The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Anna University has banned cell phones on campus. So of course it cannot be used it class (a rule students WANT to obey) but it cannot even be used after class anywhere on campus. And, if you are even found in possession of one it is immediately confiscated. Now, in a protest letter to President Kalam, students write, “We are being frisked humiliatingly – an ignominy normally reserved for terrorists.”
The VC has also introduced a highly unpopular dress code. He thinks that by placing a blanket ban on cell phones and forcing people to dress a certain way he is introducing a greater degree of professionalism into college functioning. But little of all this he practices himself. He turned up half an hour late for my interview without intimating me of the delay. His arrival was preceded by a servile peon who carried in two of his cell phones while he walked in a little later with the third. And despite Anna University being a green campus, he zips around in his spanking, air-conditioned TATA Safari while some students have to walk nearly half a kilometer under the blazing sun just to get some lunch.
The letter written to the President is being circulated to gather signatures. It is written straight from the heart and shows the vice-chancellor in very poor light. The VC therefore is desperate to get hold of the letter. His office called and asked me for a copy and they were told kindly to go to hell.
But beyond the dress code and cell phone ban and harassment, students allege that there has been little academic advancement over the years. They say the syllabus has not been updated, labs lack proper equipment and the faculty does not spark their imagination. A moribund academic environment and the Talibanisation of the social and cultural climate on campus is the real Anna University today where the product just does not match the brand.
42 comments:
i presume this viswanathan chap is related to jeppiar in some way...i guess thats why both of them believe in brutal vigilance...
hi,
I'm a student at the Guindy campus (AC Tech), and I completely agree.
Being a current student, I'm too chicken to express myself openly (V might start a death-squad soon), but there are many things wrong with the place that deserve priority over dress code/cell phones.
Oh, and I daresay the VC stands alone in his crusade, for most of the faculty members don't really care.
vr.
Can anything be done? I mean, who appoints this guy and who is accountable? Are the powers that be listening?
Alaphia, one thing is sure. Cell phone ban is not bad. We hardly care about cell phone etiquettes in the country and more so in colleges and universities it is necessary. Everybody wants to talk on cell and get noticed....the cacophony is becoming unbearable everywhere....
Hi Anon...
Glad to hear from a student of the university. I understand why you guys cant talk about this openly. I hear the suspension of four hostel boys was also completely high-handed. They were watching some harmless english flick, not porn. Is that true?
I want to do more stories about the harassment going on there. Dont worry about your identity being revealed... email me.
Thanks
Hi indscribe,
Frankly even i hate cell phones and i think they're an absolute nuisance sometimes. But by confiscating it from students who are not even talking on the phone and subjecting them to frisking the VC is going way beyond his jurisdiction. Hes does not have the right to invade their privacy!
This VC dude must be a highly frustrated chap or worse a follower of the Nazi principles. I blogged about this a while back and raised some queries on the idiocity of the dictum.
Did you go to the Canteen ? It is such a mess, literally and fuguratively. And the hostel food and facilities leave much to be desired.
Btw, institutions like IITM, MCC or Loyola dont have such bans, but have stayed at the top of the charts. The VC should probably do something more constructive rather than wasting his time with such trivialities.
Poor VC ..He has every right to Preach what he does not Practise since that what every one does in life.
There are only 2 options . One, the students take responsiblity and start to protest in huge numbers. Two , the people who appointed the VC throw him out.
I feel both wont happen for the simple reason today the student community is least bothered and more so in TN where the only aim of studying is to go to US. How does it matter if cell phones are banned or if you have to come in a uniform since after 2 years you will be out of it( this is the view of the students)
Second one , i feel the people who appointed him like him too much to remove.
Therefore ,Better to keep quiet since the people involved in it themselves are fine with it(except one or two) . It makes sense to highlight issues when the people who are affected by it want it to be done. Otherwise its a futile exercise.
Hi Cynical,
I think thats the problem exactly... that students want to just get on with it. They dont have the time to unionise, shout slogans and tell him to go to hell because they want to just get their degrees and leave. I cant blame them... idealism is not very well these days.
