A decision by Jadavpur University to earmark a hostel for first-year undergraduate students complying with what the UGC had recommended way back in 2009 has triggered protests and postgraduate students housed there now have refused to vacate it.
Students staged a protest in the portico of Aurobindo Bhavan, the university’s administrative headquarters, on Saturday. They said the decision to shift them to another hostel had been taken without consulting them.
An onlooker who saw the protest said “it appears that these students are oblivious or do not care about” their 17-year-old fellow student’s death.
The protests followed a notice, which dean of students Rajat Roy issued on Friday, announcing: “As per the decision of the anti-ragging committee held on 16-08-23 the New Boys’ Hostel is earmarked for all undergraduate fresher students from the academic year 2023-24. Furthermore, the reshuffling of the existing senior boarders (residents), excluding PWD (Persons With Disability) student-boarders (residents) of the New Boys’ Hostel, be decided by the university authority.”
The 30-odd first-year students who resided in the A-1 and A-2 blocks of the main hostel were temporarily shifted to the New Boys’ Hostel on the university campus on August 10, the day a first-year student who stayed in the main hostel was allegedly killed by senior students who had been harassing him.
The 17-year-old was allegedly ragged and thrown from the second-floor balcony of JU Main Hostel late on August 9.
The main hostel is located next to the Jadavpur police station, about 400 metres from the university campus.
The Telegraph reported on August 13 that JU had decided to permanently shift all undergraduate first-year students to a separate hostel block. It took JU the death of a first-year student to implement a guideline that had been issued by the UGC in 2009.
On August 16, UGC secretary Manish R. Joshi wrote to JU registrar Snehamanju Basu asking: “Are the freshers lodged in a separate hostel block and is the access of seniors to this block being monitored?”
A JU official said that the university’s anti-ragging committee met on August 16 and decided to earmark the New Boys’ Hostel only for first-year students.
So far, the first-year students had been lodged in separate rooms of the New Boys’ Hostel.
“But the UGC is insisting that the access of seniors to the block where first-year students have been lodged separately, be monitored. So we decided to earmark the entire New Boys’ Hostel, which can accommodate 166 residents, for the first-year students. We cannot develop a separate block for the freshers overnight,” a JU official said.
“Besides, we are going to rehabilitate the senior students.”
About 40-odd residents, many of whom are postgraduate students, protested because they were “not consulted”. They marched from the New Boys’ Hostel to Aurobindo Bhavan with posters and banners around 2pm.
“It is the failure of the university administration that they could not create a separate hostel for the first-year students. We were not consulted prior to the publication of the notice about the shift. We will not vacate the hostel at any cost. This is an undemocratic decision,” said protester Plaban Karmakar.
A university official said it was not possible for them to consult students before decisions “during an emergency, which has arisen following the death of a student”.
“We are merely shifting the students because we have a UGC directive to comply with. The administration cannot function if it has to get each decision vetted by the students. It is because of too much interference in the decision-making process that we could not execute what the UGC had told us back in 2009,” said the official.
New VC at JU
Bengal governor and chancellor of Jadavpur University C.V. Ananda Bose on Saturday issued an order authorising Buddhadeb Sau, a professor of mathematics at the university, to perform the duties of vice-chancellor.
JU’s last officiating VC had stepped down on August 4 after Bose is said to have asked him to resign after a complaint by some teachers.
Sau, president of a pro-BJP teachers’ organisation at JU, was among those teachers.
Sau told Metro late on Saturday: “I have received the order from the Raj Bhavan.”
A JU official said Sau was called to Raj Bhavan on Thursday and Bose intimated him about being appointed officiating VC. Late on Saturday, the formal order was issued by Raj Bhavan.