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Journalism of Courage
CHANDIGARH, Oct 14: The commencement of the new academic session after the autumn break has been marred by rallies and dharnas on the campus. Any visitor to the campus during the past few days was greeted by agitating students and non-teaching employees.
Some of these dharnas could have been avoided, especially the one by the students of the department of evening studies. According to the students, what was needed was a mere order of the department announcing the constitution of the student consultative committee as per the university calender. Moreover the issue of elections had already been settled by the university syndicate. However the delay caused anguish among students who marched towards the residence of the Vice Chancellor.
The agitation of the non-teaching staff has led to considerable tension on the campus. Apart from the payment of arrears to employees, it needs a careful study to understand the various currents involved in the agitation. First, the university should have avoided promising something which it is not able to deliver. Second, signing an agreement raised the aspirations of the employees and lack of dialogue between the employees and the authorities created a sense of anguish.
It also stresses the need for the university to systematically study financial matters and the need for expert advise on money matters, especially in view of the crunch that universities are facing nowadays. It is true that the university lacks people with commercial acumen, and it is forced to fall back upon the few who have knowledge about finance.
This ensures that the university gets only unilateral advise which has the potential of being used by interested parties for queering the pitch for the campus authorities.
Finally, despite the announcement of part payment of arrears, so far the only thing the agitation has achieved is that two persons, the Vice Chancellor and the registrar are on the receiving end.
Varsity godfathers
Agitations has also led to deterioration of the atmosphere on the campus. The first six months of the tenure of the VC saw him carry both the senate groups along with him and things on the campus worked smoothly.
However, increase in confrontation has ensured that one group of senators and teachers is being alienated from the VC, to the pleasure of the other group. Every incident of confrontation provides an opportunity for some to act as fire fighters and further their claim of being quot;loyalistsquot;.
This has created a situation, where some persons on the campus have started acting as godfathers, while students and others continue to suffer. A significant portion of time of university officials is being spent in solving problems rather than engaging in academic work, or ensuring that campus becomes a better place for students and researchers.
Senate nominations
A few seats of the university senate have fallen vacant after the seats earlier reserved for Haryana ministers were withdrawn. Attempts by hopefuls to seek nominations for these senate seats is on, although opinion is divided whether it would be appropriate to fill these seats now, or wait for the next senate to be constituted.
