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DU Societies: Online or Offline 

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As a semblance of normalcy begins to return to functioning around us, Delhi University performance-based societies choose to go offline with their workings – a decision that risks alienating outstation students who are still hesitant to return to campus. Read on to find more. 

Delhi University sees a diverse crowd in all terms. The play of privilege has come to the forefront in the era of the digital divide. We witnessed students committing suicide, leaving education, and going to all ends to just afford a phone or laptop for studies. In this phase, where do the cultural societies of Delhi University stand?

In the online scenario, all the performing societies were forced to operate in the online space, as a result of which we saw many online productions, audio plays, and virtual open mics. But the transition phase in DU societies has begun even before the colleges are officially reopened. A few months back a lot of performing societies started functioning offline, some with or without permission from the college authorities.

These mainly comprise drama societies, music and dance societies which need offline spaces to carry on with their operations smoothly. But since DU is not a university of Delhi students only, the question that ‘Do DU societies belong only to Delhi people?’ seems pretty valid in a scenario where outstation students are being repeatedly sidelined by the indiscriminate move to go offline with functioning.

Just a few days back Mood Indigo, the fest of IIT Bombay, organized the prelims for its street theatre competition, where some of the prominent societies performed with their productions like Ibitida, Hindu College, Hansraj Dram Soc, Kahkasha JMC, Lakshya, Kamla Nehru College, Anubhuti, Sri Venkateswara College, and many others. DU Beat talked to Simran from Hansraj Dram Soc to understand their take on conducting offline practices and workshops in collaboration with other societies.

We first years came into the society to perform and sadly it was not happening. Offline practices were essential for us to learn how DCTC worked as we will soon become seniors and the onus of training others will be on us.”

An outstation member of Kshitij, the street play society of Gargi College which organised an offline workshop in collaboration with Hansraj Dram Soc, on grounds of anonymity, shared their views with DU Beat,

If we talk about outstation students, someone who has never seen their college, for them, online meets are everything, that screen becomes more than just a screen. Offline meets are not fair to them, and they cannot be expected to travel long distances to attend, it is just not fair. They are missing out on experiences and lessons because of the circumstances. In the end, it comes down to whose perspective you choose to see – that of the helpless first year or the third year who will choose the offline mode due to the sheer rigour and space it allows one to work in.” 

The culture of performing societies is surely a source of pride for the University of Delhi but another thing that the nukkad nataks propagate is the call for equality. In such a situation, when being in Delhi means being able to experience the societies, aren’t these societies becoming elite spaces? Various outstation students, who can afford to be in the city for internships or societies have moved here already, so who is actually being left behind? For these answers, we talked to Jai Mahajan from Shunya, Ramjas who shared his society experience.

Being in an online space has affected theatre but we are trying our best to level the playfield. Shunya is trying to come up with a fusion of both online and offline work. Surely people in the offline mode are learning and adapting quickly, but it’s up to seniors how they balance the collaboration.” – Jai, a member of Shunya, Ramjas

In the month of November, Shunya conducted its first series of month-long offline workshops. Students across departments and years from the college attended the workshops, which were conducted by incumbent and erstwhile members of the society on a wide range of topics relating to theatre. But the attendees also included a large number of outstation students who flew down to the city specifically to attend these workshops. Although safety precautions were adequately taken for the same, the decision to conduct these workshops in the offline mode, which many society members too could not attend, still remains under question.

As the auditions of performing societies were conducted in the online mode in the time of the digital divide, it already pushed out students from backward sections of societies. Several talented students could not audition due to unstable internet, and some had to travel elsewhere just for the sake of giving their auditions. And after that exclusion, the dispersion of outstation and Delhi students brings forth the question of representation. Performances talking about the evils of caste and class while propagating on those same foundations are making a farce of the art form.

