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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor; University of Delhi on the Plight of Visually Impaired Students

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Respected Vice Chancellor Sir,

It was an honour to see the University inviting its students to witness the “Flag-in ceremony” to celebrate what was tagged the “Badhte Kadam IV” , in early December, supposedly aimed at spreading awareness regarding equal opportunity for the differently-able students or in the University’s own words “to highlight the social and cultural integration of people with disability”.

Hats off to the initiative and I pray that it meets its desired end.

Sir, with all due respect, I beg to say that to me this is sheer waste of time and energy. The University pompously speaks of an equal opportunity cell but the bitter truth is that the differently able students are being discriminated against in the university and also being denied what they are officially entitled too.

I understand that as per the norms of your Equal Opportunity Cell, all the differently abled students are to be strictly allotted classrooms in the ground floor by the colleges. Have you ever tried to find out how many colleges actually implement these directions? Has any college in your recent memory been issued a show-cause notice for their violation by your office? If not, then I would like to inform you that sadly the ones violating the directions are in majority.

The head of the Equal opportunity Cell has gone on record (as reported in The Hindu) to say that he has very little powers to see that the directions are actually taken seriously and implemented by the colleges. He agreed that every year such incidents are reported from various colleges. This in itself speaks volumes about the state of affairs in the University. Unless the cell is empowered to take strong actions, the intentions with which it was established (noble no doubt) will never be realized.

I have a classmate who is visually impaired and literally had to scrounge for a scribe during the first semester exams in spite of the fact that the University, through its Equal Opportunity Cell, proudly claims that it shall provide him (and the like) with one.  Had the University been concerned enough and been infatuated with its proclamations, he and many like him wouldn’t be searching for scribes for the semester exams with absolutely no help from the University or the colleges.

Under the University’s norms, all visually impaired students are to be provided with electronic reading devices by their respective colleges. Sir, the reality is that only a handful is provided with them. Most of them are subjected to procrastination by the staff.

Far from providing an environment of equality to them, the University, thanks to its many unscrupulous colleges, has rather aggravated their misery. Incidents where the writers brought in by the students were not allowed in the colleges were aptly reported in The Hindu after the semester exams in early December.  Instead, peons and people who can’t even read and write are being provided as writers to these students under the watchful eyes (I sincerely doubt if they are) of the staff of your great colleges.

Respected Sir, I by no stretch of imagination wish to doubt the University’s intention in this regard. All I want to highlight is that making rules and directions is one thing, while implementing them on ground is a different matter. Nothing great will be achieved by holding such ceremonies when the lethargic attitude of the staff continues to haunt the differently abled students.

These events shall remain nothing more than utopian fantasies if they are never to be realized, felt and implemented. I sincerely feel that instead of spreading awareness regarding the said matter, it is imperative that the University staff itself  be morally and psychologically counseled well enough by some experts though seminars and trainings. This will help to tackle the problem to a relatively greater degree and thus meet the desired end.

Thanking you in anticipation, and looking forward to a speedy and positive action from your side.

Sincerely Yours

 

Mukesh Rawat
BA(H) Pol Science
mukeshrawat705@gmail.com

 

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Campus Central

Delhi University’s first NKN lecture series

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The National Innovation Council and the National Informatics Centre is all set to launch a public lecture series on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) from Wednesday, 23rd January. The NKN is a multi gigabyte pan-India network that makes it possible to facilitate virtual classrooms across the country. Apart from classrooms; libraries, grid computing applications and various university researches can also be made available on a wider platform. Currently, NKN has connected over 900 nodes in India with a bandwidth of 1Gbps/ 100mbps.

The lecture series will be webcasted live from the Conventional Hall at the University of Delhi, from 10AM to 11:30AM. This Live webcast of the lecture can be streamed from  www.webcast.gov.in/nkn. It will begin with an introduction by Professor Dinesh Singh; the Vice Chancellor of DU. The lecture on ‘Democratising Information, Justice, Equality and the Rule of Law’ will be delivered by Professor Michael Sandel, from Harvard University, and Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation. The webcast will connect about 500 institutes across India, making it the first university lecture to take place on such a grand scale. The lecture will be followed by an interactive session, where students can pose their questions to the panel. Questions can also be submitted via twitter.

