Jadavpur University’s main hostel will only accommodate third-year or older students.

The first-year and second-year students will have separate hostels on the main campus. Hostel wardens will be appointed from among JU teachers for each year.

The announcements came 15 years after the UGC had set these guidelines. It took the death of a first-year student and many complaints of lawlessness in the hostels for the JU authorities to shake themselves out of their slumber.

“The A1 and A2 blocks of the main hostel will accommodate third-year and fourth-year students. The B, C and D blocks will house post-graduate students. This way, only senior students will stay in the main hostel. The junior students will be accommodated on the main campus,” interim vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta said on Friday.

The Old PG and New Block hostels on the main campus have already been earmarked for first-year students. The first batch of freshers arrived at the Old PG hostel on Thursday.

The second-year and differently-able students will also be accommodated on the main campus, in the New Boys’ hostel and the JPJU quarters.

A postgraduate first-year student was allegedly harassed and humiliated in the main hostel after being accused of stealing a laptop on July 24. The student had to be hospitalised after he suffered a suspected panic attack as a large group of students allegedly ganged up on him.

A first-year JU student was allegedly thrown off a second-floor balcony of the main hostel on August 9 last year. He died early on August 10.

“We will also have hostel wardens. Diganta Saha, a professor of computer science, has been appointed as the warden for first-year hostels. There will be separate hostel wardens for other batches,” Gupta said.

The university has issued notices to appoint eight wardens for all its campuses.

“The hostel superintendents will still be there, looking after day-to-day affairs. The warden will be in the overall charge, acting like a mentor to the students,” said Gupta.

The hostel superintendents at JU would earlier be teachers but the practice was done away with around 2005-2006, said veteran teachers.

The UGC had in January this year written to JU that teachers be given charge of administering hostels.

Campus officer

Gupta also said that the university had appointed a campus officer in charge.

Sridip Chatterjee, associate professor in the physical education department, is taking charge as an officer on special duty. He will look after the administrative affairs of the campus and the hostels.

JU is preparing a detailed project report on the installation of CCTV cameras in the corridors and other places in the hostels, Gupta said.