It is really remarkable how different colleges react differently to a common discourse. Societies in colleges helps individuals develop their personal and team skills, irrespective of whether it is a cultural society or an academic one. However, starting a brand new society remains a major challenge across Delhi University. This not only hampers the personal development of students, but also demotivates those who take initiative.
After migrating to Moti Lal Nehru College this year, I successfully formed an Enactus Chapter and co– founded a Leadership Cell in my college. However, forming either wasn’t the easiest of tasks. To form a society in my college, even the Principal’s consent isn’t enough. We require a faculty advisor to get the plan disseminated to the upper bodies. We have a separate advisory council comprising of senior teachers who take note of the idea and scrutinise it. After the advisory council accepts it, we are informed of the fact that the college will not provide any funds for the society/project. In the case of the Leadership Cell, it had to be registered under the Economic Subject Society due to ambiguous reasons.
A major problem in this regard is the fact that generally the teachers and the higher authorities are sceptical of new/fresh ideas and most of the times, they deny the permission to form the society. Talking to students from different colleges shows that every college has different relaxations as well as restrictions on the formation of a new society –
Faculty Advisor
Colleges including SGTB Khalsa College, Maitreyi College and Lady Shri Ram College all require faculty advisors to start a society.
Intermediary Body
To form a new society in LSR, the application has to go through Student’s Welfare Body and an application of a non- cultural society in Maitreyi College has to be scrutinised by a teacher’s body, however such is not the case for a cultural society in Maitreyi College and SGTB Khalsa College, where the application has to directly go to the Principal.
Funds
In a college like SGTB Khalsa and a few north campus colleges, each society is eligible for funds up to 1 lakh rupees, be it cultural or non-cultural. However cultural societies in Maitreyi College receive basic funds from the college and lesser funds for non – cultural societies.
Societies have proved to be important clusters of human development in artistic and mental ways. There should definitely be a relaxed and a uniform method of forming a society across the University to minimise confusion.
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