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The University of Delhi (DU) has decided to cancel all the first period classes of the colleges under the University, due to heavy fog and biting cold in the Capital.

On 4th January 2020, DU released a notice, stating its temporary policy to cancel all morning classes till 15th January. DU has adopted this policy due to the heavy presence of fog in the capital.

The notice reads, “This is to inform all the students of the University of Delhi (DU) that all classes taking place in the first period according to college timetable are to be cancelled till the 15th of January due to the presence of heavy fog in the city. The classes will continue as intended from the second period onwards.”

For some colleges like Hindu College, the first period starts at 8:50 a.m, for some like Mata Sundri College, it is 9 a.m, while for some colleges like Miranda House, it is at 8:30 a.m.

Jogesh K Tyagi, Vice Chancellor, DU, added that the University administration has taken this decision as a step towards its new policy of being more student-friendly. They plan on carrying out more policies like this in the future.

Rajesh R. Verma, a Professor of Hindi, said, “The students in the morning are drowsy during the first period and the fog will only heighten this. Moreover, students a lot of times tend to skip the first classes due to the fog. This might lead to them missing out on their course material. I think this is a move taken in favour of the students and I appreciate it. I hope the students won’t miss the other classes now.”

Sakshi Sharma, a student of Hansraj College, said, “I welcome this change made by DU. It takes me about two hours to come to college from home. In the fog, it’s especially difficult to travel. It’ll be a great relief for both students and teachers.”

However, Saumya Rao, a third-year student, disagreed with the move, saying, “I don’t think there’s any point in cancelling the classes. Bad weather days may come and go, but I don’t think our routine life should change because of that. This will only lead to us missing out on our syllabus and then cramming during the end. I wish the University focused more on important things like infrastructure.”

While this is going to be implemented only till 15th January, worsening of weather conditions may lead to further changes and cancellation of classes.

Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is only to be appreciated and not accepted!

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Satviki Sanjay

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With approximately 1.5 lac students enrolling every year in the various courses provided by the University, Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL) aims to offer correspondence courses with no mandatory attendance against the regular courses of the University. 

The continual shortage of classrooms, faculties, and other facilities has continued to hinder the progress of the University and its students. Only recently, after switching to the semester mode of education, SOL is set to conduct all classes on Saturdays as well.

Despite three weeks since the inception of this academic session, the administration has only been able to carry sixty percent of the total classes, as opposed to previous years, where the turnout corresponded to only 10-20% of students, the number exceeded to about 30-40% in 2019, making the situation difficult for the administration, as claimed by Professor Ramesh Bhardwaj, Officer on Special Duty in SOL.

Professor Bhardwaj further quoted that the shift in the system from an annual mode to a semester mode has contribued to the problems all the more. Where the annual mode classes would have begun in October or November, the new semester mode, adopted by the SOL has pushed the timeline much forward than planned, for the first-time the students of the SOL will be studying under the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS), which will bring their courses on par with regular curriculum.

However, right from the start of the course, regular protests are being held by members of KYS, and other student organisations, expressing their grievance against the authorities in different parts of the University. Classes are being cancelled regularly and many times at the last minute, causing wastage of student’s time & energy. 

“We don’t mind the CBCS system being implemented, but they [administration] are clearly not prepared for it,” says Aarti Khush Wahab, a first-year student at SOL. 

The administration has further announced the dates for the examination to be in the first week of November, what with the inconsistent classes and inadequate study material, worsening the situation for the students. 

In response to issues mentioned above, the administration plans to hold classes in double shifts, Professor Bhardwaj said. Currently there are about 30 centres alloted to SOL for holding classes, the administration requires 70 more in near future. The step seems promising but its effectiveness seems to be a big question. 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Faizan Salik

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Imagine not joining any society in college: would things be different? How would you make friends or create experiences? See college life from the eyes of someone who is not in any society!