Hi reflex,
Thats exactly what one student i interviewed said... "This is going to take us back to the past. How can a technical institution ban technology?"
Hi Don,
Checked out your article... maybe we should take print-outs and send them to him?
Alaphia,
Nice post girl. You are the best.
later,
Shumit
I found this blog surfing.
Your post was interesting and well written. It looks like the clock is being turned back at that school.
Regards.
Hi,
Whats the majority view of the students
community
G21
Actually , these rules do not apply to him or other faculty members. So you really cannot accuse him of following his own rules.
Showing up half-hour late for an interview with a reporter it not bad at all, neither is coming in an air conditioned Tata Safari. He is a vice chancellor whether we like it or not, he deserves our respect and some perks. If two bit MLAs can move around in air conditioned Honda City (govt of Tamil Nadu), I have no problem with Dr Viswanathans Tata Safari.
Let us not attack him personally, because that campaign is bound to fail miserably. He is after all an accomplished educationist - who stayed back in India to teach our youth. He could have easily got a faculty position in any American school.
I am neutral on the cell phone ban and ban on fancy clothes. After all there are youngsters from many depressed sections of society in Anna Univ.
The most reasonable approach is to politely approach him with specific suggestions. Maybe Jeans and T-shirt with collar or whatever you guys feel is reasonable. You really cant ask for Sleeveless Halter Tops and Low Rise Levis Jeans. Remember there are young students from backward classes, and other depressed classes who cant afford these things.
Hi Vivekanandan,
The dress code and cell phone ban does not apply to the VC but shouldnt keeping the Anna University campus a 'green' one also be the responsibility of the VC? I mean.. practice what you preach and all that.
Then... how is okay if he turns up half an hour late for an interview with me? Why? Why is that alright?
lets not compare MLA's and venerable academicians. In fact thats exactly why we respect our academicians...because they are nothing like our MLA's. I have no problem with his Safari either, indeed, i couldnt care less, but if you want a green campus you cant contribute to its pollution.
I think the cell phone ban is fair... but might i add, professors take out their cell phones and disrupt classes. It doesnt happen often, but it does happen... Shouldnt teachers set an example if they dont want their students to use their phones?
I think the students would love to approach him with specific suggestions - if he cared to listen. he does not. The syndicate which passes these 'laws' has no student representatives. Student bodies are weak and faction-ridden.
So vivekanandan... we dont want our academicians to behave like MLAs at all.
Hi Alaphia, I am an ex-AU-CEG student. In fact I have studied and worked under Vishwanathan right through his experiments with the Media Sciences department, his ugly tussles with the then VC and Dean, and his subsequent uncerimonous 'transfer'. I do not intend to offer up insider smut, but I do have to tell you that I had very little personal regard for the man then. I was, for a year, general sec of the department committee under him and organised a couple of events including the first ever National Panel Discussion on blogging. Things turned rather sour and I can only look back in amazement at how it has all worked out for him. Being so far away from it all, and having known Vishwanathan so well, it makes me wonder how this current 'outsider' status of mine would work to my advantage if I choose to land on campus and confront him again. I loved picking fights with him then; I sure will now. Have to admit, I do find him immensely entertaining. Plus, if you do meet him again, do not expect to get away with a logical argument. I can only wonder how he got his doctorate... This has become smutty after all hasn't it?
While it is completely agree that cell phones should be banned inside classrooms, libraries, labs etc I see no reason as to why students should not be allowed to use the cell phones in hostels.
About the dress code, I am 100 % sure that NDTV is partisan.......
If 5 start hotels have a right to impose dress code, why not an Educational Institution.
Please see here
http://www.askenni.com/archives/2005/07/the_fun_in_gett_1.html
A gentle man was NOT allowed to Madras Boat club for his dress.
