No Foundation Day in Deshbandhu College (Eve)

Deshbandhu College (Evening) of Delhi University has decided to not celebrate its Foundation Day. The college administration has taken the decision in this regard considering the fact that the college is in the process of separation with its parent Deshbandhu College (morning). But the staffs and college students are nor happy with the move. The college used to celebrate its Foundation Day on August 3rd.

FEDCUTA welcomes government’s move

The FEDCUTA has appreciated the move of the Central Government to increase the age of retirement of High Court judges from 62 to 65 saying that it would bring uniformity in the retirement age of High Court judges and Supreme Court judges in the country.
“This move is positive in many respects. Firstly, it is only very few High Court judges, who become Supreme Court judges. Therefore those who do not get chance to become Supreme Court judge retire earlier. Secondly, this would give more time to experience senior judges of High Court to deal with their work / cases. Thirdly, position or seniority in the employees in the Government Organizations does not make difference in the retirement age”, the teachers’ body of all central universities said in a statement. FEDCUTA urges the Central Government to finalize and implement its announced move at the earliest.

BBE: Fresh counseling after the allegations

Several admissions have been cancelled in Bachelor of Business Economics (BBE) during the counseling at South Campus after the allegations of irregularities in the counseling. Parents and students alleged that the university was considering the candidature of those students who did not participated earlier during their turn. On this the Director, South Campus intervened into the matter and stopped counseling. The process will take place on Wednesday once again.

Delhi University, which is already facing crunch of best students in science stream, has not been able to attract good number of applicants for undergraduate science courses till now. The queries, being asked at various counseling centre, are mostly related to commerce, arts or humanities and not for science. Read the rest of this entry »

Mission admission is going to take off in Delhi University from Friday when sale of application forms for undergraduate courses will start at 10.00 am at 16 sales counters including Art Faculty of Delhi University and South Campus. Comprehensive arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct for the sale of the forms and proper traffic management.

According to S K Vij, Dean Student Welfare, all arrangements have been made for the smooth admission process. However, the best strategy will be to reach nearest centre on time to buy and submit the form. It will be better if students use metro rather than their own vehicles as the strict traffic management will be there. Chances of traffic jam is high as construction regarding Commonwealth Games are already on and roads in north campus are not in good condition to carry heavy traffic load.
Application forms will be available from 28th May to 11th June for 2010-11 session. Delhi University has set up 16 Admission Information Centres located in different parts of the city for sale and receipt of Common Pre-Admission Forms and Information Bulletins. Students can obtain these forms and bulletins from these following centres. Completed forms can be submitted at any of these centres :

North Delhi:
1. Office of the Dean Students’ Welfare, Main Campus, Delhi University
2. Kirorimal College
3. Faculty of Arts, Main Campus
4. Swami Shradhanand College Alipur

South Delhi
5. Office of the Deputy Dean Students’ Welfare, South Campus, Benito Juarez Marg
6. Deshbandhu College, Kalkaji
7. ARSD College, Dhaula Kuan
8. Gargi College, Siri Fort Road,
9. PGDAV College, Nehru Nagar, Ring Road
10. College of Vocation Studies, Sheikh Sarai

East Delhi
11. Shyam Lal College, Shahdara
12. Vivekanand College, Vivek Vihar
13. Maharaja Agrsen College, Mayur Vihar
West Delhi
14. Rajdhani College, Raja Garden
15. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College, Punjabi Bagh (West)

Central Delhi
16. Zakir Husain College, Jawaharlal Nehru Marg

It is a nuclear fission like situation in Delhi University. Though Cobalt-60 is not capable for nuclear fission (fusion bomb can be made out of it theoretically) but the recent episode of Cobalt-60 and the unilateral imposition of semester system in some subjects by Vice Chancellor have created fission like reaction.

Fumed over Sunday’s episode of physical assault on teachers at South Campus a large number of teachers in the university have stopped evaluation work in protest of the incident. Teachers have not participated in the evaluation work at atleast four centres today. These include centres at Kirori Mal College, Miranda House, Hansraj College and Khalsa College, said an official of Delhi University. According to him three to four hundred teachers have been associated with all these centres.

However, Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) office-bearers say that this is a kind of temporary suspension of the evaluation work. We have appealed them to join evaluation work as students must not suffer in the whole episode.

AC Members dharna enters into 5th Day:

Meanwhile, members of Academic Council today continued their dharna on fifth consecutive day. Some of the members have started facing health related problems due to the prolonged dharna. “Some of our members have already facing various ailments the dharna has increased their problems”, R S Dahia, an AC member told fachcha.com over phone. According to him Vice Chancellor has still not come to talk with us though he had promised to do so. “We received a message from V C’s office on Sunday at about 12.30 pm that V C was coming to talk with us but nothing has happened till now”, he said.

VC’s letter for talk
Meanwhile the V C Deepak Pental has sent a letter to agitating teachers to talk on the issue on Tuesday but putting a pre-condition that the discussion can take place only if agitation is stopped. Teachers have yet to take decision on the issue.

