Jadavpur University has appealed to its teachers and other employees to donate a day’s salary and requested alumni, guardians and others to contribute to raise funds to provide smartphones and high-speed data packs to 800-odd students so they can overcome the digital divide and attend classes.

Classes through a semi-online mode will start on September 14.

An official of JU said they would require Rs 40 lakh to provide smartphones and high-speed data packs to the 800-odd students.

On Sunday, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had said he would appeal to the teachers to contribute a day’s salary for the mission and would also write to business houses to build a corpus so that no student felt left out.

Gour Krishna Pattanayak, the finance officer of JU, posted a notice on the university’s website on Tuesday, stating the university had expanded the list of potential contributors. “A provision has been created for receipt of such funds where teachers and other employees can give their option for recovery from salary and the pensioners from pensions, at will,” the notice reads.

Current and former employees have to send a mail to itsupportforstudents@jadavpuruniversity.in to give their consent on deduction of a day’s salary and pension.

Alumni, guardians and others have been appealed to directly contribute to an account in the Jadavpur University branch of the State Bank of India. Details of the account have been provided on the university’s website.

The university had conducted a survey among the students of engineering, science and arts faculty recently and found that around 800 students are in need of support.

VC Das said that despite some individual initiatives by teachers, regular classes have not been held in the online mode or through electronic means such as email, WhatsApp and Google classroom. “That is because a significant number of our students do not have access to stable high-speed data connections and some students do not even possess handheld devices,” he said.

“I feel it is our moral responsibility to provide the students who do not possess a smartphone with a smartphone and to offer financial assistance to those students who need it to upgrade their data connectivity. I am sure everyone will agree that the adoption of these measures is required to address the challenge of the digital divide.”

The students will have to return the smartphones to the university on completion of their courses.

In an appeal posted on the JU website, Das has written: “I am sure the university’s faculty members will join hands to help our students and ensure that none of them is deprived of the access to academic activities during a period when normal classes cannot be conducted. This will be in the finest traditions of Jadavpur University, where we work together as a family in our continuing quest to provide our students with an education that combines excellence with equity.”

The university earlier this month had advised the teachers to come up with models on how to start classes.

The teachers suggested that study materials — notes, soft copies of textbooks, powerpoint presentations, and audio and video lectures — be delivered to the students through email and WhatsApp.

“But at JU, a substantial number of students are from poor families. They lack smartphones or a high-speed data pack. So, we also proposed that a special fund be created,” said Partha Pratim Roy, the general secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association.