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VC’s First Durbar Evokes Mixed Response

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Many students and teachers marked their presence outside Gandhi Bhavan in the North Campus on Thursday to put forward their complaints and grievances. Delhi University Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh, organised a public meeting in the midst of protests by students and teachers against rejection of 32 applications for special chance and evaluation system.

Grievances of students and teachers were heard by the VC and Singh also promised to resolve attendance-related issues of a batch of students from Dyal Singh College who, after being allowed to write three semester exams, were suddenly detained from writing the fourth due to lack of attendance. He also heard another student who was detained from writing her law exam for lack of attendance due to pregnancy

Later DUSU brought the protest to the door of Gandhi Bhawan. “Vice-Chancellor hai, hai,” said a group of students holding black flags. After about half-an-hour of negotiations between the students and the Proctor, the Students Union’s office-bearers were allowed inside. Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) President Arun Hooda argued why they were not informed about the durbar and why they needed to fight to get inside and participate in durbar.

The Union also questioned the decision of denial of special chance to students which allows them to take exams they earlier could not during the time of their graduation due to any emergency, in reply to which Mr. Sigh said that special chance placed a tremendous amount of pressure on the exam branch. He also added that  such a provision could be allowed again if the students could give him in writing that they will have no objections to the results of those currently studying in DU being delayed because of special chance. Singh’s team explained that the provision was withdrawn to give “relief to exam branch”. To accommodate re-testing of students who took admission years ago the university has to dig up years-old syllabus, set question papers and then find people to evaluate them accordingly.

Anger burst out after Academic Council’s standing committee rejected all 25 cases of “special chances” which the Delhi High Court earlier this week had recommended to the panel to be “reconsidered”. The Vice Chancellor later assured that the 25 cases were rejected in their present form as the documents were insufficient and will be reconsidered later.

VC called this meeting a bit of success and said that “this is not a one-off public discussion, but will be happening every Thursday whenever I am in the city.” He further added that everybody was welcome and no prior appointment was needed.

However Saikat Ghosh, a DUTA member said, “Having a cup of tea with us will not make everything alright, we will soften our stand only if he is genuinely interested in sensitively addressing our concerns”.

Image source: The Hindu

Sakshi Gupta
[email protected]

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Campus Central

VC's First Durbar Evokes Mixed Response

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Many students and teachers marked their presence outside Gandhi Bhavan in the North Campus on Thursday to put forward their complaints and grievances. Delhi University Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh, organised a public meeting in the midst of protests by students and teachers against rejection of 32 applications for special chance and evaluation system. Grievances of students and teachers were heard by the VC and Singh also promised to resolve attendance-related issues of a batch of students from Dyal Singh College who, after being allowed to write three semester exams, were suddenly detained from writing the fourth due to lack of attendance. He also heard another student who was detained from writing her law exam for lack of attendance due to pregnancy Later DUSU brought the protest to the door of Gandhi Bhawan. “Vice-Chancellor hai, hai,” said a group of students holding black flags. After about half-an-hour of negotiations between the students and the Proctor, the Students Union’s office-bearers were allowed inside. Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) President Arun Hooda argued why they were not informed about the durbar and why they needed to fight to get inside and participate in durbar. The Union also questioned the decision of denial of special chance to students which allows them to take exams they earlier could not during the time of their graduation due to any emergency, in reply to which Mr. Sigh said that special chance placed a tremendous amount of pressure on the exam branch. He also added that  such a provision could be allowed again if the students could give him in writing that they will have no objections to the results of those currently studying in DU being delayed because of special chance. Singh’s team explained that the provision was withdrawn to give “relief to exam branch”. To accommodate re-testing of students who took admission years ago the university has to dig up years-old syllabus, set question papers and then find people to evaluate them accordingly. Anger burst out after Academic Council’s standing committee rejected all 25 cases of “special chances” which the Delhi High Court earlier this week had recommended to the panel to be “reconsidered”. The Vice Chancellor later assured that the 25 cases were rejected in their present form as the documents were insufficient and will be reconsidered later. VC called this meeting a bit of success and said that “this is not a one-off public discussion, but will be happening every Thursday whenever I am in the city.” He further added that everybody was welcome and no prior appointment was needed. However Saikat Ghosh, a DUTA member said, “Having a cup of tea with us will not make everything alright, we will soften our stand only if he is genuinely interested in sensitively addressing our concerns”. Image source: The Hindu Sakshi Gupta [email protected]]]>

