The third-year members of The Third Act have accused their society convenor of displaying atrocious behaviour. However, the other students of the college deny the allegations and claim the accusations to be false. Read ahead to find out more.
The third-year students of dramatics society of Satyawati College, The Third Act, have alleged that they have been facing an “atrocious behaviour” for the past couple of months. They have claimed that their convenor has been bullying them and the professor’s behaviour has gotten intolerable. The students have reported that they have been accused of financial frauds and have been threatened to be sent to jail. The students have further added that their convenor has asserted to shut the society as he wants everything to run according to him. Further, it has been claimed that a threat to fail the said students in their respective internals has been given by the convenor of the society. The students have reported that the reason behind the failure to organise their annual fest, “Pravaaz,” was because the convenor did not sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). He was not present during the proposed dates and denied to take any responsibility for it, and did not assign any other teacher in-charge. It has been asserted that the convenor has been verbally abusing the students and has threatened to send letters to the parents of the students due to the behaviour displayed by them. However, the latter has rejected such an assertion against them. The third-year students have informed that the convenor has not held any formal meeting and whenever the former went for the same, they were always asked to sit in the Staff Room Lawns where rather than discussing important matters, they wasted 4-5 hours listening to their convenor’s personal stories.
The students have alleged that any decision in the college must pass through the Principal and the AO. However, the students have been suspended from their society at their convenor’s discretion and the latter can run the society as he wishes to while taking the juniors along with him for the same.
The third-year students have lodged a formal complaint against their convenor with the principal. However, they have been dismissed. Further, on knowing about the complaint, the third-year students asserted that the convenor called for a meeting with the second-year students and pressurised the first-year students for the same. It is alleged that the convenor had asked the first-year students to take back their signatures and pin everything on the third-year students. Moreover, the third years have claimed that their convenor made the second-year students sit with the first-year students to keep a check if the latter were recording him threatening them. The third-year students have put out a post on their Instagram handle calling out the entire incident and asking for help.
We seek only one thing and that is the removal of Dr. Pandey as our convenor. We will take legal action if college authorities don’t help us. We have been suspended without any reason and he is threatening our Juniors that he will debar us from college. He has threatened us that he will send letters to our parents. He is blaming us for financial fraud as well.” -Third year Students of The Third Act in conversation with DU Beat
While talking to other students from the college, they revealed that the third-year students wanted to organise an unofficial farewell at a farm house and it was decided that every member would be contributing some amount for the same. However, the amount that the members raised was not enough to cover the entire expense so the third-year students decided to take the remaining amount out of the society fund without the knowledge of anyone. They roped in a second-year student and tried convincing them to take the amount out but the student went on to talk to their batchmates first where the latter rejected the proposed idea.
The society fund is for the betterment of the college, to purchase lights and equipment, not for wasting it on a single night partying. If one wants to celebrate and party then they should be doing it with their own money.” – Student of Satyawati College
According to the student, things started getting escalated from this point. The annual fest that was supposed to take place got cancelled by the principal. The reason for cancellation was that none of the MoUs were signed by either the principal or the convenor. It carried just the president’s signature. The third-year members of the society asserted that they were given only a week’s time to prepare for everything since on the initial date the convenor was not available and did not assign any other teacher in-charge. However, the fest finally got cancelled again and according to the students, though they were dismissed on the grounds of MoUs not being signed by the concerned authorities and the failure to conduct any formal meeting, the former was not aware about this entire procedure.
The students from Satyawati College also reported that when bills had to be cleared in the accounts department, it was revealed that they were from Muzaffarpur, Bihar reportedly and were amounting to up to Rs. 7000 for coats, shirts, and pants. However, the students informed us that they wore their own clothes and the bills attached were false.
According to the bill, the blazer was of Rs.3500, the shirt costed around Rs.2000, and all of the items amounted to Rs. 7000. There was another bill for the tent that amounted to Rs.15000. The students had attached false bills. When all of this was questioned, the third-year students went into frenzy.” – Student of Satyawati College
Further, reportedly, there is a third-year student in the society who has Rs. 8000 from the society fund with them. On asking for the amount back, the student informed that a cyber-crime has taken place with them and hence was able to return only Rs.600 out of the Rs.8000 they had.
