Senior PHD students at IIT asked to vacate single-occupancy rooms, hold protest

The concerned students are research students from the institute who are residents of hostels 12,13, 14 and 18 for boys and hostel 10 and 11 for girls, particularly those who are pursuing PhD for more than five years.

The issue began after these students received an email from the administration informing about the new arrangement.

According to students after their failed attempts of having a dialogue with the administration, they protested on Thursday and issued a public statement highlighting their concerns.

The six page long detailed statement issued by the affected students, states, “The senior Ph.D. scholars need a single room as it acknowledges their privacy, efficiency of work, and the importance of the research done by them. At this crucial stage, the senior Ph.D. students need to work till late at night and give interviews which can definitely not be done in the presence of a roommate, as it may disturb the other person and his/her work.”

“Given the consistent lack of clarity in official communication, the sudden departure from the convention and the order to shift to shared occupancy is an extreme injustice to the senior scholars of the institution,” the statement read.

Stating that the administration had cited an existing rule to bring out the notification, one of the research students said, “But it was never implemented, as there was no need. By the time a new batch of research students arrives, some of the older batch will move out, which will create space. But we do not understand why the administration would want to vacate rooms to keep empty hostels until the new batch arrives.”

Students have said that they are demanding an open house with the admission to discuss the issue and their concerns.

The administration did not provide any comments.