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Campus Central

The Central Placement Cell – DU

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The Central placement cell has been one of Delhi universities most successful initiatives. It has been started to bridge the gap between the bright, energetic and aspiring young talent of the University of Delhi and the Industry for meeting their personnel requirement. It is surely a great platform for students of those colleges which don’t have their own placement cell. ”CPC not only helped me to get recruited in a world class bank like Citi bank but also helped me in boosting my confidence and further developing my personality”, exclaims Paras Khanna ,an alumnus of Deshbandhu college.

The main endeavour of CPC is to get students placed in reputed Multinationals, government jobs, NGO’s and the private sector and enable them to reach the top echelons of the society. All registered students with CPC are also entitled to placement assistance, counselling for employment and even self-employment. This year the CPC went online and enabled both students and companies to register online itself. The registration started on29th September and ended on 2nd November.

The placement process mainly comprises of three major steps, the first being the pre placement process where placement presentations and slot allocations would take place, the next major step would be of placements where students would have to go through written tests, group discussions and personal interviews  and this would finally be followed by the job offers and monitoring.

The CPC website also contains the important guidelines and do’s and don’ts for students who are willing to sit for placements. CPC also held workshops to groom the students, brush up their communication and analytical skills.

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Campus Central

Decision to Include Personal Details in Exam Sheets Revoked

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Delhi University has decided to revoke its decision regarding the issue of students being asked to write their personal details on answer sheets. The decision to include this information had come under fire from both students and teachers. It was finally cancelled following protests by the student community and the threat of an agitation by DUSU.

Authorities admitted that a committee of college principals and officials met on the 29th of October to discuss the issue. Following negative reactions of students, it was agreed to go back to the earlier system wherein only an identification code would be visible on the answer booklet.

Teachers also cheered the annulment, feeling that with the earlier decision, there was scope for discrimination. Said Dr. Rekha Dayal, associate professor, Jesus and Mary College, “I’m very happy that the earlier decision’s been revoked. It would have definitely caused unwanted subjectivity otherwise. “

With this semester, DU has also decided on other reforms with respect to exams. This time, instead of one, three teachers would be evaluating different parts of one single answer sheet. DU feels this would lessen the burden of administrative department as there would be less scope for mistakes. In the earlier system, one teacher checked the answer sheet and two others rechecked it. Due to this reform, rechecking will also be scrapped as authorities feel there would be no mistakes.

With these reforms, DU seeks to redeem itself and at least seem more efficient.

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Campus Central

Aung San Suu Kyi felicitated at LSR

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For someone who has had to endure as much as Burmese pro-Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for such an extended period of time, it is no less than fascinating that she still retains a youthful charm, made even more potent accompanied now by an ethereal aura. One would imagine that the unrelenting crackdown on their cause, the innumerable attempts at their life, the taxing period of house arrest and the pain of separation from their loved ones would be adequate to crush anyone’s spirit. But like a phoenix that rises from the ashes, she has risen again, with a renewed vigour towards the realization of her cause for democracy for her people. This was something that was visible to all this morning, at her alma mater, Lady Shri Ram College.

Suu, as she was lovingly called during her college days studying Political Science here, arrived at the college for an emotional ‘homecoming’ just past 9.30 am. Accompanied by Hon’ble Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor and several other dignatories including former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, she was greeted by current students of the college sporting traditional Burmese skirts or longyis, staff as well as her former teachers, as she made her way through a packed college auditorium up the stage for the commencement of her felicitation ceremony. After welcome addresses by the Principal, Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, the Chairperson Mr. Arun Bharat Ram and Dr. Shashi Tharoor, the Nobel laureate renowned for her intransigent fight for democracy, was honoured by the distinguished panel.

