Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies

One eventually gets used to politicians and government officials being less than honest with their statements. However, I like to think that universities and their officials should hold and be held to higher standards.

A couple of weeks ago, a riot broke out at Yarmouk University. Following the riot, university officials claimed that the problems were the result of “reinforcements” brought in from outside the university, and that the original cause of the fight was personal problems between a few students. Other reports had cited disagreements over elections of student clubs.

Yesterday, the head of the Irbid police, ‘Ayed ‘Ajarmeh, basically called the officials of the university liars. He said that the police had known that trouble was brewing (over club elections), and that it had warned the university officials, who did nothing. He also said that police had taken precautions by preventing non-students from entry to the campus. Moreover, while the university had claimed to have given the police names of the outside troublemakers for prosecution, the university had in fact only given the police only two names of students who were previously expelled for academic reasons. Two names.

To me, university officials who lie are even more embarrassing than ones who are clueless as to what’s going on in their campus. In this case, they are one in the same. I wonder if there is anybody in charge who is as disgusted as I am.