1st day at DU: No students, teachers

Delhi University Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Dinesh Singh was in for a rude shock when he decided to pay a surprise visit to some of the university colleges. Though the university’s academic session for the second semester has begun, he found most students as well as teachers had bunked classes.

Delhi University Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Dinesh Singh was in for a rude shock when he decided to pay a surprise visit to some of the university colleges. Though the university’s academic session for the second semester has begun, he found most students as well as teachers had bunked classes.

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Moreover, timetables for a number of courses too had not put up. Singh had visited Hindu College, Kirori Mal College, Daulat Ram College and Ramjas College. So students from across courses, who had decided to attend college, wasted one day of study.

“The teachers’ lobby is so strong that teachers invariably end up skipping class even though the students have come. The faculty members have decided to conduct a meeting on the first day to decide upon the timetable. Timetables should be made as soon as vacation starts,” said a senior DU official.

However, colleges will not be permitted to get away scot-free for this lackadaisical conduct. “If by the end of this week, timetables are not put up, I will stop the colleges’ grant,” Singh said.

But colleges did not treat this absence as a major deviation from the usual pattern. “The holiday season has just got over. Also, some students and teachers did not come due to the cold,” said Vinay Srivastava, principal, Hindu College .

Meanwhile the V-C also announced structural reforms in academics, which will entail a four-year course that will provide cross-disciplinary course combinations to students.