Perhaps the most riveting of the moments was her stirring unrehearsed speech, in which she reached out to ‘her girls’, and all young people at large. She acknowledged the support she always received from the institution, even in times when she had little contact with the outside world and remarked, “… My faith in the oneness of human aspirations is justified.” She further touched upon the “emotional connection” she had with the people of India, and thanked them for their support through trying times. “I feel myself partly a citizen of India”, she said. Addressing young political aspirants, she warned against “unprincipled politics”, urging them to never compromise on their principles if they were to enter the political arena. She concluded by asking for continuing support in the last few steps that Burma had left towards democracy, effectively consolidating all the hearts she had already conquered.

 

Tanya Dua
[email protected] 

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Events

Gargi Hosts a Multidisciplinary Conference

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On 7th and 8th November, 2012, Gargi College hosted a multidisciplinary conference on the themes of ‘Conflict to Convergence: Building Holistic Perspectives’. The invitees for the inaugural address were Mr. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development and Professor Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.

Understanding the need for balanced perspectives that integrate views from all fields of Sciences, Humanities and Commerce especially when one is dealing with complex and vital issues in a conflict-ridden world, the aim of this conference was to build leadership skills among students by making them aware the various elements that need to be analyzed to see an issue in its totality. This includes the techno-science angle, the commercial prospects as well as any humanist concerns.

For this, speakers were invited from varied fields including Prof S.K Saha to speak on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and its Impact. A talk dealing with the ‘Paradoxes of Consumption’ saw speakers such as Mr. Gurcharan Das and Mr. SK Tendon debating out the issue. The sessions in the seminar included engaging discussions on topics such as the ‘Conservation of Heritage’, ‘Ethical Science’ and the ‘Contours of Citizenship’ with panelists including Prof. Patrick Heller, Ms. Anupama Roy, Mr. Biswas Mohan Padhy and Mr. A.G.K. Menon.

Resolving the conflicts between all that is and all that could be is the first step towards progress. The conference sufficiently dealt with that, leaving the audience of the packed auditorium with much food for thought.

 

 

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Campus Central

DUTA Strikes and Burns Effigy of VC

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The teachers, students and karamcharis have not yet given up against the alleged “Unprecedented assault on democratic rights” by the DU’s VC. Wednesday, 31st October 2012, DUTA (Delhi University Teachers Union), backed up by DUSU (Delhi University Students Union) and DUCKU (Delhi University College Karamchari Union) burned the effigy of the Vice- chancellor outside his office at around 3:30 pm.  The DUTA has been on a relay hunger strike since the 10th of October demanding from the vice chancellor answers to their various grievances concerning arbitrary imposition of “academic reforms”, withdrawal of the right to revaluation, violation of anonymity of exams, delay in declaring exam results so on and so forth.

Around hundreds of students, teachers and non-teaching staff gathered to witness and participate in the protest. The administration tried its best to dissolve the crowd and curb the burning process by instructing the university’s security personnel to steal away the effigy, but the DUTA continued anyway. The security breached the law in front of the ineffective and mute police force by trying to take away the head and other parts of the effigy. The crowd arranged another effigy and burned newspaper in the meantime.

“It was a complete chaos, with officials trying to crush the protest and crowd not budging from the venue. It is quite shocking that the police were just standing there, doing absolutely nothing!” said Vidushi a student. “We have no idea what is going on in the university, even the teachers are at loss. There are new academic changes with every passing day!” adds another.

Teachers said that the authorities are now spreading rumors that the DUSU and DUCKU have withdrawn their support from the movement. “This is shameful. This is for the first time that DUSU, DUCKU and DUTA have come together. We have letters from these unions citing their support,” said a DUTA member.

 

Aishwarya Chaurasia
[email protected]

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Campus Central

New System Of Issuing Admit Cards Online

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In a bid to cut down the time involved in issuing admit cards, Delhi University has decided to allow individual colleges to generate them directly. Through this, they seek to replace the long and often arduous process of issuing admit cards manually though the university.