We can’t lose out on practice just because the colleges are online now. To get on the stage and win awards and experience that feeling of dancing in front of people cheering for you hoping that you win. To learn things online is really difficult, offline practice is of the utmost necessity if you want to bring the best out of your crew. There is no formal permission as such but socs have never totally depended on college to practice even when it was offline.” – A member of a dance society

DU performing societies have been known for their rigorous working, but the entire working process changed owing to the prevailing conditions. Talking about how his society operates, Tushar, a member of The Dramatics Society of Dyal Singh Evening College, Junoon said,

Most of the members of our society are from Delhi, offline meets are recorded, and activities are discussed in the online meets. The same activities are done in the online mode with some tweaks to make them feasible.”

Meanwhile, Jai from Shunya, Ramjas shared how audio plays helped them bridge the gap to some extent.

Some of our members are from Kashmir and places where there is low connectivity; for them, we practiced and explored auditory drama on phone calls.”

Shruti, the President of Lakshya, KNC, shared her society experience of working in the online mode. For better functioning, they divided the team into two where outstation members worked on the stage production, working with characters, while the Delhi students worked on street play.

At least some of the students would learn and know something; this year we are focusing more on learning and teaching.”

There are also various societies that chose not to function in the offline space. Siddhi from LSR Dramsoc shared her take on the issue,

Even though the offline experience was beautiful, we chose not to practice in offline mode since we have people from other cities as well in our society. We need to adapt to the times, and to pass on the culture, we talk about our past experiences and activities, so our juniors know about the working. DCTC as a group needs to think and engage in dialogue to come to a better and more feasible conclusion.”

While sharing her experience of being an outstation student, a member of a drama society said in a conversation with DU Beat,

It doesn’t feel like a team anymore; the production doesn’t feel ours. If offline working brings back the culture of theatre it also breaks the team apart in two. It’s a sort of slow coercion over outstation students to leave since we don’t play any active part. We feel like outsiders instead of outstation students, where we realize being in Delhi is a privilege that we can’t afford.” 

Despite the brouhaha surrounding the debate around offline and online functioning, there are societies that have accepted the online mode and have gone ahead with annua productions; for example, the Shakespeare Society of St. Stephens College performed their annual production for the year Chateau Manor House on Zoom a few weeks back. The reluctance of many societies to adapt to the same mode is, on one hand preserving the physical essence of these performance societies. At the same time, it risks non-functioning and becomes largely emblematic of the larger hegemony present in these societies to refuse to adapt to changing times and tweak and challenge procedural functionings that have been set in stone for years now.

Image Credits: Sabha, the dramatics society of St. Stephens College 

Read Also: The Rise of OTT: Destruction of The Theatre Culture?
Remembering Safdar Hashmi: Inquilab and Theatre

Kashish Shivani ([email protected]) 

Anwesh Banerjee ([email protected]) 

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Arts & Culture

Dear Freshers, This is Your Reality Check on DU Societies         

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With the rosy season of auditions going on, this is an introduction for freshers to the dark side of DU Societies.  

As the audition season approaches, one could have seen the college areas buzzing with auditions. On the online campus, it’s a bit different; the society’s social media pages, which have been abandoned for long, now become the main agenda of society meetings. All of a sudden, reels are being posted, and you see clips of happy members of societies playing along, some on screens while some on the ground, and a Ritviz song playing in the background. The usual words that will be used in these videos are “family”, “creative community” and every adjective you can imagine for a bunch of happy undergrads. But are societies really this happy, or is it just the poster happiness to lure in freshers?

(Obviously, not all societies fall into this category, the main aim is to introduce freshers to the toxic side of DU societies.) A lot of societies are run by seniors who exercise control over all the functioning. At some colleges, administration or the teacher or convenor intervene, but at some, they don’t pay any heed. Some societies have also faced such extreme obstruction of administration that even their performances have been canceled, whereas the bullying by many societies goes unchecked due to no surveillance. (Societies should ideally lie between this tussle of control, where admin maintains minimum control but a required check, but hey, we are in DU!)

A hierarchy is maintained among all the members to maintain ‘discipline’. But this setup often leads to toxicity as seniors in positions of responsibility take undue advantage of their power. The societies that should act as communities housing creative talent become a powerhouse of trashy politics and toxicity, where bullying and ragging houses.

