Opinion The pandemic batches will finally be on campus. They will have to make up for lost time
For those who have lost a majority of the time earmarked for that experience to the pandemic, that’s a lot to fit in in the time left. But a year on campus is better than none.
On Wednesday, it was announced that for the first time since the sudden lockdown in March 2020, DU is set to open for offline classes for Bachelor’s and Master’s students. 
Indian college and university students, thankfully, protest many things: From the seemingly quotidian affairs of hostel fees and bad mess food to the loftier ideals of the perceived excesses of governments and even the injustices of the world order. Yet, the protest at Delhi University earlier this week — conducted by both left- and right-wing student groups — was seemingly out of character. The livid learners demanded a return to the classroom; in essence, more studying and structure, not less.
In the last two years, thousands of freshers have become seniors without ever attending classes. More importantly, though, they have never had a taste of campus life at DU. University, where young adults take the first steps into a wider world, was reduced to a room at home and faces on a screen. For all the talk of the “new normal” and companies who profit from digital education selling it as a welcome development, home is no place for higher education. University is always a heady experience, and most of it is outside the classrooms. At a time when people yearn to get away from the inherited domesticity of their parents’ homes, the pandemic batches were trapped with their families.
On Wednesday, it was announced that for the first time since the sudden lockdown in March 2020, DU is set to open for offline classes for Bachelor’s and Master’s students. Friends from diverse groups, a little learning and a little rebellion and the freedom to make mistakes, it can take a while for new students to find themselves in a university. For those who have lost a majority of the time earmarked for that experience to the pandemic, that’s a lot to fit in in the time left. But a year on campus is better than none. No, the protesting students, despite their ideological differences, weren’t demanding classrooms and discipline. What they wanted was that brief and beautiful interlude when one is an adult, but not weighed down by the responsibility of work and family. From February 17, they shall have it.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on February 11, 2022 under the title ‘Welcome to college’.
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