Interview with Vice President Gymkhana

A meeting between the Student Senate and the Administration took place on February 25th 2021 (Thursday), to discuss the issues related to reopening the campus and conducting the next semester. Awaaz reached out to the Vice President, TSG, to inquire about the meeting’s proposals and discussions and got the administration’s stance regarding various issues in detail. Awaaz has also put forward some concerns of the student community before the Vice President that were not explicitly addressed.

The points addressed in this meeting have been released by the Vice President (Link – https://www.facebook.com/lightning.singh08/posts/2901376933439994). 

Here we present the responses we have got from the VP in the interview – 

1. When will the students be called back, and how? Are there any regulations being planned when they will be called back? Are there any specific guidelines for UG, PG, and research scholars, and what are the tentative dates regarding this? What are the possibilities that the next semester is conducted fully offline? What is the status of conducting offline labs (which were kept ‘incomplete’ in lieu of online semester)? 

The administration has started to call back the Research Scholars ‘batch-wise from the batch of 2011. About 500 Research Scholars have been called till now. The meeting concluded with the Director’s statement that “all the students will be called back by October for sure”. 14 days of quarantine and a separate washroom for each student are being planned to ensure the safety of students on their stay on the campus. No official statement has been made about the mode of conduction of next semester.

The Dean (Student’s Affairs) plans to call the Final-year UG students tentatively in April to complete their labs. No information was provided regarding the conduction of labs of non-final-years, which will remain ‘incomplete’ until further notice.

Awaaz has pointed out that in the Director’s meet with First Years, it was stated, “With the vaccination drive in full swing in the country, the Institute Administration is quite optimistic to call the students back to the campus latest by 10th August 2021”. Thus delaying the tentative time of calling back the students and not releasing any official statement yet shows the administration is not able to devise any proper plan in handling this situation. 

Reference – https://www.facebook.com/lightning.singh08/posts/2882468048664216 

2. The student community has been facing numerous problems in the online semesters and has taken a toll on emotional and mental well-being. What is the Students’ council’s take on this, and how have you reached out to the administration for solutions to these problems? How has the administration responded? 

The Student representative body has collected the grievances of the students and have considered resolving the students’ issues through a Grievance Form. The release of the the MTech stipend (see Q3) and the Director’s meet with Freshers (on January 30th) are a direct result of this. Inputs provided in the form would be considered by them, so that even if next semester turns out to be online, issues and problems related to the online semester could be sorted beforehand. 

Link to the Grievance Form – https://tinyurl.com/grievanceKGP

Professors are allowed to take classes if they are not able to complete the syllabus by the specified date, but students can reach out to the authority in case they find it too hectic.

Further, he added that the representative body is trying its best to avoid yet another online semester and calling back students as soon as possible. Still, because of these unpredictable times and observing cases in the IITs which opened, it is hard to provide any official verdict.

Apart from this, Awaaz has also conveyed the inconveniences faced by students in the current online semester, viz excessive academic pressure, irregular class schedules, classes occurring on weekends and spring break, and disproportionate evaluation schemes across subjects; and has asked to enforce proper guidelines so that such instances are minimal from now on. 

3. What is the status of the release of stipend for 1st-year M.Tech students? What was the reason behind the delay and how it will be released now? When will MCM fresh amount be disbursed? 

The stipend has already been issued for the months of September-December and it has been made mandatory to transfer their accounts to the SBI Kharagpur branch to receive a further stipend. Further, he added that for the next payment of the stipend, which will be done most probably in March, the account section will be checking whether the student is having an account at SBI, IIT Kharagpur, or not.

Regarding Merit-cum-Means Scholarship, the status of the application for the students who applied and were eligible for “MCM(renewal)” has already been updated as “Issued” while the link to apply for “MCM-residual” is active now till March 07th (Sunday). “MCM-fresh” applications are currently in the process of verification, and the status will be updated soon. This year, a delay in the disbursement of the amount was due to an extended deadline for submission of documents i.e. till 31st Jan which usually use to end by August as this ensued delay in verification of application and hence, the payment.

4. Why was the convocation fee of Rs 3000 taken from all students despite many of them attending it in online mode? Will students who attended convocation remotely get a refund of convocation fees?

The student representative body has already questioned the institute regarding this, and also have asked for a refund in case there is any unused amount and they are looking forward to having a proper response from them. The convocation committee will have a review meeting with the registrar, but they are yet to get any official reply. The student body has approached Prof. V.R. Desai (Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture) to look over all the expenses and conclude what could be done to sort this issue. 

Awaaz has mailed to the Dean, Faculty for information regarding the same and awaits their response.

5. Various Open IIT events have been organized by the TSG in online mode. How are the challenges being tackled to ensure a smooth transition from offline to online mode? What are any similar plans to restart Hall GC events?

The whole student representative body along with General Secretaries had a discussion on how the challenges related to the online conduction of Open IIT could be tackled, even they had a Pan-IIT meeting to understand the situation and conduct it in a better way. In lieu of this, the TSG has thus decided to conduct the Open IIT events, mainly in So-Cult and Tech which are seen feasible in online mode.

Unfortunately, Hall GC events won’t be conducted this year due to the prevailing circumstances but the student senate, along with gymkhana and hall secretaries may plan to organize some other events. There are some plans of the student body to reinitiate the Hall GC as soon as the offline mode of conduct presumes.

6. Message from VP to the students?

 “We are planning for almost everything and we too are hopeful to come up with better solutions which you and I have been facing for a long time. The administration, senate and we are trying our best to bring back the KGP culture.”

One major concern raised by the VP is the lack of proper communication from the Administration towards the Student Body. On being asked about the administration’s response towards the mails and queries as put forward by the student representative body, it was quite disappointing to hear that there were multiple times when emails were ignored or no satisfactory response was given. Awaaz reinforces that in any decision by the Institute taken where the students are a stakeholder, the students have to be involved actively in the process; and condemns this lack of communication from the administration side.  He further accepted that there is some lag in communication between the institute and the student representative body and could be improved.