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This college gives students plenty of room for initiatives Vimal Chander Joshi reports
profile delhi college of arts and commerce, netaji nagar
The Delhi College of Arts and Commerce was the first DU college that started an undergraduate programme in journalism. Several of its past students are now in notable media houses.
This year, Bhanu Joshi, a final-year student of journalism from DCAC, headed the delegation that went to the G8 youth summit in Milan, and a journalism student from this college was the DU topper in 2007-08.
“We get plenty of opportunity to explore our abilities and we are encouraged to take our own initiatives to go for internships, trainings and participations in high level forums,” says Joshi, who is currently interning with the Centre for Policy Research.
The college has several other programmes that are also doing well, including those in commerce, economics and political science.
Famous for: Its journalism programme and active participation of students in the National Cadet Corps (NCC). Many of its alumni are currently officers of the Indian armed forces.
Programmes: Bachelor of journalism (Hons), BA (Hons) in English or economics or history or political science, BCom (Hons/pass) and BA.
Extra-curricular activities: The college is quite active in the NCC and one student received the best cadet award from chief minister Sheila Dikshit last year. DCAC also has societies engaged in dance, history and environment (known as Prakriti). Prakriti organised the first DU environment summit in partnership with an NGO last year and is now set to start a campus drive to replace plastic bags with paper ones.
“Due to a healthy extra-curricular culture, we participate in lots of activities like NCC, dance and sports,” says Arjun Menon, a final-year student of BA (advertising) who is president of the dance society and also the winner of ‘best shooter’ in the NCC.
Infrastructure: This is where the college is hamstrung. There are around 10 tin-roofed classrooms, a dingy canteen with broken furniture and ill-maintained surroundings. But it has beautiful lawns where students relax and chat under the sun.
The library has more than 50,000 books and there are around 70 computers with Internet facility. In the small conference hall, mock press conferences are organised by journalism students.
Found on campus: “The most unique feature of our college is its faculty,” says RS Reima, a second-year student of BA (Hons) in history. “The teachers are not only brilliant, but also friendly, responsible and caring. We have a history society, which organises trips to monuments and Indian heritage sites, so that we see history from close quarters, not just read about it.”
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“The canteen is in a shambles and the food is also pathetic. Even the vendors have been changed a couple of times, but things are more or less the same. It must be improved urgently,” says Duli Ete, a final-year student of BA (Hons)BA (Hons)
Factfile
The college was started in 1987 with commerce and humanities courses. Within a short span of time, it has made a mark in specialised areas
