Is college infrastructure being differentiated on the basis of courses?
We often experience the moment wherein our parents come to us at the end of 10th standard, and try to reason over why we should opt for the sciences in our last 2 years of schooling. For the lot of us who are confident enough to pursue our love for arts and social sciences assure our parents that after class 12, the gates of University of Delhi is open to us. But does the University of Delhi differentiate between the student’s needs on the basis of which course they choose to pursue?
After a short research conducted in a few colleges in Delhi University, it seems that a lot of colleges in terms of infrastructure have disappointed its students. For a few colleges, the students frown upon the overall infrastructure of their campuses. However, a few colleges are skeptical about the difference between the science and arts faculties in terms of facilities. A lot of colleges have been revamping their campuses due to the NAAC assessment, but there is a lingering doubt over whether these developments will remain intact after the NAAC team leaves the college premises. When in conversation with Riya Chhiber, a third-year student at Kamala Nehru College, it was reiterated that, “The entire campus has been changed and improved for the NAAC assessment, due to which washrooms are cleaner, seminar halls are constructed and general provisions in terms of electricity and cleanliness have been made better. However, whether these conditions will remain throughout has not been determined.” Similarly, colleges like Kirori Mal and Jesus and Mary College are constantly under renovation, due to which there is constant and disturbing air of construction during and after college hours.
Premiere colleges like Miranda House and St. Stephens have seen a difference in terms of infrastructure between the sciences and the arts. In conversation with students from Miranda House, who wish to remain anonymous, have placed immense emphasis on how the science block of the college has better facilities in terms of washrooms, classrooms and general atmosphere. They seemed to accept the fact that the science block does have a requirement of state of the art labs; however they do not understand the bias in terms of how the science block has better classrooms than the arts block. They also commented on the presence of air conditioning in many classrooms in the science block, whereas the arts block barely survives on over head fans in the sweltering heat. Similarly, in conversation with students from St. Stephen’s (who wish to remain anonymous), said that the science faculty has ‘lecture halls’ which are more spacious and ventilated, in comparison to the arts faculty, which have regular classrooms. However, we see a flipside to this case when in conversation with T. Chettri, a third-year student from Ramjas College, who says, “The new building which has been constructed in Ramjas, has top-notch classrooms for all students from all courses. Despite the subject and discourse, students of DU have equality in terms of the spaces they occupy in order to learn”. The new developments in Ramjas College shows how DU is changing and creating equal spaces in infrastructure for students across disciplines, a development we hope to see in all DU colleges despite the scrutiny of NAAC’s assessment.
Joyee Bhattacharya
Image credits: Daily Mail
