Non-affiliated colleges: need less chaos,more work in union

Chief Election Officer Gurmeet Singh said: “I think the DUSU is a body for conducting cultural activities and should not involve itself in the day-to-day affairs of the university. Individual colleges with their own student bodies are better for a smooth running of the system.”

In the past,many colleges have broken away from the DUSU; Bharti College was the last one to so in 2008. Others non-affiliated colleges are St Stephens’ College,Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Jesus and Mary College.

Shivarth Pandey,Disha Students’ Organisation’s presidential candidate said: “While individual colleges have the right to separate student bodies as per Lyngdoh Committee recommendations,their primary identity is the affiliation to Delhi University. Since they follow other university rules,they should also be affiliated to the DUSU.”

While Ilma Afroz of St Stephens Students’ Council said they preferred to “stay away from the money,hooliganism,factionalism and commercialisation that were the DUSU polls,” she hailed the recent crackdown on offenders by the proctor.

Girls’ colleges form a bulk of colleges unaffiliated to the DUSU: Mata Sundari Devi College,Kamla Nehru,Kalindi and Gargi are a few. A noted exception is Miranda House,the college of Kriti Wadhera,ABVP’s vice-presidential candidate.

Daphne Vallado,president of Jesus and Mary’s students’ union said: “It is a good platform for those who want to get into politics,but needs to be more organised. If they had less of commotion and more of work,colleges like us can be part of the system.”