The University of Delhi (DU) is prestigious for several things, including its societies and co-curricular activities. Societies are sought after, and the students look forward to joining these. Students in these societies are deeply passionate and spend hours every day practicing before and after college, going to competitions, missing classes. With so much time spent in one place, it is inevitable that you find friends and create experiences there.

But it is unfair to generalise these experiences; for many students, college is simply being able to have the gift of time and freedom. They can invest these wherever they want. They could miss a class or attend all, they could make friends slowly and organically from their own class or simply stick to their school friends, and they could make spontaneous plans after college because there is no practice or spend hours talking in their usual favourite spot in college. College fests are a fun time as they get to attend it with their college friend circles.

A common factor that all students who were not in any society talked about was the commitment that societies demand. The practices during college, missing of classes, hectic schedule, extra work, and drained energy every day were reasons to not join. Although they also struggled with notes and assignments, and not all of them attended every single class or kept 100% attendance, but they simply prioritised academics or a better mental and physical health.

Sumati from Kamala Nehru College comments, “I am pursuing Psychology without having studied psychology in school, so I had a tough first year and I only wanted to invest time here. I agree societies help people live college life to the fullest, but they can also put a huge burden or stress.”

Sanyukta Golaya of Indraprastha College for Women commented, “When I joined college, I was never quite as interested or inclined towards societies, the way I was towards my course. I was very clear that any time that I had after my classes would be spent making detailed notes and reading up for the lectures, I had the next day. I didn’t care whether not wanting to be involved in society work made me come off as a bore- I freely choose what I wanted to do with my spare time, and till date, I’m very content with my decision. I’ve managed to make friends, I’m happy with the way I’ve turned out in college, and I couldn’t be bothered whether others believed it to be ‘productive’.”

This perfectly brings out the false ideas of productivity that exist today. Contrary to the popular belief, these people are also able to pursue their passion outside of college through dance or music classes, writing for student magazines, going for MUNs, etc. Many of them find a way to hone their skills and follow their passion without investing their energy in any college society.

Being someone in the debating society, I know that a society can grow on you and you cannot imagine a life without it. Upon speaking to several students, I realised how life in its absence is also very special. Very few students said that they found college boring and, finding college life dull or lonely, they now look forward to joining something next year and the experiences it will bring. Others also talked about the perspective that having observed college for a while and settling in, they now felt ready to join something. But all students were happy with the choices they made, the effort they put in academics or outside and with the routine they chose in college.

Featured Image Credits: DU Beat

Shivani Dadhwal

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We have all been there, and are more than well-versed with the struggle that comes with early morning classes. What once seemed like  cakewalk in school now seems like a Herculean task.

What is strange is the fact that, 8:30 a.m. was no problem in school. This makes you wonder, what went wrong along the way, ‘the way’ being the two months between exams and college admissions. Could it be the lack of sleep that was experienced by most during the board exams? Or the stress that came with result anticipation and college admissions? Or some unknown force that overcame everybody postschool?
Many of us may enter college freshfaced and ready to take on the world, with early morning classes being the least our concerns. Upon entry, the excitement of college is replaced by the burden of mediocrity pretty soon; making things like eating meals on time a task, let alone attending classes post 10 a.m. Most people’s first attempt at waking up for an 8 a.m. class fails miserably due to a plethora of reasons, overconfidence being the biggest culprit. You feel selfassured that if you could wake up for school, you can wake up for college. However, some crucial factors are missing in the college setting, namely, mother dearest. You fail to realise that the reason you made it on time was not that you are a responsible and independent student, but because you had someone to shake you off your bed, and force you to get up and get going.
Your first 8 a.m. class in college is a whole different experience in itself. The night before, you open your timetable and look at the neatly demarcated boxes with the brimming excitement of your first lecture. You may even be confident enough to consider not putting an alarm at all, but that is mostly a fluke and never works out. So you set your alarm for exactly 7:30 a.m., not 7:10 then 7:15 then 7:20 and so on, just 7:30. With an overly ambitious alarm set, you turn the lights off. The next morning turns out to be exhaustingly frenzied, owing to the fact that you wake up at 7:40 a.m. Your parents, lacking confidence in your ability to function without them, call you several times, only to encounter a never-ending ring. Congratulations, you have successfully been inducted into the world of frequently missing morning classes!
In the first year of college, you cannot seem to get over the guilt of missing these classes. By second year you feel somewhat ashamed about it, but momentarily. Come the third year of college and now you are a confident, hopeless, indifferent being who even takes pride in missing classes. It is then you reach a sublime level of self acceptance and embrace the glorious character of a true college student worthy of their degree. To all the freshers, welcome to a world where 11 a.m. is the new 8 a.m., and to all the first and second-year veterans, dream on.
Feature Image Credits: Max
Meher Gill

