays the three-month salary arrears due them.
The UL president pointed out that the university administration finds no pleasure in owing the Faculty, and explained that the current arrears are due to the Ebola outbreak that caused the state-run university to experience a budget shortfall.
Recently, ULFA president Clifford Young told journalists that they took the decision on Saturday, April 24, when the faculty met and agreed that their patience was running out over slowness in resolving their problem.
Mr. Young said the situation the university administration has placed the faculty in has transformed them into virtual beggars, and that their decision is to compel the administration to take action to address their plight.
However, speaking late Monday evening on the University’s Fendall Campus at the presentation of books donated to the university by University of London, the UL president disclosed that before President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf departed for La Cote d’Ivoire recently, she provided US$3 million to settle the January arrears owed the faculty.
Dennis explained that the University administration has loaned US$1.2 million to also settle their February arrears, stressing that the University administration is making efforts to settle all arrears owed the ULFA.
LINA RD/TSS/PTK