Why did not NDTV (and other media) conduct a show and ask opinion about the Dress Code of Madras Boat Club
Why are they (media) concerned only about Anna University and not Madras Boat Club, when each have their dress code
Thank you for writing about this. I am an alumna of the Guindy engineering college. As a female student, I always felt a cloud hangign over my head - you better not be caught talking to any "boys" on campus because someone somewhere would be watching and god knows how that would affect your internals. The profs were the worst gossip-mongers of them all and indeed behaved like the Moral Police force of the taliban regime in kabul - only difference was that instead of beating women who dared to show theier ankle, their instrument of choice was the internal marks. When the dress code issue first surfaced, I wrote to the email group of my classmates fuming about it and sadly I got no response. The apathy was rather pathetic.
In any case the following was MY letter on the subject (before the cell phone ban) that I tried to get my classmates to endorse to no avail:
Fellow Alumni:
Have you been following the recent announcements from our Alma Mater?
Have you heard about the latest fatwa on students banning "dancing to film music".
This comes on top of other taliban like restrictions imposed by the enlightened new VC, Dr. D. Viswanathan and his most illustrious predecessor.
Some examples of Taliban rules adopted by AU recently:
1. Dress code for boys and girls (yes, can you believe it? Whats's next? )
2. No soft drinks on campus (Yipee! Mullah Omar will be proud, wherever he is, god bless his soul)
3. No bikes or cars on campus - you have to park near the gate and walk all the way in. (Yup, we would much rather give away the land to Jayalalitha than build parking facilities inside. Let them sweat it out.)
4. Now the restriction on "no dancing to film music". (Yes, the Taliban also banned all music, posters, and movies)
Stay tuned for what's coming next from the enlightened VC at AU based on the following news from Afghanistan:
"Boys are not allowed to go to school with girls in the western Afghan province of Gerat. Elsewhere, men are reportedly not allowed to teach girls, not even in private schools."
Seriously people, I am ashamed to say that I am from this institution. My dad who also
graduated from CEG is also pretty disturbed.
I read in The Hindu when I was in India a few weeks ago, that the justification for the dress code is that other colleges are also doing it! Wow - what an evolved reasoning that is! I also read the same official say that "this shouldn't be so bad because we will implement this in stages only. We will first do a communication campaign and then implement the code in stages". You see, you cannnot go to blue burqa overnight. You have to go in stages - first the mullahs, i.e., profs, will measure the length of the skirts that girls are wearing and then ......
The history on the soft drink ban is that they first banned it when there was the controversy over "pesticides in colas". However, long after it became clear that it was no longer an issue, they still refused to lift the ban. Amazingly, the hapless student body has not protested to this or any other restrictions. But, if you think about it, it is perhaps not so amazing, for it is an open secret that anyone that crosses the campus authorities cannot graduate.
No bikes on campus - c'mon - what's a campus without wheelies? I am not sure what prompted this decision.
No dancing to film music - the reason given by Mullah Viswanathan is that "it takes almost a month of students' time to practice. That is a month that they could be studying.". Oh yuck. Well, even assuming that he really believes that studying is the beginning and end of life, I wonder why he didn't also ban all kinds of music and dance - why single out "film music". Doesn't classical music/dance take just as long to practice? Surely the Sapthaswarangal team didn't just wake up one day and find themselves in the semifinals? Oh, and lets not forget the sportsmen and women who have such a rigorous schedule they can hardly show up in class. So, Dr.Viswanathan, at least be honest. Say "I am bieng a moral policeman here and selectively banning certain types of cultural activities", instead of trying to hide behind altruistic sounding excuces.