Delhi University teachers have been physically assaulted by the private and personal guards of university Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental. At least four teachers including Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) President Aditya Narayan Mishra have been injured in the assault. The incident occurred at about 11.00 am when they went to meet the Vice Chancellor at South Campus to request him to meet the agitating members of Academic Council on the issue of semester system.

“University teachers Sanjay, S K Mishra and Surendra Kumar have been injured in this attack”, Aditya Narayan Mishra told fachcha.com who himself got injury in hand.

“We are really stunned and shocked at Vice-Chancellor’s behaviour. No member of teaching community can expect such move by an academic head of the country’s largest central university. We went there to request him to meet the members of Academic Council, who have been sitting on dharna for last four days, the longest dharna by the AC members.

The Vice-Chancellor has now come on violence to prove himself right and mighty and to hide his malfunctioning like Cobalt-60 and autocratic imposition of semester system in some of the subjects by unilaterally passing the agenda despite dissents in the Academic Council meeting on Thursday night, said another teacher.

However, Vice-Chancellor, who later on met the teachers and promised to meet agitating members of Academic Council members, has not met the members as yet till evening. Members allege that the passed restructured course is different from the course passed by the department and it is clear violation of university acts too.

Chandan Sharma

Remember those days when you cleared your 12th standard. Whatever the result students achieved in the school it used to be a matter of great joy for them. Not because of result but due to the feeling and imagination of joining a college leaving a disciplined, examination obsessed, and period-packed life of schools. Students used to go different colleges with their friends and elders to see the building, infrastructure, ambience and other facilities of the colleges.

But from this academic session the joy of joining college may be absent among the students of Delhi University. This will be true for the students of Science and Commerce at the undergraduate level. The Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University has unilaterally announced to implement semester system from the coming academic session by using his ‘emergency powers’ despite all protest from the teachers and students community and pushed the students community in the another tough cycle of exams, experiments, projects and other tests throughout the year rather than giving them space for free thinking.

Students have become a victim of the crossfire between Delhi University administration (read Vice-Chancellor) and Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA). The joy of joining a college is going to become as tedious and tough as joining an engineering institution or professional courses. The recent episode of Cobalt-60 has proved a catalyst in the process as there is no escape of Delhi University administration from the guilt as the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and Science and Technology Minister Prithvi Raj Chavan in Lok Sabha have clearly said that Delhi University has violated norms in this regard. But to save own skin from the episode the university administration has fuelled the issue semester system by announcing ‘half-baked’ implementation. The university administration, who has moved to Delhi High Court recently in this regard, has not even patience to wait judiciary’s decision in this concern as if it has no faith in the Indian Judiciary system. It is notable that the court has decided to hear the case on 20th May.

This shows that how an academician like Prof. Deepak Pental converts into an administrator, who does not have time to listen its students, teachers or even members of Executive and Academic Councils of the university or judiciary to implement the guideline provided by the UGC or Ministry of HRD at the time of completion of his term.

Prof. Deepak Pental was different man when he used to be the Director of South Campus of Delhi University. When I had a meeting with him at the Director’s office at South Campus about 13 or 14 years ago he talked about students, researches, their concerns and many other things.

But priority has changed now. As a retiring Vice Chancellor he has to prove his administrative capabilities anyhow so that future could be secured. Students are nowhere in the mind. That is the reason that the timing to make such announcement has been chosen when the students’ concentration is very thin the university so that the administration could face least opposition in this regard. Though, Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) has already opposed the system. The Vice-Chancellor talks about quality improvement through semester system but the teachers of Delhi School of Economics (DSE) have opposed the system saying that best universities like Oxford and Cambridge have not been following the semester system.

In such a situation what has compelled the Vice-Chancellor to implement the system by using his emergency powers. He should tell everybody. If it is a result of fight between DUTA and university administration please do not make students scapegoats. Leave them to grow in an atmosphere of openness. Do not make a pawn in the fight between teachers and administration. Please restore their college life and do not send them in school again on the name of educational reforms. Restore their era of college life.

Students of over 14 batches of Post Graduate Journalism Courses today sat together and discussed various issues regarding career, journalism and Alma meter at SP Jain Institute of Management of South Campus, Delhi University. The meet attended by several mediapersons, teachers and management professionals and government officials.

Students of the ongoing courses of PG Journalism also raised demand of permanent faculty from the field of journalism rather than traditional Hindi stream. They had the view that Hindi teachers have been teaching the course for a long time as a guest faculty. This is mere formality and also affect career of student when they face tough market situation. As a guest faculty, teachers do not take students and their work seriously. Students also demanded to convert two-year Diploma course into Master degree. “It is a sheer exploitation of students, their time and career as nowhere two-year diploma is in practice. After spending our precious two year we are unable to do further study due to apathetic and irresponsible attitude of Hindi department”, said a student of 2001-2003 batch.