According to the students of the college, the third-year students have changed the login details of their E-mail and Instagram handle. They have started posting things on their own and are now falsely accusing the convenor.
Read Also: DU’s Dramatics Societies: Politics in Plays
Featured Image Credits: @the_third_act
Ankita Baidya
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Photo credits:-Additi Seth
The second week of college at LSR was bustling with activity as various societies were holding their annual auditions. The corridors were swarming with enthusiastic freshers as they hopped from one society board to another, furiously scribbling down the dates for the different auditions. “I am going to try out for as many societies as I can. There are so many options here, from music and dance to film appreciation and social work. I can’t wait to take part!” said an excited Nimisha, one of the many first years.
Boasting of about 21 active societies, LSR offers a wide range of options when it comes to extra-curricular activities. The past week consisted of NSS recruitments, where students were assigned NGOs of their choice to work for a year. The coming of this week began with both the Indian Music Society as well as the Western Music Society holding their auditions on Tuesday, 31st July. “75 students showed up for the IMS Auditions, out of which we chose 22. This was the preliminary round, where the candidates will be singing for the Special assembly put up on Independence Day. We asked them to sing any song of their choice. However, the second round of auditions, which will be held on 16th August, are for the core group of the society. This will only be open to people with a classical background,” said Parampara, the president of the Indian Music Society. The Western Music Society had a similar story to share. The numbers were larger, with 90 students turning up, causing the auditions to be split across two days. Gitana Singh, the president of WMS, was in quite a dilemma, “I asked each student to sing one or two songs of their choice that best represent their talent. After that, I tested their range to see how high or how low they could go. The students who auditioned were very talented. I honestly found it very difficult to choose between so many singers. In the end, I settled for 16 singers and 6 instrumentalists. Out of these, a few will be added to the already existing core group after the Independence Day assembly, for inter-college and out-station competitions.”
Close to 300 students turned up to shake a leg at the Dance Auditions held on Wednesday and Thursday. Anandini, the president of the Dance society, was issued the hard task of selecting the gems among the sea of candidates. When asked how the auditions were conducted, she said, “The LSR dance society is divided into four sub groups-Choreo, Western, Classical, and Folk. Each student could audition for all four, and to facilitate this, our dance team divided itself into four groups and asked each hopeful to approach the group for which they wanted to audition. They brought their own music and danced for 2-3 minutes. There is no preference given to freshers or ECA students, and we encourage everyone to take part.” The end of Thursday saw the first round of dance auditions close with 60 students chosen. Out of these, only 20 students will finally make it after the final round of auditions, scheduled for early next week. “We would love to take more students, but we have to be extremely selective when it comes to selecting for our college dance team,” says Anandini.
The Debating society held its much-awaited auditions on Thursday. These began at 4 in the afternoon and stretched on until 7 in the evening. “They gave us 8 different topics early in the morning, such as whether Sarkozy banning the Burqa was justified, should the UN be disbanded, and so on. My topic was concerning the Censor Board of India and the fact that it oversteps boundaries. They threw many questions at me, and then asked me to turncoat after that. I was given 5 minutes, and it was probably the most nerve-wracking argument I have ever had to give,” says Harnidh Kaur, a first year History student who hopes to get in to the Debsoc.
Friday saw the arrival of the Dramsoc auditions, where 124 expressive students couldn’t wait to put on an act for their judges. They were allowed to prepare a piece of their choice in either Hindi or English. “The drama society is divided into street plays and stage performances, as well as on the bases of language-English and Hindi. However, the initial auditions are taken only for events that are coming up, in this case Independence Day. This is an open society, only the union members are a permanent part of it. Hence, every actor needs to re-audition for a new production. From 124 candidates, we have chosen 37. The second round will be on Saturday, when we will bring this list down to 15,” say Yama, the president of Dramsoc, LSR. She continues, “This year, the quality of acting was extreme. Some performances were brilliant and we were awestruck by their acting and enunciation. On the other hand, we had to face some performances that we hoped would end immediately.”
With many more Society orientations waiting in line next week, such as Projekt-the photography and film club, freshers as well as the seniors can’t wait to begin exploring what LSR has in store for them this year. With its dynamic and talented crowd, one can easily say that LSR societies are ready to take the DU world by storm!
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