Recently, such a situation came to light during the auditions of Finance Investment Cell of Hansraj College, about which a first-year student said,

During our Finance Investment Cell interviews, the core team members made us dance against our will, I felt uncomfortable but since I wanted to get into the soc, I had to go with the flow. Later on, they were boasting about the fact that they made us do squats, dance, and sing in the interviews during our induction meeting.” 

First Years who are already ridden with anxiety get pushed underneath the wish of being in the cool circles of college and fail to report such behaviors, and the cycle of toxicity continues. Another student from a dance society shared their experience in a conversation with DU Beat.

This certain level of hierarchy restricts our freedom as an artist and as a person. The role of unions should be to represent the members of the society and to guide us, but it feels like someone has given them authority and they just want to show it off.”

Even in the online mode, several students have suffered terrible things at the hands of societies. With the second batch moving into the online campus, we need to configure our thinking accordingly. If the cultural front of the university keeps on reeking privilege and toxicity, the development of the individual would be a far-gone concept here. It’s high time proper redressal forums (talking about Cultural Secretaries) work in every college to respond to all grievances and dismantle these toxic hierarchies.

[email protected]

Kashish Shivani

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Film Criticism: Of Subjectivity and Stars

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A brief outlay of what goes into perceiving film criticism as one of the most misunderstood and least credited forms of entertainment journalism

 Entertainment journalism is probably the least taken seriously category of journalism in most mainstream discourses on the same. People diss it off in terms of it being something that works primarily on exercising unsolicited opinions. Film critics specifically are called people whose failure at being professionals of cinema led to them choosing lives as critics who find it inherently impossible to break upon the scene as real artists. To warrant a ‘positive’ review the film itself needs to emerge from a certain generic space – preferably indie – whereas those belonging to genres more mainstream will always remain sidelined in terms of the adulaton they receive from critics (clearly people don’t read reviews coming out of film festivals).

In a post-paparazzi world, the act of recording itself has been essentially reduced to its barest levels whereby entire film reviews are just sent out through character limited tweets are limited to a string of adjectives which are incoherently strung together to create what could only be possibly labelled as a mood piece gone horribly wrong. There is much less consideration of film criticism as an evolved form of journalism that requires an in-depth understanding of the material at hand – not only on a narrative level but also in terms of technicalities such as editing, cinematography and sound – to name a few. The dilution of entertainment criticism is also largely owing to the social media boom where every person not only has an opinion but also a space to offer that opinion at; and hence opinions – mostly under-researched and unfounded, start masquerading as ‘reviews’ with no credibility.

Over the years a variety of outstanding critics (sadly mostly Western) have made their mark in the field by developing styles unique to themselves such as the balanced, seemingly objective outlook of someone like Roger Ebert, displaying a child-like joy and enjoyment of the medium as opposed to someone like Pauline Kael who took a much personal, feisty and passionate look at every film she reviewed turning her reviews of the films into as deeply personal experiences as the film itself.

Another massive negating point of film criticism is the lack of appreciating subjective standpoints. While on grounds of technicality one can take an objective stance and comment on badly edited sequences of out-of-sync sound sequences – the final response to film as a piece of art is something that is deeply individual and subjective. 2001: A Space Odyssey termed by Ebert as one of the greatest films ever made is undoubtedly two hours of technical brilliance but I am allowed to espouse my opinion with regard to how deeply boring I found the film.

Which brings us to the question of rating films. It is very easy to end an opinion piece on any film we see with a string of stars lying at the end like a discarded appendage without an universal metric system to ensure that star ratings are uniform. While people reduce the reviews to their final star ratings to have an essential understanding of the critic’s viewpoint they fail to realise that the existence of the star rating is perhaps the most subjective derivative of the act of film criticism. As Shah Rukh Khan had famously said in the first edition of the FCCA, why must our film experiences be akin to five star hotels? Can’t we do better than this?