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As mid-semester examination are approaching, the age old tension of attendance shortage is being clearly visible on many students faces. With lots of hustle and bustle, students manage to get a high percentage to land in India’s best university but then the monster of attendance still manages to get a 100% in every educational institution.
Let’s hear what the experts have to say on this at Quora:

“This really depends on which college you’re in. Some colleges are super strict about these rules, and some are super relaxed. To give you an example of the range, I know people who’ve had no problem collecting admit cards for their exams with 4% attendance, along with people who’ve had to sign bonds for 65% attendance, just to be able to site for exams. The fluctuations happen because even though the University has a common guideline of 67% attendance, colleges end up making their individual rules for attendance requirements. Depending on how seriously your college takes this matter, the possible consequences are: Relaxed attendance rules

Go ahead and collect your admit card, without any hassles.

Moderately strict rules

You’ll have to sign a bond that says that you’ll maintain the required attendance mark in the coming semester.

Very strict rules + Very low attendance%

You’ll be debarred from the exams, and parents might be involved. This situation might incite hunger strikes and protests from the affected students in the college.”

As per 2016, sources said that more than 100 students, whose attendance was below 66.67 per cent, have been detained across all colleges in the University. While some colleges such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) College has detained 48 students, Dyal Singh College has detained 55 students across 15 courses. “We have detained 48 students this semester across all courses. Their continuation in the college is subject to two conditions — if they have cleared their first semester papers, then they will come back next year when the incumbent batch reaches the second semester. But if the student has not cleared his first semester papers, but has been detained in the second semester too, he will lose his seat in the college,” said SK Garg, principal, DDU College.

Now only the dates of receiving admit card will decide if medical certificates can still save the students’ careers!

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Naimisha

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As a consequence of falling number of students attending lectures in the college, Dr. S. P. Aggarwal, the Principal of Ramanujan College (formerly known as Deshbandhu College), issued a notice on 31st January 2014 regarding this attendance issue. Due to the decline in attendance of students, specifically in Foundation Courses and Integrating Mind, Body and Heart (IMBH) courses as introduced in the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), the authorities decided to bring about some steps so as to intimidate students to attend classes. “This is a new experiment that the college is doing with the students. Personally I feel, attendance has never been a motivational factor for any student, they should be self-motivated to attend the lectures and this is how it works. But on the other side, some strictness and forcefulness are required for the students’ welfare. Also, if there are genuine reasons behind a student not attending the classes, then they will be taken into consideration. The exact results to this approach will be visible only at the end of this month, once the whole month’s attendance is out on the college website.” replied Mr. Nikhil Kumar Rajput, when asked for his views on this matter. Ramanujan   The notice issued by the Principal stated, “Any student found missing from the classes for more than 4 consecutive classes of particular subject in a month will be fined @ Rs. 500 each.” Teachers from the college are asked not to permit the students to sit in the class, without the college authority’s approval, if he/she misses more than 4 consecutive classes. “This rule is not fit for the FYUP students because they are not allotted marks on the basis of attendance like any other three year graduate programme students are provided. But the fact that the students have started taking these courses like IMBH and Foundation Courses, more seriously after the issue of this notice, as was expected by the college authorities, cannot be ignored”, said a first year FYUP student of Ramanujan College  ]]>