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Campus Central

Over-Inflation of Marks

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For the first time in its history, the DU results were announced in record time of 15 days. But the impossible seems to have happened at the University of Delhi.

A student scored 102 marks in her French paper, which was, to her utter amazement, a paper having 100 marks as maximum. Soon, similar discrepancies surfaced in other colleges.

A second year BSc student is shown to have scored above maximum in both internal assessment as well as the written exam. He was given 65 out of 50 in Paper I and 74 out of 50 in Paper II. A student found he had scored 57 out of 55 in mathematics. Another has been given 58 marks out of 38 in physics. Marksheets are replete with such inconsistencies

Eleven students of Kalindi College have received two sets of their third semester exam results. In the second marksheets, six marks have been knocked off their total scores. As a result, a few failed. There are reports from other colleges of similar discrepancies in the results of the undergraduate semester exams conducted in November-December 2012.

“Much ink has been spilt on the woes of the Semesterization that was has been established in the University over the last two years. What we have seen is in fact a series of actions which have only compounded the mess,” quoted a second year student.

This faux pas is still not taken seriously by the varsity authorities. This matter was raised by one of the victims in VC’s “darbar” as she was denied admission in Law Faculty seeing the unrealistic marksheet, but no austere steps were taken in this regard.  The university’s examination system has lost its credibility pertaining to regular inconsistencies being witnessed every time semester results come out.
University authorities have repeatedly blamed the sheer  number of students, not only for such problems, but even for major reforms such as removal of provisions for special chance and re-evaluation.

University sources say such faults have become common since the introduction of the semester system, which practically doubles the work of the exam branch.
University authorities admit that given the large number of students involved, errors are possible. Mistakes can happen while dealing with the evaluation and declaration of 122 results for 1.30 lakh students. DU has opened a grievance redress window and is now rectifying the mistakes.

Evaluation of students is meant to test their understanding of the subject, their power of critical thinking and ability to assimilate the syllabus. This is to provide an honest benchmark for an outsider to gauge the student’s appropriateness for a job, for further academic work etc. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen when it is obvious to outsiders that the marks are not a reflection of the student’s abilities- either by themselves or in a comparative sense.

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Campus Central

The start of the Fest Season

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The second part of the Delhi University year is looked forward to, not just because of the relieving winter but the season of college fests that light up each campus in the city between January and March.

The societies gear up for all competitions in these months. Dancers can be seen practicing their complex turns and twists in their sleep, while the singers hidden in every college are heard humming random mash-ups. It’s a hectic season for every busy bee involved in any union, organizational body or society. It is an exciting time for everybody.

When asked about their expectations from the upcoming season, Drishti, a student of Hindu exclaimed, “More guest stars!” Another voice piped in, “Perhaps lesser Honey Singh?”

Most students are eagerly awaiting the lineup of star performances that highlight most college fests. Last year saw celebrities like Kailash Kher, RDB, Honey Singh and Them Clones taking the stage at various colleges. The competitions that most audiences tend to look forward to yielded expected responses of choreography, battle of the bands and dramatics.

It was a nice surprise to see niche concepts and ideas like focused discussions and literary events also pop up among the responses. Some of the interviewees were more straightforward. “We’re looking forward to the food,” said Tarun from KMC, referring to the immense number of stalls and shops that populate all college grounds from the most surprising of places to the most well known.

The first fest on the DU calendar this year is GargiCollege’s Reverie from the 29th to 31st January which is promising to be even larger this year. Our editors and photographers will cover the succeeding season in exceeding detail.

Keep watching this space for the same!

 

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Bazinga

Bazinga

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It’s been an interesting week at the South Campus of Delhi University. An upcoming large-scale conference has placed the authorities with a logistical problem. With the event reported to attract an unusually large number of scholars, students, and other flora and fauna. The trouble however is that as a large part of the campus is under green cover and a major number of the people attending the conference have stated they feel queasy around places that could be harbouring animals and birds in it, the authorities have now sought help from the students.

Starting Monday, students of the University are invited to help the officials out in clearing  away some of the plant cover as the budget of the conference is not as much as would be needed to accommodate the expense that might be incurred to engage professional help for the matter.

