A batch of former students at IIM-Calcutta have contributed Rs 3.24 crore which would be used to create a chair professorship and develop hybrid class room — a facility whose absence was flagged by the institute’s students’ council in February this year.

The amount was raised by the class of 1992.

The PGPEx classroom L-52 in the New Academic Block has been renamed CLASS of 1992 — 27 FOREVER Seminar Hall in recognition of contribution during a ceremony on Monday.

Director-in-charge Subir Bhattacharya attended the event.

An official of the institute said interest earned from the contribution would go into developing technological infrastructure, including hybrid classrooms. In hybrid classes, lectures are live-streamed for some students, while others attend them in person.

The institute's students’ council in a letter on IT infrastructure woes addressed to then IIM C director Anju Seth on February 16 had stated: “We don’t have the required infrastructure in our classrooms to conduct hybrid classes".

The lacking has prompted them to think of hybrid classrooms.

Apart from blaming the absence of a stable Internet connection in their hostel rooms, the students referred to the absence of hybrid class-rooms posing hindrances to their studies.

Yash Verma, the IT representative from the students council had written: “We have reached a point where there is a need to revamp and invest heavily in the IT infrastructure.”