In the past 3 editions of this series of articles, we have listed many issues seen in college. My guess is this has always kept bothering many people. But, what action has been done in this regard? I am not asking this question in an arrogant manner, but just out of curiosity. Let us take each stakeholder of the college as a different case.
Faculty members – apart from few of the lecturers, not many feel UVCE as a “Sacred Workplace”. The reason for saying so is – “Do we keep our workplace in such a shabby manner?”. If we consider the time-period, the faculty spend more time in college than in their homes on an average. So, should not UVCE be maintained well than houses itself. Even if we consider that these things are out of their power, how about the knowledge/education imparted to students? If we check the current syllabus, its at least a decade behind than the current technological advances. So, as the 100th year is drawing closer, shouldn’t these questions be discussed & answered among themselves?
Ok, lets talk about the other major stake-holders, students!! Why are they major stake holders – because they spend most of their time in college, irrespective of whether classes are conducted or not. Being part of such a heritage college is a proud feeling & an opportunity to learn on your own with all the freedom offered (as expressed by every batch of students) should motivate them further. But, why is it not? Why are the students satisfied by very small goals? Why do they not aim at higher laurels? I have seen that people are happy with – A degree with 70% aggregate, a job offer in a MNC company at the end of 4 years. If, I, from VisionUVCE Team, talk about making small changes at the grass-root level, from the students themselves, I see that pointing fingers, giving reasons, escaping the responsibilities are the only responses. It is a pity. Do we do the same kind of behavior at our homes? That’s not my responsibility, this task should have been done by mother, why is father not taking care of that etc? Don’t we come together & join hands to get the task done at the end?
If this article seems like pointing fingers, sorry.. It is not the intention. Let me talk about alumni too( including myself). How bothered are we about college? Is it just the time when we cross K.R.Circle and see the compound that has fallen? Do we think about the condition of the parking lot only when we want to park our vehicle there and walk to Avenue Road with our friends? We complain about the system, faculty, students etc for the current condition of the college. But, lets be frank, what have we done? Did we even bother about building a strong alumni network? Did we think about “Giving Back” to the college which has made us what we are today? Let me introspect myself through this article – I have been going to college on weekends from past 7 years regularly. But, when someone asks me what have you done in all these days, I have very little to share. Am I also not searching some reasons to give to cover up what I have not been able to do?
One more example to show how we all are collectively failing in our duties- ”UVCE Centenary Celebrations”.. We all are expecting that someone else (WHO??, we don’t know) has taken the responsibility of organizing the event and we will just be the attending it. If there is a registration fee for it, let us pay that amount when the announcement is made. We have made the assumption, that’s it. But, are we taking that one extra step to know if there is actually anything happening? How can I contribute in a small way and be part of it in a different way?
I always tell the juniors that UVCE is like a mini-India (in many ways). We all want to boast about it’s heritage, glory and tradition. We want to brand ourselves with its tag. But, we are least bothered about how it functions. We do not want to take any responsibility. Even on the election day, we do not vote. We just want to point fingers and make someone else responsible for all the problems. Even if someone does some small effort of bringing a change, we find issues in it (example, Swachh Bahrath as an initiative is wonderful and will be only possible when all of us come together and work towards it). Think about this write-up, introspect yourself and let us know if you have different opinion by writing @ sampada@visionuvce.in.
– Satish A G, Team Sampada
