Prayagraj: Allahabad University on Saturday announced it would be holding its convocation on September 23 — the foundation day of the university since it was established on the day in 1887 as the fourth university in the country. The decision was taken in a virtual meeting chaired by vice-chancellor Prof Sangita Srivastava and attended by all the deans, heads of departments, the directors of institutes and coordinators of centres of the university on Saturday. “After discussion, it was decided that the next convocation would be held on September 23. Whether the event will be in online or offline will depend on the then prevailing Covid situation,” said the public relations officer (PRO) Jaya Kapoor. AU had last held its convocation ceremony on September 5, 2019, after a long gap of 15 years. Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest and had delivered presidential address at the 2019 convocation, the first after AU was reinstated as central university in the year 2005. Earlier, AU had organised convocation in 2003-04. The previous convocation was held in 1993-94 when Prof SC Srivastava was the vice-chancellor and then defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief guest. The university had honoured former President APJ Abdul Kalam and former chief election commissioner T N Sheshan with honorary DSc and LLD degrees respectively. “A call for institution of medals and scholarships has been made and those interested in sponsoring them can do so. A three-member committee has been set up to scrutinise the proposals and the details will be available on AU website soon,” the PRO added. In another important decision, AU administration announced extension of the tenure of the guest faculty, presently engaged in different departments, till July 15. The decision has been taken to facilitate the completion of the course of classes whose exams are scheduled in July. The head of the departments were informed that offices will start reopening for administrative work from May 27 with 50% staff coming for three days a week on rotation basis. “The cleaning and sanitisation of offices and departments is being done. The vice-chancellor has directed the HoDs to start the process of removing scrap items and ensure repairs in their department,” said Kapoor.