Dr Stella Nyanzi on Monday April 18 undressed to the nicker at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), protesting being locked out of her office.

Dr Nyanzi who is a staff member at MISR was accused by the institute’s director, Prof Mahmood Mamdani of not teaching PhD students, a job, he said, she accepted in 2012.

However, Dr Nyanzi said that in the contract she signed with the University, teaching was not part of it.

Her office was opened a few minutes after the nude protest, by Prof Edward Kirumira, the principal College of Humanities and Social Sciences, where the institute falls.

However, in a mini survey conducted by Journalism@Mak, the act of stripping has drawn mixed reactions from the students at the University.

According to Conley Mugabi, a fourth year Law student, Dr Nyanzi’s action was right depending on the challenges she had been facing.

 “Personally, I believe scientifically, when you are faced with a challenge, you study its cause and get the best methodology to overcome it. Dr Nyanzi studied the challenge and smartly devised the best means which was undressing… she got her office reopened,” Mugabi said.

Concurring with Mugabi is Modern Kaganzi a fourth year student pursuing bachelor’s degree in commerce external (BComExt). He says Nyanzi’s decision was right as she tried to show the public what would happen to her family if she is locked out of her office for even a few days.

“Dr Nyanzi stripped herself as a way of sending a message to whoever was concerned that she would not afford to buy even what to put on after losing this office, and even her family and relatives would suffer,” said Kaganzi.

On the other hand, Charity Asiimire, a second year student of Social Sciences condemns the stripping, adding that it does not match the level of her social status.

“I was really surprised because I did not expect her to do such a thing… a doctor would have acted as her level of education and age,” Asiimire said.

Martha Nabaasa, a second year student pursuing bachelor’s degree of library and information science also condemns the stripping that waned the respect of mothers.

She added that however much she was oppressed, as a mother, she could not have undressed as there is need to maintain the dignity of women.

In support of Nabaasa, Robin Muganzi, a second year student on a program of bachelor’s degree in software engineering argues that Dr Nyanzi would have at least taken the matters to courts of law.

Faridah Kukunda, a third year student pursuing bachelor’s in Adult and Community education told Journalism@Mak that Dr Nyanzi’s stripping should not be looked at as a simple matter.

“Stella was supposed to do that… she has been fighting for that office for six years, meaning she tried other means and failed. Stella must have been oppressed to the extreme ends,” Kakunda said, adding that government should intervene into the matter, investigate its causes and act accordingly.