Along with the syllabus AU should just issue a list of bakthi padalgal and kaaviya thiraip-padangal that students can listen and watch. Why stop there? They should tell students what to think and what to say. Interestingly, the #1 complaint of American managers that outsource IT development projects to India is that their Indian counterparts seem incapable of making decisions on their own and have to be given detailed instructions which is time consuming. The shine is beginning to wear off for the Americans. American managers are finding that the Indian IT professional does not feel empowered to make even simple technical decisions and look to their American counterparts for affirmation and approval. They are finding that while it may be cheaper to hire more people in India, it is more tedious to work with the Indians and projects take longer to complete for that reason. It is not enough if we have highly intelligent people, with good technical skills who speak good engl
ish. That only gets us to Call Centers and other menial back office jobs. If we want a piece of the cutting-edge engineering and IT action, we also need people to think creatively, make decisions independently, and execute smartly. And we won't get there as long as as we have the education system that we do. As long as we have VCs who have no qualms about telling the student body of a supposedly elite professional institution what to drink, what to wear, and what to dance to, we will be doomed forever to processing some else's paperwork.
I find this whole thing disgusting. Obvioulsy the current student body is petrified about protesting to anything for fear of repurcussions. We have been there. We know how oppressive the campus was even without these explicit restrictions. Now that we are outside their sphere of influence, perhaps we can do something to reverse the march toward the talibanisation of CEG and AU. Please write to the VC(vc@annauniv.edu) and other alumni/faculty/students at the univ and in the media to express your opinion on this matter.
Thanks,
-Revathi(ece 90)
some clarifications:
1. on the cell phone issue: ban it by all means during college working hours - but why raid the women's hostel at night searching for cell phones like some drug? What is the point? That if you stay in the hostel, you cannot speak to your friends and family after hours? Is hostel spelt with a j-a-i-l?
2. 5*hotels and madras boat club are private institutions - they have every right to impose any rule they want - if they say that you have to wear a red bikini to enter their premises and you do not like that rule, you have a choice - you can take your money and go patronize some other joint where only blue bikinis are required. AU is a public educational institution and imposing such frivolous rules goes against the grain.
3. If any of you think you can get the student body to mobilize against this - you are in a fools' paradise. I have been there(albeit 15 years ago) - there was enough fire blazing in my belly against these idiots - but no one could have told from looking at me on campus in my pressed cotton churidars with dupattas demurely draped around the shoulders. You see it is important to have at least three layers covering your bust and butt otherwise the 150 year old institution will come crashing down and no one can learn anything! Oh, but I digress - the point is that current and recent grads won't have the guts to speak up and I don't blame them. Perhaps publicity and public indignation is the way to get these things reversed. The Kalam letter might work.
some clarifications:
1. on the cell phone issue: ban it by all means during college working hours - but why raid the women's hostel at night searching for cell phones like some drug? What is the point? That if you stay in the hostel, you cannot speak to your friends and family after hours? Is hostel spelt with a j-a-i-l?
2. 5*hotels and madras boat club are private institutions - they have every right to impose any rule they want - if they say that you have to wear a red bikini to enter their premises and you do not like that rule, you have a choice - you can take your money and go patronize some other joint where only blue bikinis are required. AU is a public educational institution and imposing such frivolous rules goes against the grain.
3. If any of you think you can get the student body to mobilize against this - you are in a fools' paradise. I have been there(albeit 15 years ago) - there was enough fire blazing in my belly against these idiots - but no one could have told from looking at me on campus in my pressed cotton churidars with dupattas demurely draped around the shoulders. You see it is important to have at least three layers covering your bust and butt otherwise the 150 year old institution will come crashing down and no one can learn anything! Oh, but I digress - the point is that current and recent grads won't have the guts to speak up and I don't blame them. Perhaps publicity and public indignation is the way to get these things reversed. The Kalam letter might work.
look at you... guys and girls, slaves to mobile phones and boot legged jeans and fancy bikes and The Great American Lifestyle!!!
ur seniors lived without these. u r no different. u dont need them too. creativity does not come from outside.
go watch "fight club".
well anon, our seniors wore dhothis and college doesnt allow that too...
Its not only creativity quotient, its also the comfort quotient.
TO Revathi..... who said "
2. 5*hotels and madras boat club are private institutions - they have every right to impose any rule they want - you can take your money and go patronize some other joint where only blue bikinis are required. AU is a public educational institution and imposing such frivolous rules goes against the grain"
PLEASE GO AND JOIN ANY UNIVERSITY that permits your dress code (blue bikini or even without that).... No one came begging at your door steps and asked you to join at Anna University.