Anwesh Banerjee

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Film Criticism: Of Subjectivity and Stars

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A brief outlay of what goes into perceiving film criticism as one of the most misunderstood and least credited forms of entertainment journalism

 Entertainment journalism is probably the least taken seriously category of journalism in most mainstream discourses on the same. People diss it off in terms of it being something that works primarily on exercising unsolicited opinions. Film critics specifically are called people whose failure at being professionals of cinema led to them choosing lives as critics who find it inherently impossible to break upon the scene as real artists. To warrant a ‘positive’ review the film itself needs to emerge from a certain generic space – preferably indie – whereas those belonging to genres more mainstream will always remain sidelined in terms of the adulaton they receive from critics (clearly people don’t read reviews coming out of film festivals).

In a post-paparazzi world, the act of recording itself has been essentially reduced to its barest levels whereby entire film reviews are just sent out through character limited tweets are limited to a string of adjectives which are incoherently strung together to create what could only be possibly labelled as a mood piece gone horribly wrong. There is much less consideration of film criticism as an evolved form of journalism that requires an in-depth understanding of the material at hand – not only on a narrative level but also in terms of technicalities such as editing, cinematography and sound – to name a few. The dilution of entertainment criticism is also largely owing to the social media boom where every person not only has an opinion but also a space to offer that opinion at; and hence opinions – mostly under-researched and unfounded, start masquerading as ‘reviews’ with no credibility.

Over the years a variety of outstanding critics (sadly mostly Western) have made their mark in the field by developing styles unique to themselves such as the balanced, seemingly objective outlook of someone like Roger Ebert, displaying a child-like joy and enjoyment of the medium as opposed to someone like Pauline Kael who took a much personal, feisty and passionate look at every film she reviewed turning her reviews of the films into as deeply personal experiences as the film itself.

Another massive negating point of film criticism is the lack of appreciating subjective standpoints. While on grounds of technicality one can take an objective stance and comment on badly edited sequences of out-of-sync sound sequences – the final response to film as a piece of art is something that is deeply individual and subjective. 2001: A Space Odyssey termed by Ebert as one of the greatest films ever made is undoubtedly two hours of technical brilliance but I am allowed to espouse my opinion with regard to how deeply boring I found the film.

Which brings us to the question of rating films. It is very easy to end an opinion piece on any film we see with a string of stars lying at the end like a discarded appendage without an universal metric system to ensure that star ratings are uniform. While people reduce the reviews to their final star ratings to have an essential understanding of the critic’s viewpoint they fail to realise that the existence of the star rating is perhaps the most subjective derivative of the act of film criticism. As Shah Rukh Khan had famously said in the first edition of the FCCA, why must our film experiences be akin to five star hotels? Can’t we do better than this?

Anwesh Banerjee

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Diversity out of the Question of Languages

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Following the recent events, we tried to locate what language our nation speaks—of hate or of Mir?

“I knew that language is the most private and yet most public things.” – Arundhati Roy, In What Language Does Rain Fall Over Tormented Cities?

What language do we speak altogether, collectively as a nation? 780, or the ones actually recognised? Of love or of hate? Do we even speak together, ever?

I learned in my history class about imagined communities. Are we just one true imagination that exists with all its hypocrisies with just one name that binds us together? The peculiar curiosity about your identity starts somewhere around our age only, I think India never got out of that phase, she is still trudging the path of curiosity to know all about it.

Being trilingual, I get how difficult it can be to brainstorm with three words meaning something somewhat similar but never the exact same. How does India manage with so many? We read about diversity since first grade. In the language, I read it, “Anekta mei ekta.” At times, I think her diversity could never get out of this essay. It tried and tried, but it was such a high pedestal that returning was never an option, but we found out her invisibility on the streets at times, for we all read or maybe heard it – India: A Land of Diversities.

But whose language does India actually speak? Of Ghalib or of those who went rallying against Fab India when it named its Diwali Collection Jashn-e-Riwaaz, which loosely translates into a celebration of tradition.

The social media went mad with hails of ‘NO Abrahaminsation of Hindu Festivals’. And amidst this, a Markazi Khayal came to me that what word could we substitute for Khyal in Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mei Khayal aata hai? Or maybe what would we substitute when the people actually discover that the words Hindi, Hindu and Hindostan are from Persian Arabic? Did I miss a class of Language partition when the words of Urdu casually entered the conversations and even a bit of Shudh Hindi found its place with slang from the local dialect?

