Transforming Academic Institutions – Student Democracy with a Human Touch
Prof Rajeev Sangal
(Editor: This article is an extract from Chapter 16 of the book:”Transforming Academic Institutions: My experiments with a human touch” by Prof Rajeev Sangal, Banyan Tree, 2023.
‘’The book is based on the experiments and experiences of the author when he was the Director of IIT(BHU) at Varanasi (2013-18), and where he also held the charge of Vice Chancellor of BHU for a few months. He brings with him the knowledge and insights gained earlier by being Director IIIT Hyderabad, and Professor IIT Kanpur. He is a researcher in AI and language translation,
and is the Chairman of EC, Mission Bhashini, an initiative of Govt. of India.)’’
As the first regular Director of IIT(BHU) Varanasi after it became an IIT, I was trying to build systems so that the Institute functioning becomes more responsive and effective. The battle was at several fronts. It required setting up decision making mechanisms which would not introduce unnecessary delays, computerization to provide needed information, etc. At the other end, it required the involvement of stakeholders, such as students, faculty, staff and others.
Formation of Student Parliament
I decided that as I work on various facets above, I needed to empower the stake-holders. In the case of the students, responsible ones from the student body should participate in decision making, should be enabled to monitor progress of files or papers on important issues, and help in running of services, particularly in the hostels. For these students to have a credible voice among students, they should be elected and not nominated or appointed by the administration.
It is my firm belief that elections, if conducted fairly giving a chance to responsible students to stand for election, they invariably bring up students who are reasonable and interested in solving problems. It is essential that the elections are not based on muscle power or money, otherwise common students do not stand for elections.(*1) If there are no elected representatives, then every crisis provides an opportunity to the vested interests and problem mongers to take the leadership role. And their interest is not in solving the problem but in keeping the pot boiling.
The student pen down strike had taken place in March 2014, and a positive outcome was the speeding up of the process of student involvements. I only had to channelize the student energy in creation of the constitution of the representative body (called Student Gymkhana). Prof. R.S. Singh of Chemical Engineering was already working with a student group in drafting the constitution. It required carrying forward the process with due consultations with students and faculty.
However, not much progress could be made in the making of the student constitution during the summer of 2014, unlike what I had hoped for, because the students in the committee were away during the vacation. The process resumed in August 2014, after the start of the semester. The approach paper to the constitution provided for elections of parliament members; election of General Secretaries of all the five councils; election cum selection of captains of games, secretaries of hobby clubs based on credit points for their past record; finance and budgeting; hostel representation; etc. The parliament would elect the Vice President, the highest student official.
After much consultations among students, the draft of the constitution was ready in September 2014 under the guidance of Prof. R.S. Singh. Major work was done by students, particularly S. Venkatavardana, a BTech student of Material Science and Technology of 2011 batch. Venkat had played a prominent role in the pen down strike by the students, but had played a positive role in its resolution, and here he was playing a responsible role in drafting of Student Gymkhana constitution. Students rise upto the responsibility entrusted upon them.
Student representation was based on micro-democracy. For about every 100 students in a batch, there was one student parliamentarian. The term of the parliament was from April of a year to March next year. The elections would take place every March. This meant that the parliamentarian and others would get time to do planning for activities from April onwards, so that when the new academic year starts in late July, the team is already firmly in place along with its plans.
The student hostel elections were scheduled for August every year because the student batches moved across hostels, and the hostel allocation depended on new PG and PhD admissions which could be worked out only during the summer.
The Student Gymkhana had four councils to organize and govern student activities (or student life) under the constitution. The four councils in Student Gymkahan were: Sports and Games Council, Cultural Council, Science and Technology Council, and (Literary) Media Council. These were patterned after the Student Gymkhana at IIT Kanpur.(*2)
The draft constitution was approved by the Senate of the Institute giving it the official status in October 2014. It set in motion various processes for the formation of representative and self-governance bodies among students. The notification for the elections to the Student Parliament was issued on 1st January 2015 by Prof. AK Jha, the Chief Election Officer. The election was scheduled for 17th January. There was concern in the District Administration because a similar process underway at BHU in November 2014 had led to large scale violence.(*3) I had to personally assure the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) that we had gone through a transparent process of formulating the student constitution, everyone was on board, and IIT(BHU) students are peaceful. The SSP still had concerns saying that outsiders might disrupt the election. He was taking no chances, and he posted PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) with visible trucks on the campus that day. The election was incident free and results were declared the next day.
The first student parliament was now formed with its tenure till March 2016. I addressed its first session welcoming the young parliamentarians, and telling them about their responsibilities not only towards their electorate but also towards the Institute or system as a whole. As a leader, they must listen to their electorate but also educate them, and take decisions in the best interest of everybody and the Institute.
And thus was launched the democratic process at IIT(BHU) wherein the students not only got elected, but also joined as members the administrative decision making committees of the Institute.
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FOOTNOTES:
(*1) This means that micro-democracy and not macro-democracy should be in place. To understand the difference between micro and macro democracy, and the unworkability of the latter, see Section 24.1 (page 222) on BHU elections.
(*2) A fifth council, Council for Social Service, was added a couple of years later at IIT(BHU); see page 184 in Section 19.2. The fact that social service was missing all these years, is an indication of where the thoughts of the student body stand. And this fact was missed by faculty and others, me included!
(*3) See Chapter 24 (page 221) for the violence witnessed in BHU related to student elections.
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