With the election season on, we feel it is time to shed some light on the working and obstacles faced by our Students' Union. For the same, we decided to conduct an online interview of Achal Upadhyay, former President of the Students’ Union, who was kind enough to share all the relevant details with us. We thank him for his cooperation.
What were the major achievements of the Students' Union last year?
The biggest achievement of SU last year was Crossroads itself. This time Crossroads had a splendid lineup of Guru Randhawa, Salim Sulaiman, DJ Chetas, and the Local Train. The quality of brands that collaborated with us for the fest, and the extensive media coverage it attained is a testament to its success.
The next big achievement was the 'Business Conclave', which was very successful due to the presence of legendary and inspiring personalities including Mr. Prasoon Joshi, Mrs. Smriti Irani, Mr. Prashant Bhusha, Mr. Acharya Balakrishnan, Mr. Sanjaya Baru to name a few.
Apart from Crossroads, Business Conclave and the Annual Freshers, SU also initiated a number of other activities like paint the wall red, blood donation drives, winter donation drive, memorial ceremony for the martyrs of Pulwama attack etc.
SU also conducted events such as the Zero-hour session, MTV Get a job, Yuvaa session- a talk on story telling for empowerment of youth, an exhibition on Corals and Beaches etc. The Students' Union also initiated some actions upon building a fully sponsored open air theater/ amphitheater.
According to the general perception, the Students' Union of the college is responsible for holding protests and demonstrations for the rights of the students - but no one cares about the fact that the students themselves also need to take the initiative for voicing their opinions. The sad reality is that most of the students (basically around 60-70%) tend to free ride on the 'bold and audacious' students' efforts - due to which these active students are also less motivated when they foresee that others might benefit way more than themselves on their hard work.
What were you trying to convey through bold and audacious students' efforts and free riding? Can you give some clarity on those points?
So by that I meant the students who are actually willing to take initiatives to bring a change - when they see that the support is unsatisfactory, most of them get discouraged. Bold and audacious was in a positive sense here.
Your reply suggests that the Union is primarily involved in conducting events. In this scenario, how do you distinguish the working of Union from any other society?
First of all, the magnitude of the event is way bigger than any other society. Secondly, we do other activities as well (as mentioned above). Also, we try our best to encourage students to communicate other issues and problems, which are for all the students and not just for the members of the Union (unlike the societies).
You mentioned about an initiative on amphitheatre/ open theater.
What is the progress on it? And what was the progress during your tenure?
The initiative was on board until we found out that the trees can't be removed from the library lawns/xerox lawns (since these were the only feasible areas).At any other location, an amphitheatre couldn't be constructed without damaging the structure of the college, the permission for which was quite hard to get.
How would you describe the major difficulties faced by the Students' Union in its functioning last year?
A positive takeaway (which is a drawback of our Indian system in general) is how to cope with red tapism and bureaucracy (corruption would be too heavy a term in the context of college). Yes, bureaucratic delays do exist and the hectic permission taking procedure does hamper productiveness - but in most of the cases it may also lead to avoiding the act of procrastination, knowing the consequences of leaving matters till the end. But yeah, some things in the college do take more than the 'justified' time - but it's difficult to blame anyone for that due to the multiple lines of authority.
One another aspect what I feel is the lack of trust in the Union, especially by the post holders of the different societies. Many a times, the Students' Union is seen as a competitor of different societies (here I won't pin point any particular society). The office bearers try to create a bad impression in the minds of the members of the societies, and it is conveyed that the Union works by stepping on the boots of others, or embezzles money and what not. They need to realize that in a way, the Union is there to streamline and coordinate the activities of various societies, and shouldn't be considered an enemy or obstacle in their activities. They should realize that the Students' Union by its very name means that it is for each and every student of the college and sometimes a few may have to suffer for the greater good. This lack of sense kind of creates a rift.
Comments such as "what is your use of being elected if you can't handle the teachers", "you will surely score well because you have a good reputation with teachers", "the Union members are always favored by the Principal and the administration", etc not only demeans the efforts put by the members of the Union, but also demotivates and discourages them to give their 100%. The student community should try to not resort to such commenting.
Which initiatives of SU exactly were affected due to bureaucratic delays?
The initiatives per se were not affected, but at some of the steps to reach the final outcomes, bureaucratic delays were a huge problem to the extent that at that particular moment it became extremely frustrating and unproductive. For example sorting dates for the societies, payment to the artists for performing, getting some documents signed for submitting in the police station for security arrangements, etc. The time wasted while waiting for these things to be done could have been used somewhere else.
Were there any issues because of the administration/ college authorities with the organization of Crossroads?
Yes, actually. For one, we were pressurized at the last minute to reduce the number of days for which Crossroads was supposed to be held. Since we had already booked artists and made other arrangements, making such a major change was not possible for us at all. I wish the authorities understand what goes into organising the fests, and that them expecting our compliance with orders communicated at the last minute is extremely unreasonable. These things should be communicated to us well in advance and should be mutually agreed upon and not imposed.