attendanceAgainst

Einstein while explaining his relativity theory of time gave the example of how one hour with a gorgeous woman seems like a second and a second at a boring conference seems like an hour. Similarly, a fifty minute lecture with a teacher can vary from seeming like two minutes to fifty hours and in the case of the latter, you are sitting in the class wishing desperately to get out but you cannot! Why? Because DU rules say that five per cent of your score is determined by your attendance. This rule compels so many of us to attend boring lectures where we have no interest in the subject or as is more common, where we are blessed with a wonderful teacher who manages to completely kill our interest in the subject. They say that this rule is necessary so that the teacher does not have to face an empty classroom. I find that attitude defeatist. At the age of 18 (when most of us enter college), do they really think that we have the wisdom to choose which MPs will govern us but not have the intelligence to decide which classes we must attend? As it is, we do not have too much choice regarding the subjects we wish to study in the Indian system. At least in college we should be able to assert our choice. The argument about no one attending classes if we do not have marks for it falls on its head when we look at what a truly great teacher can do. At a very famous DU college a professor’s classes are so famous that while he’s teaching even the window sills in the lecture room are filled with kids. People turn up even when they know they will get absolutely no marks for attending, so surely if the teaching standard is great students will turn up. On the other hand, if students attend classes just for the sake of marks but pay no attention in class, does that really help anyone at all? When teachers know that to avoid teaching empty classrooms they’d have to earn it, wouldn’t it raise the level of teaching? Doesn’t this give us an instrument of protest against bad teaching? If the authorities do decide to accord some respect to our ability to make our own choices they’ll realize for a fact that most students are in fact quite keen on actually learning and it will encourage a love for learning.

At the end of the day, keeping aside all debates on the efficiency of exams and the process of checking, aren’t our marks supposed to be a reflection of how deeply we understand the subject? Does attending a few lectures less than the other person really translate into having a deeper understanding? I doubt that. Doling out marks for attendance only limits our choices. And as an Economist has famously said, limiting my choices mostly limits my happiness.

For

Popular culture would have us believe that college life is one joyride with having fun being the only objective of students and studies being some vague entity they are hardly concerned with. Bunking classes in the higher interest of Chilling and contributing to the friendly neighbourhood chaatwala’s revenue is but natural and classrooms are there only to accommodate all the furniture. Most of us would like to believe in this romanticized version of college life and consider the attendance rule a major bubble-burster, but what we seem to be forgetting is that DU is an educational institution with teaching and learning being the primary aim and for this aim to be achieved, a few rules are necessary.

Let’s face it. If it weren’t for the lure of the 5 extra marks reserved for those with an attendance of 85% or more, most of us would definitely not have attended as many classes as we do presently. Though everyone grumbles about this regulation, they fail to realize that it is not a compulsion but an incentive. You have the freedom to bunk as many classes as you want without losing any marks at all. The university doesn’t punish those who fail to turn up for lectures, it only rewards those who do. I just don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with a rule that gives one extra marks merely for sitting around in classrooms.

Though 5 marks don’t seem like much right now, it can actually make a lot of difference in the larger scheme of things. 5 marks can convert a second division into a first, a fail into a pass, a commoner into a topper and so on. In short, five marks can make or break you. Instead of protesting against this ruling, students should be celebrating it and making the most of the opportunity. By imposing this regulation on us, the management is not curbing our rights, but broadening our scope to score marks. The rule, far from being a pain, is actually a blessing in disguise.

Admittedly, sitting under the fan in a classroom doesn’t really test any skill (except, perhaps one’s patience) and therefore deserves no extra marks. But in this way, the regulation is an equalizer. It cuts through all intellectual barriers, for once giving the average student the chance to score just as much the topper with sheer determination and well, endurance.

Summing up, the attendance rule is just a harmless, democratic tool to ensure that classrooms don’t remain empty and makes life a lot easier for the majority of us. It’s time we stopped objecting to every little rule and instead, start figuring out how to make them work us instead.

(This article has been equally contributed by Shraddha and Aina)