The Partition happened when, during the British era, the Hindustani language broke up into Hindi and Urdu, and since then, the graph has been up and down with the ‘language’ that we decide to speak publicly, sometimes of hate and sometimes of mir.

According to a research paper about the decline of Urdu sounds,

First, the decline of Urdu sounds began in the 1990s, which marks the rise of the Hindutva politics and the beginning of the mushrooming of cable television networks.”

So, this is the language I have been referring to the language that the current hegemony chooses to speak.

A good thing about Grammarly is that you can set the tone of language that you want to deliver your content in, and it rectifies the words accordingly. What would the tone be when people don’t let Munawwar Faruqui perform in Goa for 500 people would set themselves on fire. The organisers received threats from several Hindutva groups, and shows in Raipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Mumbai had to be cancelled. Munawwar was also arrested for a joke he did not tell, and the apex court that granted him release said the tone of the FIR was vague and no apparent reason for his arrest.

Clearly, the cancel culture in our country goes a different way, where the dominant group shuns the language that it does not want to hear, be it just the name of the collection, an advertisement that talks of love bonds, or anything that might prick the forces of Hindutva. Who will be the next Kaifi saheb, perhaps Ghalib or the true sense of diversity that we talked about on pages?

Although Hindi’s victory has been a resounding one, it does not seem to have entirely allayed its keepers’ anxieties. Perhaps that’s because their enemies are dead poets who have a habit of refusing to really die.” – Arundhati Roy, In What Language Does Rain Fall Over Tormented Cities? 

There is a linguistic relativity hypothesis that says our language shapes our thought, and Arundhati writes in her essay that a country’s public language is its own public imagination. So, the next time you say ‘ye Ishq nahīñ āsāñ itnā hī samajh liije ik aag kā dariyā hai aur Duub ke jaanā hai’ know that in the current context it literally applies to the word Ishq for someday people might take offence for its existence because of its source.

All this is to say that we in India live and work (and write) in a complicated land, in which nothing is or ever will be settled. Especially not the question of language. Languages.” – Arundhati Roy, In What Language Does Rain Fall Over Tormented Cities? 

Kashish Shivani

[email protected] 

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DUB News

SVC’s Continued Resolve Against Fragmentation of Delhi University

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The ongoing talks of Sri Venkateswara College being dismembered from DU and shifting its affiliation to AU have been in the headlines and a cause of concern for some time now. With DUTA officially siding with the SVC staff association in their resolve against the fragmentation of Delhi University and the ongoing protests by the student body, the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) as well, has released an official statement in solidarity with the fraternity of SVC, calling upon teachers and students to unitedly fight against NEP. 

DTF, in solidarity with the teachers of Sri Venkateswara College (SVC), expresses its concerns in synonymy with the latter’s protest against the attempts of the Andhra government to press for the merger of the college with Andhra University. DTF President Nandita Narain and Secretary Abha Dev Habib go on to shed light on how the excellence achieved by the college owing to it being a part of the University of Delhi (DU) must not be undermined. 

The Andhra government has made a plea to the Centre to amend the 2009 UGC order disallowing the jurisdiction of a university beyond the state by which it is established. DTF further goes on to point out how the move is driven by the host of steps taken recently as part of the government policy toolkit to acquire brand value through the ranking framework to be competitive in the market that would be determining for successful business in education. 

DU planning offshore campuses is driven by the same objective of reshaping itself as a business enterprise and has nothing to do with revamping education. The IoE scheme, which granted this freedom, for select universities had too narrow a base. The freedom to do business therefore has been extended to the management of every university and college under NEP 2020.

“This is also a forewarning of the dismemberment of colleges from Delhi University unless DU wants to make some wholly a part of itself and the college managements agree to cede powers to the BoG of Delhi University. The freedom granted to BoGs is unlikely to disallow takeovers, mergers and acquisitions.”

