Members disrupt Academic Council meet over semester issue

The protesting members said the decision was being imposed without deliberating on the “feasibility” and “desirability” of the system.

In the last Academic Council meeting held on June 5,DU Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental had passed proposal for the semester system using his “emergency power”.

Many elected members who had disapproved the move in the last meeting but whose arguments had been overruled caused Tuesday’s dissent.

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“The V-C passed the resolution without proper debate and blueprint,which is causing the problem. Among 25 colleges that gave feedback to the V-C,24 have said the system is not feasible under the current scenario. But he did not listen to anyone,” said Abha Dev Habib,an AC member and a member of Democratic Teacher’s Forum.

The meeting on Tuesday was scheduled to discuss a few new courses to be introduced at the post-graduate level. The V-C,however,left after members started protesting.

Also opposed to the introduction of the new system,the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) too held a dharna outside the V-C’s office where the AC meeting was being held. Calling the move “undemocratic and arbitrary”,DUTA members said Professor Pental was showing utter disregard for the provisions in the DU Act,Statutes,Ordinances and Regulations,though his primary duty as the VC was to ensure these provisions were being followed.

“He has also shown contempt for an earlier communication from the Visitor (President of India) to the V-Cs of central universities,asking for strict restraint in the use of emergency powers. Professor Pental has been taking decisions on all important matters under emergency powers allotted to him and has not allowed the AC and the Executive Council to discuss matters falling within their purview,” said Aditya Narayan Misra,president of DUTA.

DU snippets
DU deadline over,worry persists
Even a day after the deadline of the submission of forms for DU’s undergraduate courses,DU helplines were still flooded by callers with queries .A majority of the callers were either worried applicants who had made errors in their OMR forms,or parents requesting the authorities to accept delayed applications with a fine Rs 200. “Students who have made errors in their OMR forms do not have to panic as we manually feed the information provided on the erroneous forms,”said Dinesh C Varshney,Deputy Dean Student Welfare.