After reading the previous post, you would be wondering saying, What is the story of RTI??
We, at VisionUVCE were always questioned about what is the necessity to raise funds. This was considering that UVCE, a Government College under Bangalore University, should be getting sufficient funds as the assumption. Knowing the true story, we tried to answer in various ways to numerous groups and individuals, but were neither satisfactory nor convincing. So, we thought of applying for RTI and have a testimony to our explanation. And it turned out to be a never ending maze for us. We enquired about the fees collected in past 3 years (2012-15) from UG & PG students and in return what were the funds allocated to UVCE by Bangalore University for the same period. You can find the images of the RTI applied below. If anyone is interested in detail, we can send the pdf file as well.
Well, after 45 days of applying for it, we did not get any response and hence we approached the RTI Cell of Bangalore University in JB campus. After no proper response over the phone, we visited the authorities personally. Through endless roaming around the RTI Cell and 1st floor for numerous times, speaking to different working officials for over 4 hours, we were told it was forwarded to the respective college, as they will need to provide the details. We enquired saying all the fees, be it admission or examination, were paid in form of DD addressing to “Finance Officer, Bangalore University”, the required details had to be provided by them. There was no proper answer to this query and our quest got furthered to our college.
The Admission office, when approached, acknowledged the letter received by the Bangalore University but we were told it was a difficult task to collect the details. We were astonished to know that there is not one central point or place in our college where the details were available and to our surprise was the fact that each department had their own fees collection mechanism (For UG exam fees, PG admission and exam fees). We, along with the in-charge person from the office, met the Principal, and were given the rough numbers. But for the exact numbers, we had to approach each department on our own, gather the data and then collate it ourselves before we got it approved. We did not want to go to “First Appeal” w.r.t RTI, in which case the Registrar of Bangalore University would send a letter to authorities (because we were not sure how long that would take again). So, though we were the one who had requested for the information, we agreed to collect it ourselves with the support of Admission office. It has been more than a month since we started this “Treasure Hunt” and we are still accumulating all the information. And even more disappointing fact is, we were told to gather the details from Budget book (of past 3 years) of Bangalore University to know what was the estimates allocated to UVCE. That was one “Herculean” task, which, with the help of some student volunteers, we went through more than 400 pages of document to filter only UVCE related details (remember, these numbers were just estimates promised in Budget which are not sure of being the actuals).
We will keep the complete details shortly in front of you. But the intention of explaining this whole episode was to create awareness among everyone how difficult it is gather some info, let alone get permissions, when it is a Govt organization/institution. It is very easy to raise questions, but have we tried to get relevant answers to those queries? Did we put effort in the direction rather than just doubting the motive behind every effort? Well, the other reason is we need senior alumni to take up this issue in the right platform. We have many alumni who are well-known in their fields and when they raise questions, based on the facts, we are bound to see them echo at various levels (media/University/Govt etc)
We will provide all the details & support required accordingly. We request the senior alumni to consider this when we discuss about Centenary celebrations.
During this quest, we also found out many other issues, which need to be tackled by the University. In Electronics department, there are no office staff, due to which lot of tasks continue to be pending. The results for the students were delayed, due to which dates for the examinations were announced late. The students need to wait for long hours to collect their hall-tickets just before the examinations. All this will lead to bad image about the college. We have heard many students who volunteer with us in numerous college activities say that they have advised many PU students not to join UVCE. This is a depressing fact, and we are completely speechless on how to address/answer such problems (which are very genuine for every student as it decides their future)
We have much more to discuss – both issues and how they can sorted, but, for a moment, lets snap out it and think about positive things. With all the shortcomings and issues (listed so far and to be listed going forward), when we hear achievements of our students, shouldn’t we all need to feel proud? Be it getting more than 1000 job offers this year or representing college in various technical events, presenting research papers & presentations from IEEE/SAE or participating in sports/cultural activities with all the limited support/encouragement, we would want to reiterate that UVCE is a “student-driven” college. We will continue the article in next edition with more details. Meanwhile, here is a picture we want you to look and guess the location.
As mentioned earlier, in this series of articles, we will also share the thoughts of our alumni about the college. Arif sir from 74 Batch has always been questioning the involvement of Civil and Architecture Department students and our (VisionUVCE Team) efforts to bring them along with other branch students. Here is what he had to say to us in his recent mail interaction-
First of all the faculty of all disciplines should interact and be on a common platform with due understanding of each other’s views, ideas and suggestions. Their common goal should be in the interest of UVCE and not to seek individual discipline, recognition, prominence and domination over each other as seems to be the present case. Once this goal is achieved the faculty of each discipline can guide and direct their students who would definitely listen to their Professors and Lecturers how to be on a common ground and participate in all activities and work together as one of UVCE in the interest of maintaining and trying to achieve the status you are seeking for UVCE.
At present, my observation of the past few years is that UVCE is disintegrated. Each discipline is functioning independently. There doesn’t seem to be any unity among the various disciplines. You all should know that united you stand and divided you fall. So go ahead and discuss the issues with your faculty and colleagues and students to find ways to reach out to all disciplines in a way that you gain their confidence and give due respect and consideration to their views, ideas, thoughts and suggestions. Only then you can become a force to reckon with and will be able to achieve the desired goals and status for UVCE.
I don’t think UVCE would have been in the present status, if the Civil and Architecture disciplines were not moved out to Jnana Bharati campus and had remained at the KR circle location.
– Satish A G, VisionUVCE Team
If you have any thoughts – issues to be raised or suggestions to improve regaridng UVCE – share it with us. We will publish it in this series of articles. Write to sampada@visionuvce.in