Moreover, the students this time were dissatisfied with the fest timings being unusually early and strictly limited, especially in the case of DJ Chetas, who was allowed to perform for only half an hour or so. Principal ma'am had strictly clocked the wrap up of the performances at 7:15pm, and she refused to make an allowance for DJ Chetas, even in light of the fact that he arrived only at 6:45 pm because of being caught up in a traffic jam. His short performance earned us many negative comments from the students, but they didn't understand that we did everything in our power to convince the authorities to make an exception for his performance.
What do you think about the overall fest culture of our college?
Well, I think that each society having its own cultural fest is quite wasteful. We can do with just one big cultural fest. Every society is constituted with its own objective, but what is being observed now is that the societies just want to step on the boots of other societies by conducting bigger and bigger fests. So the societies with repetitive activities should be merged and the TICs allocated to them should strictly monitor their functioning.
What is the mechanism of communication between the student community and the SU?
So last year, we initiated zero hour sessions as well in which students accompanied by the CRs can report to us (both online and offline) through their problems and grievances - but the response was quite lackluster. Also we floated a Google form asking the students if they can give ideas about the improvement in the infrastructure - most of the suggestions were regarding auditorium, sports complex and the washrooms (the general ones only). Also many a times, people (my friends mostly) directly approached me for minor problems like the attendance issue, dates issue (society specific), rooms availability issues, etc. There was also a meeting held for all the CRs along with some faculty members and me with the purpose of knowing the problems of the students, but due to a poor turnout and response - it was never called again.
Do you think the poor turnout in your attempts to talk to students about their issues could have been because the people were not sufficiently aware of it?
Well I think that the people were aware about it, but due to some or the other reason they were not communicating with us. Most of the information was being communicated through social media and it was ensured that atleast 20-25% students of each class were following that.
What is the mechanism of interaction between authorities and SU? (Are there some meetings to discuss students’ issues, committees in which student’s union members are part of etc)?
Principal ma'am had allowed me for meeting her twice/thrice in a week, but it was never implemented as the delay in getting appointments hampered our incentive as well. Moreover, we also after a point of time didn't feel the need for the same.
Also there were no official meetings/committees as no big issues were there that needed to be addressed. However, there is an Advisory committee consisting of 8-9 faculty members for the same purpose, but their meeting is called only on his discretion.
Why exactly was there a delay in getting appointments with the principal?
Sometimes the appointments that were lined up earlier than ours took more than the usual time, while sometimes some other urgent issues arised at the last moment (like meetings with the committees).
What is the objective of the advisory committee? How satisfactory was its functioning?
There are many committees in the college like Disciplinary Committee, quality assurance committee, internal complaints committee, staff council, etc. And advisory committee is one of them. So like there's TIC for every society, there is an Advisory Committee for the Students' Union. However, I felt that the Advisory Committee, which should be functioning as an interface between SU and college authorities failed to do its task in a satisfying manner and led to slowdowns. Many a times, this additional stage in hierarchy also led to delays in decision making.
You said that the student community isn't sufficiently proactive which makes the job of Students'Union in respect of organizing protests and all tough. Fair enough. But don't you think it is the job of Students'Union to mobilize students? And anyway, mobilization and protests are the last resort in ensuring students welfare. Were there any initial level efforts to consolidate or represent students issues to concerned authorities?
There were some issues like the PinjraTod in which we actually tried to get involved and help the people out - however the participants lacked initiative, and we also had many other things on our plate. Moreover the question of 'consolidating or representing students' will come only when the students actually convey and communicate the same to the Students' Union, this aspect is utterly missing in our college (sadly) as the students are either more interested in being in the 'good books' of the faculty, or consider themselves too cool for all this and are apathetic to it, or have a different opinion for the same issue (which is most of the times quite absurd as well).
There are many issues students face in our college, like lack of enough accommodation facilities, and the fact that the new hostel building is under construction for a long time. Don’t you think SU has the responsibility to represent student community in this issues as it is an elected body and the sole representative of students in our college?
I doubt whether each year the team was so strong (or is going to be so strong) that they actually care about things other than the fests, however the lack of initiative by the students and lack of communication also is a very major factor why the SU is not able to represent the interests of the students and exercise its power.
Do you think the Union can help students with issues such as lack of integrity, mental health problems? How?
Well the Union hasn't taken any initiative as of now in this regard because the need for the same hasn't been communicated to us. However, if such things are communicated, it will depend on the situation how we can help.
Is there any medium through which the students can approach the SU for advice or help? (Not talking about raising issues).
Students can anytime approach the SU by any means, and most of them usually do so as well. We don't follow such a formal approach and all of us are quite accessible.
Do you think if students start becoming proactive in taking issues to the Union and providing their support to the same, the Union is empowered enough to bring about change? In other words, do you think students themselves not being active enough is the main obstacle to the Union working for their welfare, and there are not other problems of similar magnitude which will arise ?
After the students actually communicate their problems, then whether they can be resolved or not and how much time would it take to resolve the same would be problem specific. For example if a problem is something related to scholarships for financial aid (that involves many decision makers) - such issues will take comparatively much more deliberations than issues which are society specific, like query regarding the dates/rooms allocation for the fest.
Are you satisfied with the way elections are conducted in college?
Elections are conducted in quite a fair and just manner since the time we are in college, but I can't comment anything before our 3 years.
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