Varsity8217;s gift contradicts panel report

MUMBAI, JUNE 11: For the FYBCom students of Borivli Education Society's College of Commerce, Science and Arts, Borivli W, the Universit...

MUMBAI, JUNE 11: For the FYBCom students of Borivli Education Society8217;s College of Commerce, Science and Arts, Borivli W, the University of Mumbai8217;s decision to allow the college to continue running all the five divisions has come as a godsend. The college, which shocked students by announcing last week that the commerce section was being closed down entirely, has started issuing admission forms now.

But the university8217;s decision to let the college continue with five divisions runs contradictory to an Academic Council resolution, which says that the college should be allowed to run only two divisions 8212; as it does not have the infrastructure to handle five divisions.

Instead of closing down the extra three divisions, the college management had announced that the entire commerce section was being closed down and gave Leaving Certificates to the 600-odd HSC students along with their mark-sheets. This was done without getting the requisite permission from the university.

Following the furore overclosure, university officials called the college management for a meeting last Tuesday. The management8217;s reasoning was that it was not financially viable to run only two divisions.

In the meeting, the management was told that it could run all the five divisions as a special case8217; only for this academic year, according to Vice-Chancellor Dr Snehalata Deshmukh.

The college was set up in 1993, with two divisions. Later, with the university8217;s permission, they added three more divisions, according to the registrar Dr P V Pradhan. This was permitted on the condition that the college would construct a new building.

But the committee found that not only did the college continue to function in a school building, it also had not even bothered to correspond with municipal authorities for getting permission for constructing a building, according to university sources. The panel therefore stated that the college had the infrastructure to run only two divisions, and that the other three should be shut down. Thereport was later accepted by the Academic Council.

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The management then seems to have decided that it would be more financially viable to shut down the entire commerce section, and proceeded accordingly. According to the registrar, they did not follow university procedures 8212; which say that the university should be notified one year in advance.

Despite the college flouting rules, the university has allowed it to run the five divisions 8220;for the sake of students8221;, says Dr Deshmukh. The fact that this fit of genorisity goes against a university appointed committee8217;s report has not bothered officials. Because 8220;the college has given an undertaking that the building will be constructed by the next academic year,8221; the vice-chancellor says. Also, this is not disregarding the committee8217;s report, she claims, adding that the management produced evidence of correspondence with municipal authorities for getting permission for constructing the building. 8220;They were to get a plot, and I was told that it got stuckwith the changeover from MiC,8221; Dr Deshmukh said.

The question of taking action against the college would be taken at the next Academic Council, the vice-chancellor stated.

The management could not be contacted.