Dress like anything when you are at home or at party. But inside the college , the Dean, Principal or VC has all right to ask you come follow a dress code. There is NO doubt against that. What consitutes the dress code alone is the matter of scrutiny and contemplation. But ANY UNIVERSITY HAS RIGHT TO IMPOSE A DRESS CODE. You cannot cry against that. You can only discuss what is the dress code and voice your opinions on that.
I fully agree with Revathi on this "
No dancing to film music - the reason given by Mullah Viswanathan is that "it takes almost a month of students' time to practice. That is a month that they could be studying.". Oh yuck. Well, even assuming that he really believes that studying is the beginning and end of life, I wonder why he didn't also ban all kinds of music and dance - why single out "film music". Doesn't classical music/dance take just as long to practice? Surely the Sapthaswarangal team didn't just wake up one day and find themselves in the semifinals?"
I guess the VC has gone too much into this...... What is the fun in banning film songs in dance. Doe sit mena the same song can be sunbg in teh Vocal Solo / Light Music....
Does it mean that you can sing classical songs...
Many of the classical carnatic songs (when translated into tamil) are more obscene than film songs
Along with the syllabus AU should just issue a list of bakthi padalgal and kaaviya thiraip-padangal that students can listen and watch. Why stop there?
Don't tell this. They will probably do this too,.... and have a semester for this....
In short, my opinion on this subject is that JUST BECUASE FEW OF HIS GUIDELEINES are oppresive, you should not ridicule him for his good moves also
As a student of AU-CEG I agree with yor post compeletely.Infact I support our VC's move to ban cellphone usage inside our class but banning their usage throughtout the campus and even after the end of our classes is nothing but drivel.Such a decision is not only archaic but extremely myopic in outlook.As for the dress code,though vulgar and obscene dresses must be prohibited at all costs,one must be allowed to wear jeans and tshirts.We could do away with low waist jeans but anything else shud be allowed,and for the drive to contain pollution I don't really think it is having much of an effect as all our professors are allowed to use their vehicles and as for the promise made by our Dean,a year ago,that he will soon introduce mini buses inside our campus,well it has remained just that,a dream.
Yup...Read the post...completely agree with the author..but how mch is there that we can do?
Mobiles...agreed..not to be used in class....but if a student brings it into campus he is going to bring it to class..ok...agreed..dont bring into campus..but then going to the extent of going to the hostel and asking them to not use mobiles is just plain crazy.There is no way a parent can intimate any sudden news to the student..coz there is just one landline per block(thats about 80+ rooms) and its perpetually engaged.Just the practical aspect of things.
Ban on filmi music at culturals,so damn sad!
It is going to be really sad if we have a bharatnatyam arengetram for 3 hours in the name of culturals!
Such rules usually have the reverse effect on the students.I have seen it happen with some of my friends in private engg colleges here where the rules are/were too strict.Students go out and do the exact opposite.
Alaphia,
Found out about your blog thru the sma1996 mailing list, which I only recently joined. I must say this was an absolutely smashing post.
I'd read about it in the papers, with mild bemusement, and was wondering what they'll come up with next. There were several complaints from parents about this issue as well, when they couldn't contact their son or daughter, coz the only point of contact was the cellphone.
And that's exactly what the cellphone is, a method of contatcing someone. well, nowadays it has many other features, and its gets on peoples' nerves, but you can't ban it. I mean, every idiot and his brother has at least one in chennai, even the auto drivers and the paanwallas. so why can't the anna university students?
Rather than ban it, this VC guy, if he had a functioning brain between his ears, should impose certain rules that promote phone etiquette. switch the phone off in libraries and during classes, or keep it on silent. that'll do.
