In an indicationg that not all is well with the proposal to implement the semester system at Delhi Universitys undergraduate level,as has been claimed by him,Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental met with the faculty of the Economics and Zoology Department on Thursday to press his case. Neither meeting,however,ended on a happy note. According to faculty members who attended the meeting,Pental walked out of the meeting with the Economics department faculty after it got ugly. Incidentally,faculty members of both departments have already rejected the semester proposal twice in separate general body meetings. The V-C heckled us to accept the semester system. All 50-odd faculty members who attended,however,stuck to rejecting the proposal on various grounds. He finally left in a huff, said a teacher who attended the meeting held at the Delhi School of Economics. The V-C met only six representatives of the faculty of the Zoology department since the meeting was proposed at a short notice. We raised severe objections to the idea of using Zoology as a crutch to support a course on Molecular Biology. The V-C,on the other hand,said that topics concerning new trends in the field should be incorporated, said a Zoology faculty member who attended the meeting. He,however,seemed not aware of the fact that we already have the topics he mentioned. He proposed that we negotiate some of our objections,but we told him that we have rejected his proposal in its entirety, he added. Interestingly,a blueprint for the implementation of the semester system in the Zoology department was uploaded in the DU website more than a month back. Some teachers frame the whole syllabus. I hope that they can teach all of it as well, said a Zoology teacher of the university when asked about it. Teachers have been accusing V-C Pental of handpicking faculty to re-frame the syllabi. They also point out that syllabi revision is a lengthy process that takes years. The last revision of the Economics (Hons) syllabus took reportedly eight years. I wanted to have a talk with my colleagues¿ I am going to meet everybody, said Pental. I believe that things need to be changed even it they are not broken. The meeting was intended to be a dialogue. I am sure the teachers will come around, he added. It is a matter concerning the Academic and the Executive Councils. It will have to be followed in the end, Pental said. He,however,accepted that there were genuine concerns about admissions and examinations,which will be looked into.