One of the students interested in this drive has said that he views this as an opportunity to increase his bodily strength and also maybe become poetic, what with the interaction with nature this opportunity gives him.

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Campus Central

Interview with Arnav Das-CAT 2013

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We earnestly extend hearty congratulations to you on your resounding performance and a thunderous applause to your hard work that has paid off. In order for us to share your success story, please respond to the following questions.

Q. Please give us some information regarding your academic background, hobbies and anything more about yourself that you would like to share.

I am a student of St. Stephen’s College, pursuing Mathematics Honours. I have pursued Science stream in class 12 from DPS RKP and class 10 from St. James’ Calcutta.
My hobbies include web-designing and travelling. Also I am an integral part of debating society in college (winner SRCC’s Gambit 2010), placement cell and Finance and Investment Cell (VP) in college.

Q. Sometimes reality exceeds dreams and vision too. Was your scorecard a similar situation or was it close to your expectations?

CAT – 99.60 (Quant-96.63, Verbal-99.77)
I was always expecting a good score in verbal but was apprehensive of the quant results as my paper had not gone too well. Final results in each section were slightly higher than my expectations but I certainly did not expect the overall to be skewed the way it was towards my verbal score!

Q. What was your mantra for preparation for this extremely competitive exam and how long have you been preparing for it? Did you bind yourself to a rigorous schedule?

I had been preparing for 6 months and not very rigorous. I made sure that I was relaxed (followed 6 TV shows regularly online) and not neglecting my other interests such as college societies. I did not even take the day before my CAT off (was in college helping prepare for an event we organized).

The simple mantra for success is to not get caught up in the nitty-gritty of the material (mugging formulae of grammar rules) but instead to get a broader idea of the subject. This will enable you to solve questions in CAT that you have never seen before.

Q. What level of proficiency is required for each section of the paper and how do you suggest it can be achieved?

Verbal, I believe, is a section that can be perfected with intense reading of fiction (and maybe non-fiction) literature. No amount of ‘studying’ or ‘practicing’ shall help.

In quant, try to gain exposure of various kinds of questions by practicing from books of various coaching institutes. Also, try to do as many questions as possible conceptually, without pen-paper and without using formulae!

Q .Where all have you secured admission and what criteria are you going to follow to narrow down on your institute for admission?

I have secured admission to ISB through YLP. Hence I have not applied beyond IIMs. Will select A/B/C over ISB, or else stick to ISB.

Q. What is your ultimate aim and what is going to be the next rung in your ladder of success?

Ultimate aim is to be happy and content. Reasonable money in an exciting and challenging job environment would be an ideal end! I might even opt for a start-up in the long run!

Q. How important is formal coaching to crack CAT? What advice do you want to give to the future aspirants?

Coaching becomes essential to acquaint yourself with the format of the paper and certain tips and tricks. It also helps to benchmark against other likeminded people. For me, it was essential in ensuring that I was in touch with my CAT syllabus all through!

Thank you for your time and effort!

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Features

A Dialogue With The Dalai Lama

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Tomorrow, 14th January 2013 Delhi University and the Mind and Life Institute has organised a dialogue with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama to discuss Science, Ethics and Education. Apart from Dalai Lama, Professor Dinesh Singh: Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi, Arthur Zojonc: President of Mind and Life Institute, Richard J. Davidson: Professor of Psychology Wisconsin-Madison University, ThuptenJinpa:  Scholar neuroscience studies, Stanford University, Tania Singer:  Director Mask Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and brain sciences will also be present to talk about these topics.

The venue has been fixed at Convention Hall, Vice-regal lodge, University of Delhi and the first round starts from 9 am to 12:30 am and the second from 1:30pm to 4:30 pm. To participate in the event, the interested Delhi University Student has to send a write up of 100 words on why he/she wants to be a part of the discussion. We can say that it is a once in a life time opportunity to see and hear his holiness talk about the topic which so closely relates to us.

 

Aishwarya Chaurasia
aishwaryac@dubeat.com 

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Campus Central

Entrances to replace the Cut-off lists?

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The to-be-Delhi University students have a drastic change in store for them this admission season, with the authorities planning to scrap the cut-offs in the next academic session. As the four-year undergraduate system is all set to be launched, a common curriculum is most likely for all students in their first year.