And what is this crap about uniforms? I'm a huge believer in non-uniformity, and I think educational institutions should promote this, and encourage individuality among people. India is a democracy and has an inherent cultural and economic diversity, and Anna University has to live with that. You want uniformity, go open an institution in China. You're telling me the poor people have a problem with the clothes the rich people wear, and so they won't study as hard? uh..that doesn' make sense. Don't make them wear uniforms, they've been doing that for 14 years in school. give them a break. I mean, i wore torn jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt to college most days.I turned out alright.
Alright, enough rambling. all i really wanted to say was, good job! and I hope the students send that letter out to Kalam, and I hope that these stupid rules are removed. In the end, no matter which institution you study in, there will always be some people who rebel against the rules, and refuse to conform. No matter ehat rules you impose. And I hope that there are enough non-conformists among the AU students to bring about a change, for the better.
Keep writing.
Hi Anand,
Glad to hear that someone took him on. Even i have heard some pretty nasty stuff about him...but you know how it is... although the personal stuff is the man you cant really attack him on that front. You should stop by at the university and allow him to confront some old ghosts.
Hi Doctor Bruno,
Do you find people complaining about the dress code at Madras Cricket Club?
No... if they do...well thats too bad. Like REvathi said, they can just take their money somewhere else.
But Anna University IS different because students ARE complaining. If students were fine with it...i wouldnt have done a story, blogged about it and or gotten such a deluge of responses.
Also, students are held to ransom when they show dissent. Professors, like Revathi pointed out, take it out during internals. Its this disgusting culture of small-mindedness where the VC and professors seem to have nothing better to do than focus of what students are wearing!
Hi..
I feel that already enough comments ve been posted on cell phone bans, dress codes and other issues. I would like to comment on something else actually.
There is one particular professor who fails atleast 50 students in his course of which atleast 20 of them deserve a pass. He is still working in the university and there are around 450 students in that dept (incl all 4 years) and they do nothing abt it. Each year ppl watch their classmates become victim of that prof and still keep quiet.
It really hurts me that so many people comment on usage of cell phones and low waist jeans and motorbikes leaving all other major issues.
1. How many of u ve posted comments on lack of facility in your labs and water facility in hostel before this???
2. Y havent anybody discussed about the non availability of the basic amenities before??
3. How many student chairmen ve given representations on the need for proper food facility in hostel mess before??
4.Y havent students raised questions about an innocent classmate becoming a victim of a small minded professor?
The reason that comes to my mind is that 75% of the student community thinks that they come to college to have fun, get pass marks, get a job and get the hell out of the god forbidden freedomless place called COLLEGE.
A 20% of the students waste the college seat on doin nothin but spending their time in trying to become someone like a filmi hero.
A 4% of the students are friendly only with the books and library and the grades and no one else.
The remaining 1% who want to do something for college just wait for the right time to do things due to lack of support.
This im telling out of my personal experience. I was among that 1% who couldnt do much about these serious issues.
I feel tht too much interest is being shown on materialistic things. Try and take a deeper look into the issue. Pls undersatand that the lack of unity among students is the only reason ppl are finding it difficult to handle these situations now.
I dont mean to say that everybody in college should be serious all the time and focus only on studies.
Infact i also feel terrible about banning filmi music and all that stuff but lets not lose our focus.
College is meant for fun also, but not for fun alone.
For those of u who are still studying in the university, take some measures atleast now so that your juniors wont suffer the same thing.
Pls do not mistake me if my comments are too harsh.
Pls realize that posting a comment on the web alone isnt goin to solve the problem.
Hi,
All those who are giving comments here are really interested in the college whihc we studied...
Do you people think that the standard is very good here?
Do you think students are rushing here because the infrastructure & lectures are good?
Do you think placements are great here because the standard of education is good?
By noway,
All the toppers like to get seat in anna univ bcoz they will surely get a job when they finish the course. By which all the great minds of state assemble here. Previously every individual minds competed in their school level. But here all the school toppers are competing among them so the amount of work they put be in top get increases so they are learning lot of things by their own interests but not from their professior's lectures.