To bring about this reform, a committee of several colleges has been formed. It includes members of Hindu college, BR Ambedkar College, ARSD and IP College, among others. Through this new system, colleges will have to create a database of their students, along with details from the time of admission till the time of the exams. This information will then be uploaded to the websites of the respective colleges. Thus, the admit cards will be generated from the college’s data base.

As of now, the practice of filling the admission form and the examination form has been in operation. However, this system considered flawed, as the forms contain similar information, except for some added information in the examination form, made the process repetitive. With the introduction of the new system, unnecessary paperwork is being targeted and should ideally be beneficial. Moreover, with the colleges being given the authority to issue admit cards, the long wait for the university to issue them will also be eliminated.

Said Radhika Wadhwa, second year student of Venky, “It will of course make our task easier as we won’t have to submit the same information over and over again and we’ll hopefully then be getting the admit cards earlier than before, because it’s difficult to collect them just a day or two before the exams.”

This new system will be in effect from the coming semester exams, which start in the month of November this year and colleges have already been issued a directive for the same.

Image Credits: Additi Seth

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Campus Central

Change in Course Completion Guidelines: DUSU Threatens Mass protest

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The future of thousands of students are at risk because of a capricious decision of doing away with the special chance given to students who could not finish their course within the specific period due to inescapable circumstances. Special chances are given to ex-students of the university to finish their degree.

The university administration via a notification notified that the extension of the course period or special chance to students who could not complete their course on time would no longer be available.

The administration took the decision without any discussions within the Academic Council and student community and that too after the students were assured by the college authorities and the university examination branch that they may apply for special chance for the year 2012

DUSU in a statement alleged that even the Vice Chancellor refused to meet Hooda in this regard and is unwilling to take into consideration of the plights of thousand students to be affected by this decision. This will adversely affect careers and lives of thousands of students as they failed to complete their courses due to unforeseen circumstances such as life threatening illness, family difficulties, socio-economic conditions of being the only bread earner and occupational hazards.

DUSU threatens mass protest if the decision of doing away with the ‘span period extension’ and ‘special chance’ is not taken back.

Demanding the withdrawal of the notification, DUSU officials said that what’s even worse is that the notification stated that applications already submitted would not be further processed. This shows a level of callousness and complete disregard for the welfare of the students and any principles of natural justice. Any new rule imposed should take effect after a prior notification. Any rule must take a prospective effect and it should apply to the future” said DUSU president, Arun Hooda.

“The administration has replied to our pleas with callous indifference. When we approached DU officials we were physically manhandled and were asked to get out of the office,” said a student.

The question is after more than 60 years of granting special chance why has it been cancelled now? Why has this facility been cancelled unexpectedly without any prior notification? Under which authority and university provision has this rule been passed to delete the special chance, henceforth? Why were the old students not intimated prior to the annual examinations 2012 by the college authorities, who instead supplied them with the special chance forms?“asked DUSU.

Sakshi Gupta
[email protected] 

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Arts & Culture

Bombay Bhel Puri wala outside LSR

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His menu boasts of no more than two items: Bhel Puri and Sev Puri. And both these items cost no more than Rs 20. Needless to say, one will always find him crowded by a bunch of girls after almost every class. He is present on all working days, Monday to Friday, at the same spot.  A chaat lover’s blessing, this man.

Of the two items, Sev Puri is a super hit among the students – Although the Bhel Puri doesn’t lag far behind. If you are a fan of spicy chaat, showered (yes, showered. Not just sprinkled) with jhaal and coriander over it, served with a dash of lemon – this is a must try for you! Reasonable, delicious and a filling mid day snack – it doesn’t get better than this. The demand for this chaat is so high that the Bhel Puri wala makes about Rs 1,500 – 2,000 each day.

And to add to all this goodness, he even gives you a complimentary matthi or bhel if needed to reduce the spiciness.

Image Credits: Additi Seth

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