Merit lists or maybe even an entrance exam might soon replace the dreaded cut-off lists that students watch out for every year. The only thing stopping the implementation of this system is the wait for the final approval from the academic council. However, the issue that arises here is the sheer number of applicants for the colleges in DU. Holding entrance tests for so many students in about 70 colleges is a mammoth task, and might get quite difficult to handle. “This doesn’t seem to be a very good idea, because entrances just increase pressure. The cut-offs were bad enough, now with entrance exams we have to worry about what to study and how to crack these tests just a few months after giving our boards,” says Sakshee, a school student currently in her final year.

Another change the officials want to bring about is the merging of the results from the different education boards across the country, giving individual colleges the ability to devise their own merit lists. Other internal changes might also be brought about, such as the scrapping of the marks given for attendance. However, these are just speculations and the truth will only be known closer to the admissions period. Until then, aspiring DU students anticipate the next avalanche waiting to crash over their heads, thanks to the University’s knack of throwing last minute shockers and its inability to make concrete decisions.

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Campus Central

The case of the perplexing DU results

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The Mayan prediction of the world ending on 21st December might not have come true, but the students of Delhi University were in for a small glimpse of what could have been, as the semester results were declared barely three weeks after the exams ended.

The results were a tad surprising and unpleasant for most. 2nd Year History honours saw a fall of 10 percent in their marks as compared to the last two semesters. The topper of Lady Shri Ram College scored a 75% that was a drop from last semester’s 81%, while the average was around 60%. A significant number of people failed in courses such as Economics (Hons) and B Com (Hons), while the general trend was poor scores in subjects where students were confident of scoring well. “A large number of people want to give their papers for re-evaluation, but the procedure is not yet clear to anybody as it had been removed for a while,” says Diksha Jhalani from LSR.

The Economics (Hons.) topper at Kamla Nehru College scored an 83, while St. Stephen’s saw an 85, which was similar to last semester’s scores. B Com honours at SRCC saw a drop of about 5-6%, with the highest being around 89% as compared to a couple of students scoring in the nineties last year. Other courses such as Psychology (Hons.) also saw a drop in percentage, with some students claiming that the only thing that helped them scrape through was good marks given by their college in the internals. English honours in Venky saw a fall of 6-7% in the overall percentage, while other colleges also saw a slight decrease in the English scores this semester. The result of the subject Economic History of India and interdisciplinary courses like Environmental Issues was not as good as expected, despite these subjects being highly scoring.

The results of the first semester were more or less the same as what it was last year, with many of the students scoring high percentages. However, there was also an increase in the number of students who didn’t do so well, leading to more students failing. First year students mostly responded to the results as unexpected, while the correction of qualifying papers like lower and higher Hindi was more lenient this time, with most students passing these exams. Overall, the results this semester consisted of more nightmares for the students, as the Delhi University Board can’t seem to make up its mind on maintaining consistency when it comes to giving marks in the recently introduced semester system.

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Bazinga

Bazinga

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A lot of mortals, Mayans, their descendants and otherwise believe that the world shall meet its end on the 21st of December of this year that has gone by, viz. 2012. As always there is the ardent group of the nay-sayers, the non-believers, the sceptics. These members of highest pig-headedness as well as optimism are found in generous dosage across the face of planet which is apparently approaching its long-forecasted doom.

The supremely intelligent coterie of people, the powers that be at Delhi University however are those who belong to the yet another category of people, the most commonly found – the sloths. If our sources are to be believed, news is that all checking of examination answer-sheets has been put on hold. This affects courses from the undergrad level, and taking its path through the post-graduate courses infiltrates the doctorate programmes. The process of checking the answer-sheet will slowly begin only after the 21st of this month, after every agency confirms that life will go on.

Our source informs us that the authorities at the University feel that in the event of the apocalypse, the declaration of results leaves no one in good stead. One one hand, it calls the teachers to check scores of answer sheets, which may all be to no avail, thus expending their energies in vain. The other concern being that they “wish that the students end their time on Earth without the additionally depressing knowledge of their scores”, though exceptions may abound for the sundry genii who populate the University in peaceful cohabitation. For them, we offer our commiserations.

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