Frankly saying the infrastructure provided here is very much less compared to some top private autonomus institutions.There are some guy's called TRA's(Teaching Research Associates)who will be persuing their Phd & simultaneously they have to take class. They are not at all fit to take class. Most of them don't know anything & even if some of them know something they don't know how to express it. One among fifty TRA's is only fit to teach.
And the shameful thing is out of some 60 papers in our curriculum 40 papers TRA's took.
Coming to placement. The top notch company's racing to recruit from Anna Univ because of the students alone. They are much satisfied by the performance of the students those they recruited in previous years & they believe the coming generation also will be like this. An important point to mention here is the placement cell CUIC(Center for University and Industry Collabration) is never student friendly, they wont do any favour for students, they wont negotiate with companies & we can pile a lot more reports on them.
Non of the VC's came so far taken bold initiative to do something to eradicate these things.
But they will tell cell phones should not be used even in hostels, you should always wear shirts & pants even while going to have tea in the mess late night, you should not hear a song from your system in hostel, you should not have OAT, you should not have college culturals.
I m listing the future plans of our great VC
1) Everybody should come in uniform to college.
2) Everybody should wear shoes.
3) Guys should always tuck in their shirts.
4) Everybody should walk in a line in pedestal.
5) Nobody should sit under tree.
6) Nobody should play in the ground except during the one hour alloted for it.
7) There should not be any departement functions & symposiums.
& lot more...
They are getting lot of fundings from lot of people but don't know what they exactly doing with those money. The complete university account transaction should be open to all so that anyone can see what is happening?
Hi , I dont agree with few of your comments that cell phones are absolute nuisance . Am in Bangalore and hope everyone knows whats happening here ... Rape , murder etc ... atleast one every week ... soon chennai will be a victim to all this .. till such things dont happen ppl in chennai wont really understand the need for cell phones . We girls working in bangalore are horrified abt the incidents happening here .. am diverting the topic but juz want to telll that CEL PHONES SHOULD NOT BE BANNED .
i am an alumni of anna university.. i completely agree with revethy. when i started wearing western outfits - suddenly my internals went down. i completely agree with the fact that though there were no explicit bans on particular dresses, we needed to take care to wear decent clothes to college.
i was also a students represenative for the hostel . it is very difficult to get things done, becuse most students feel its a great waste of time doing anything for college. you do something and the students keep on complaining. they donot understand or support the student represenattives to do anything.
in addition to this i also noticed that the teachers here are also not very supportive to any extra curricular activities...
i studied in the computer science department.. there are hardly ten to fifteen machines in the department which are connecte to internet whereas the total number of peopel in the department are around 1500. the machines are in apthetic state.
in many of the Boys hostel, water supply is not proper.. in Campus they use recylced water to water plants because of which there are mosquito's in errible numbers.
though they call the campus a green campus, there were so many trees that were cut down last year.
cell phones had not only provided us a means to talk to our parents , but also a mean to send important announcements to our classmates, a mean of security and also to use internet at the hostel.
anna university needs to improve a lot in its infrastructure.. the VC has to remeber that the anna university is famous for its students... not for what he teaches in class. The students here get recruited in good companies because they themselves are good and not the professor
hi,
I am an alumni of the CEG-AU. Its most disheartening to hear about the latest happenings on campus. The reason why TOP institutes dont impose any taliban-like-restrictions is because, its the freedom to think and innovate which brings these institutes their name. And big institutes know them and so do their Presidents/VCs/Directors. However, the one thing AU lacks in being a top academic institute despite it getting good students and decent faculty to teach, is those at the helm of affairs aint professional enough. For e.g., who in the world would have known Dr Vishwanathan had he not been the VC of AU. I mean, does a Dr V exist without the VC tag? Has he done anything useful in his own field worth mentioning? Compare this with the CNR Raos and Satish Dhawans who became Directors of IISc. THey had their own standing.. they brought name to IISc and not vice versa. Even AU had a list of illustrious VCs like Dr Kulandaiswamy,Dr Anandakrishan etc who had carved their own niche in their respective fields. These are the people who are worth to become VCs and Presidents of Universities, not the Vishwanathans and the Balagurusamys. So the bottomline is, Bring in professionals and AU will regain its academic/cultural glory. And why does the current VC impose these rules that he is? Coz he has a lot of free time ( since he doesnt/cant do research ) and plans to bring out a new( probably his only book in his entire academic life) book titled " 101 ways to make zombies out of students".