-Statement in Solidarity with the fraternity of SVC, DTF

Further outlining the existing laws to prevent such happenings and the effect NEP will have on them, DTF expresses its concerns on how the protections that we enjoy today from the UGC Act and DU Act from such takeovers will become a thing of the past as NEP gets rolled out. In particular, with the introduction of the provision under clause 19.2, “There shall be overarching legislation that will supersede any contravening provisions of other earlier legislation”.

In conclusion, DTF states that the Andhra Government need not plead any longer over any regulation for NEP’s “Light but Tight” regulatory framework will only require persuading the college management. The high ranking of the college will ensure such a possibility sooner than later.

“We fear that this move may be driven by and find support from the NEP recommendations to universities to have offshore campuses. The host of steps taken in the recent past as part of the Central Government policy is pushing institutions to acquire brand value through a specious ranking framework in order to be competitive in the market for edu-business.”

-Abha Dev Habib, Treasurer, DUTA

DU Beat reached out to the SVC Student Union in the same matter. The entire students and staff fraternity of SVC has been disheartened ever since the initiation of the move. The seriousness of the issue is what has brought the entire staff and students under a consensus who have been unitedly protesting against the move.

“Some prominent teachers of our college have offered to resign in case any of such development takes place. The Telugu students of our college are also not willing to get the college affiliated with AU, hence the issue of catering to the needs of Andhra students is not justified. The students, especially the first years are quite a bit disappointed with the move, and it is due to the ongoing COVID-19 protocols that we are unable to assemble inside the college campus to show our disregard. However, the students union on its part, started the protest on online platforms yesterday, and I was quite overwhelmed by the response that our struggle was addressed with.”

-Anand Devendran, Acting President, Students Union, SVC

The online Twitter storm, dated 25th February 2021 has been quite a success with students from other colleges joining in as well in large numbers. #Venky_belongs_to_DU and #VenkyIsDU have been trending ever since, thus bringing the required attention to the issue. “The level of support that we got yesterday has proved that the entire DU stands behind Venky and if the future developments are not in our favour, we will resort to physical dharna and protests. I want to reiterate that all the students and staff bodies are united against this move and we will ensure that SVC stays in DU only,” added Anand. 

 

Also read: 

https://dubeat.com/2021/02/duta-opposes-andhras-move-and-sides-with-svc-staff-association/

https://dubeat.com/2021/02/sri-venkasteswara-college-to-leave-du/

Featured Image Credits: Siksha

Annanya Chaturvedi

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DUTA Opposes Andhra’s Move and Sides with SVC Staff Association

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In an attempt to affiliate Sri Venkateswara college to Andhra University, Andhra CM wrote to the centre. Delhi University Teachers’ Association has released a press release in the same matter outlining its consequences and thus, opposing the move.

On February 20th, 2021, DUTA issued a press release ‘DUTA against fragmentation of Delhi University’ in response to Andhra’s request to the centre to affiliate Sri Venkateswara college to AU. DUTA President Rajib Ray and Secretary Rajinder Singh go on to express the association’s concerns for the college and how if pushed into its due course of action, the move will have “disastrous consequences for teachers, employees and students as well as the character of education” and therefore, must be opposed. 

Addressing the motives behind it, they further go on to acknowledge how the move appears to be driven by the fact that the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh lost several premier educational institutions to Telangana post bifurcation alongwith the founding idea of catering to the needs of Telugu-speaking students in Delhi. 

The Andhra government has also claimed that the foundation has been making grants for the enhancement of the college and its guidance and combined efforts have played a considerable role in the high ranking achieved by the college. Therefore, a plea has been made to the Centre to amend the 2009 UGC order disallowing state governments from establishing off-campus of a state university beyond the geographical boundaries of the state.

DUTA goes on to express how the reasons mentioned above are not sufficient to dismember the college from DU, taking into account the fact that a large part of the reason of Sri Venkateswara college being in top NIRF rankings today comes from it, being a part of DU. The crowd of students and faculty that it attracts is because it has been affiliated with Delhi University and has, therefore, always strived for excellence. 