hey alaf how much is ur bro against this?? he might be suffering too, rite?? studyin a 5 year course in a dumb but famous college.. his worse times i guess...
get his comments in here...can u??
yaar.. loyola also gonna ban cell phones from next semester..very bad.. but i will still carry it..whoz gonna check? loyola is a big campus..no chance of getting caught...heheh
my sympathy to sathyabhama and other engineering college students.
I am an Anna alumni as well (AC Tech), and even when i was studying there (some 7 years ago) things weren't too good....there weren't too many freedoms students could enjoy. And DV used to take perverse pleasure in tormenting students with his views (he headed the workshop then, and those two semesters of workshop were hell for most of us). A lot of us were rather disappointed that he took over after Balagurusamy, who seemed to be a fairly good VC, and we could never figure out how DV managed to become the VC, from being a rather anonymous associate professor.
It's extremely sad that educational institutions (especially Anna) do little to improve their educational standards, but do every thing they can to strifle freedom, creativity, or talent.
hi
im a student of AU...i read someone mention somewhere in your blog about the VC being an "accomplished educationist - who stayed back in India to teach our youth. He could have easily got a faculty position in any American school. "...an alumni relative of mine, who was "fortunate" enough to attend a course under this guy in the 7th semester, read this and he literally fell off his chair laughing...he said "Well of course!! he could have definitely got into MIT....as a JANITOR that is....". And for the record, the students who were fired for seeing a porn flick in the hostel, the movie was "The Girl Next Door"...
hi,
Im a student of anna univ too.. I see the focus is mainly on the dress code and the cellphone ban.. Which are important issues no doubt.. But there s one more interesting matter that i d like to bring to your notice.. Have you ever heard of having to write an apology letter and being blasted at for speaking to your best friend just because he is a person of the opposite sex? Well, it happens in our college.. As a matter of fact, it happened to me.. We were NOT sitting in a dark, isolated area and chatting (or doing anything else)- which is taboo here, nor was it very late at night.. At around 6:30 in the evening we were walking along the main road of our campus together towards the hostels.. We didnt walk hand in hand or anything.. dont mistake me.. just walking along casually and joking around when the resident counsellor of my hostel block came up and demanded an explanation as to why i was walking with him.. the explanation that we were friends and since my hostel was on the way to his, we were walking together to our respective hostels was met with scorn and i was humiliated right in front of the watchman and some other people.. I was made to write a letter stating that any action could be taken against me if i was seen meeting him again.. Im 20 yrs old and in my right mind.. I believe im old enough to make my own decisions about the company i keep.. I was not troubling anyone by walking with my friend along that road.. I wish to know whether i did anything wrong to deserve such humiliation.. The RC made me wait at her room door- she didnt even bother to let me in- while she was patiently folding her clothes and speaking to another girl.. And she didnt let me go till she saw the tears in my eyes.. I ve begun to wonder if this is really a free country or is it only free in the imagination of a few people??? Are educational institutions being run by ppl like this who have no respect for others who are just as human as them??
hi.
I feel dress code should be there in every campus, since it provides a descent outlook on students.But I am against the cell phone ban by the AU since we should always have it in mind that a person who has come to college for getting knowledge will never go away from his path and I feel cell phones are needed in this present scenario ....let me say abt my view if suppose a person lost his/her bus to his/her place want to inform about their late coming to their parents or if they needed any help from their friends in any situations really at that time cell phone is a boon.............nowadays eventhough many illegal usage of cell phones takes place but let us see to its GOOD side always.....
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