“In making this plea, the Andhra Government is ignoring the fact that SVC has established itself as a premier institution within the framework of Delhi University. As part of a Central University, it is open to all students including those from Andhra Pradesh. The heterogeneity in terms of the student population has created the environment for achieving excellence. As part of DU, it has been able to attract the best academicians as faculty.”

-DUTA Press Release, 20.02.2021

Thus, DUTA has made its stance clear in standing alongside the SVC staff association in their resolve to oppose the move. 

Adding on, the press release also outlines DUTA’s concerns pertaining to the move being driven by and finding support in NEP recommendations to universities to have offshore campuses. “The host of steps taken in the recent past as part of the Central Government policy is pushing institutions to acquire brand value through a specious ranking framework in order to be competitive in the market for edu-business.”

Featured Image Credits: lokmat

Annanya Chaturvedi

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DU Students Storm Twitter, Express Dissent Over Online Exams

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Delhi University proposes to conduct open book examinations online, a storm of dissent unleashes on Twitter. Students, activists, and organisations unite to trend #DUAgainstOnlineExams.

On 13th May, Wednesday, Professor Vinay Gupta, the Dean of Examinations, Delhi University (DU) released a proposal for conducting online examinations for final year students in the form of Open Book Examinations. The statement was made public the next day. This proposal explained the course of action to be undertaken involving printing and scanning of question papers and answer sheets, for which an extra hour would be provided to the students. However, this proposition is largely condemned by various student organisations for its “exclusive” nature.

Bodies like Students’ Federation of India (SFI), National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and All India Students’ Association (AISA) among others have strongly condemned this move. They raised concerns on the lack of access to the internet for students from remote areas or general inability to use the same, unaffordability of smartphones or laptops were considered. Lack of study material and the implications of these on creating unfair disadvantages were also raised. These organisations suggest that this proposal for online examinations is, hence, highly discriminatory and fails to provide a fairground for evaluation.

All students, organizations, and allies were requested to join a call on Twitter to trend the hashtag #DUAgainstOnlineExams against the decision of the administration on 15th May, from 2 to 3 p.m. to highlight the issues of the students. Post 2 p.m., the aforementioned hashtag made it to the trending list on Twitter with several students and organisations speaking their minds and raising various concerns via tweets and memes.

 

Damni Kain, former Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) Presidential candidate and student activist posted a thread discussing the situation at large and voicing concerns of students. She addressed the unfair disadvantages of Kashmiri students in her tweet- “How will visually impaired students give online exams? What about students of Kashmir where internet connection is still at a 2G speed? Women students who are burdened with unequal domestic work, especially in the lockdown, are equally disadvantaged.”

In a statement released by the NSUI, the organisation requested the administration of the University to reconsider its decisions and come up with a more feasible alternative to tackle the situation at hand. It also suggested that in case online examinations are a must, the board should be lenient and test only the topics covered in class and not online.

The University recently released guidelines for open book examinations, details of which, can be found HERE.

Feature Image Credits: Niharika Dabral for DU Beat

Aditi Gutgutia
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Campus Central

After English Honours, B.Com Honours Undergoes Result Woes

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Students pursuing B.Com (Honours) express their grievances as the results of the first-semester examinations leave students dissatisfied.

On 12th May 2020, results of the first-semester B.Com (Hons.) were declared. However, there were surfacing concerns regarding discrepancies in the same. Students have put forth the issue of disproportionate results i.e. the marks obtained in practicals and internal assignments not corresponding to the results of the odd semester examinations.

“I believe that my classmates have been marked incorrectly. For someone who scores eleven out of twenty-five in internals, getting a score of nine or ten in the core paper seems to be uncanny,” says a first-year student who responded on the condition of anonymity. The Varsity’s faulty evaluation has repeatedly been a cause of concern to students with respect to their results.

“Our seniors were not surprised when we told them about the discrepancies, this shows how deep-rooted and normalised this problem is,” says a student pursuing B.Com (Hons.) who wished to remain anonymous.

“The results have mostly been fine. Other than a few minor discrepancies in some subjects, the only major cause of concern has been the Microeconomics GE (Generic Elective) paper. Some students feel that the marking has been outrightly random. Students with perfect scores in internals and a well-written test have been marked far below their expectations,” says a first-year student pursuing B.Com. (Hons.)  from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Moreover, the issue of revaluation also stands as an inconvenience amidst the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic. With shops closed, attaining photostats becomes a tedious task. Along with the technical constraints, the revaluation and rechecking procedures emerge as faulty systems as students often claim that the Varsity gathers revenue from its own faults.

The recurring glitches in the results along with the University’s proposal of conducting online examinations have been a worrying matter to the students of Delhi University.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Priyanshi Banerjee
[email protected]

 

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DU Circulates Guidelines For Online Open Book Examination; Students Object

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A series of guidelines for setting question papers were circulated by Delhi University (DU). The Varsity actively considers conducting Open Book Examinations for final year students.

In a letter dated 13th May 2020, Professor Vinay Gupta, Dean of Examination addressed to all the Head of Department (HODs) of Delhi University and laid out certain guidelines to be adopted for setting question papers for the proposed exams. With the introduction of Open Book Examination, students can refer to books, notes and other study materials to answer the questions. This comes after suggestions to conduct online take-home exams for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in the School of Open Learning (SOL), Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB), and regular classes.

Students are expected to appear in these exams from their homes. Question papers of respective courses would be downloaded from a common portal, which would be attempted on plain paper. The answer sheets would then have to be uploaded on the portal within three hours from the start of the exam.

The letter was widely circulated amongst teachers and students. Following guidelines have been assigned for setting up the question paper.

  • Since it would be an Open-Book examination, the questions need to be framed in a manner which would test the understanding and analytical skills of the students and there should be NO/minimum scope for verbatim copying from books and study material.
  • The duration of the examination would be for two hours. One hour additional would be given for downloading the Question Paper, scanning the answer sheets, and uploading the answer sheet.
  • For ease of evaluation, it is requested that the question papers should have 6 questions out of which 4 are to be attempted by the students in 02 hours. All questions should have equal marks. There should NOT be parts to any question. Maximum marks would be 75 (100 for SOL/NCWEB papers).
  • The three sets of question papers for each course of both UG and PG programs related to each department would be set and subsequently moderated.
  • Moderated question papers to be uploaded on to the Examination portal, the login credentials of which would be shared shortly with the HODs.
  • Exams would also be conducted for 1st / 2nd year / 2nd Sem /4th Sem simultaneously for repeaters who are in 3rd year / final year.
  • All the question papers may be uploaded/sent at the earliest but not later than 3rd June 2020.

The decision to conduct Open-Book online exams, however, has been widely criticized by students and teachers across the country. Academics for Action and Development (AAD) demanded that this letter must be withdrawn immediately. “The pedagogy of DU and it’s Examination system is neither structured nor cultivated for open book examinations and to be taken at one’s home. We have three fourth of students coming from SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PWD and remote areas like north-east and Jammu & Kashmir, who are on the receiving end in the digital divide. Apart from the availability of network and having 4G mobile problems, the biggest challenge is to frame those questions which will test understanding and answer will be out of books and notes. The students are not trained or taught for these types of questions,” Press Secretary, AAD, said in an official statement.

It added, “Moreover, framing three sets of questions out of books and notes, without parts and for equal marks is not possible for all courses. In many science papers, there are derivations, numerical of chemical equations where finding questions from books and notes will be extremely difficult.”

Students’ Collectives and Unions from across colleges have joined hands against the conduction of online examinations. A common forward circulating amongst college groups said, “The Twitter trend is against the attempt of the administration to conduct exams through online mode. It will create a divide among students as many of us have issues with proper internet connectivity, reading material, laptop, atmosphere of study etc.”

Through a series of tweets on Twitter with the hashtags #DUAgainstOnlineExams and #EducationWithoutExclusion, students are demanding the university to step back from adopting such exclusionary methods.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Aishwaryaa Kunwar
[email protected]

 

 

 

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