The Year That Was: A Talk With SUC 2016-17
Written on July 21st , 2017 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}How did you people find working with each other?
Keshav: Brilliant. The way we came together, I mean, everything was put aside and nothing else mattered when we came together and sat in these meetings. Just because our focus was one thing, that we’ll have to come together, and work as a team, and get maximum output. And this view has been shared by each and every single one of us.
Sampath: All of us are like-minded people, and we come together collectively to take action.
Dhairya: It was a lot of fun.
Siddharth: We don’t work as Cult Sec, or Gen Sec, we work as the SUC. To pass anything, we needed two-thirds majority, but we were always unanimous.
Keshav: Coming together, and working together made us the best SUC. It was the first time you had people actually coming together, discussing and resolving the issues, and the moment we came together, we did that. Whatever we did after that is just icing on the cake.
What are the major, significant achievements of this SUC, as a whole, not regarding individual manifesto points?
Keshav: In-time extensions, SAC-time extensions, discussing about water coolers in hostels, or getting desert coolers in common rooms, and a lot of other stuff, like Washoo, and newspaper stands were executed smoothly. The GB was unsatisfied with Bru, so, you also see the SMC getting involved in the discussion, and now we have Yummpy’s, Ra Café and other vendors to come. We are very proud of this, because it is about representation of a large number of views, with multiple sides to the discussion. Collective wisdom was involved, with many opinions and views, and that helped us in making the right decisions. Other projects are also included, like Aditya Mishra is working on helping students choose electives.
Aditya: So, this was an initiative that the Cult Secs came up with, an attempt to catalogue all the courses, not just for the current batches, but for future students too. This is to try to give the students a much more personal platform, where the students need not be concerned with the grading, or word-of-mouth, but interact directly with teachers, and help them make better, more informed decisions with regards to what they study.
Keshav: The Sports Secs are working on the PAN Card and Passport mela, to help the students get these documents.
Dhairya: Two years ago, the Director himself tried to conduct such melas, but was not successful. Now, we had a Sports Meet in Dubai, and getting hold of documents like Passport proved to be difficult for some players. So, we want to avoid such situations, and help guide students and get them these documents.
Keshav: And, for Washoo, Pranjal managed to get people to set a warehouse up near Thumkunta. So those people changed their whole business plan and made an exception for us there.
Pranjal: Basically, I was fed up with the existing arrangements for laundry, and so, decided to try and get some professional laundry services to the campus. I worked with Saivivek Peddi on this. Now, the functioning of the laundry was smooth initially, but soon, the laundry was overloaded, and so we had to discontinue the service. A larger facility is being set up, however, and Washoo will be back up.
Keshav: The H-Reps have also attempted to make the QTs better. Loki, in particular, has tried to make the common rooms a cool place to hang out.
Arjun: So, for QTs, we have already got the work orders passed for levelling. In Shankar Bhavan, stairs will be constructed to connect the upper and lower levels, and similarly for Krishna. Also, in Krishna, two double rooms are going to be converted to common rooms, targeted towards members of clubs like the DA, CRUx, so they have their own space to work on their projects.
Keshav: So, the girls’ hostel in-time has been extended. And they had a movement of sorts, which had started way before the elections, and they got signatures from each and every door. This has been successful, only because of their consistent effort. Harika was heavily involved in the decision-making process.
Harika: I had first thought that H-Rep, yeah, that’s going to be a tough job. Then, after Keshav nominated me, I really saw how much more there is to the post, and how much you could learn from being in the SUC. I have had the opportunity to interact with most residents of Meera Bhavan, and some of Malaviya as well.
This year, H-Reps have had a much bigger role to play. What made you decide that the campus needed active H-Reps?
Keshav: See, it’s about delegation. If you want to only conduct the fests, then your team is set. You have the Clubs, Departments, and Assocs. But, to look after the general well-being of the campus, you need a bigger team. And the H-Reps play an important part in making sure the needs of the students are met. To make the campus life more comfortable and more happening, you need multiple stakeholders and multiple views on the table. And that’s what the H-Reps bring. Also, these people have the voice to represent us, whenever needed, as they are democratically elected. And that’s a good backup to have. H-Reps bring a sense of validation to anything we try to get as they represent all the sections of the GB. It’s mostly about commitment. You see the Sports Secs handling work during Pearl this Arena, and chief guests being handled by the Girls’ Cult Sec, instead of the Director.
Siddharth: In the SUC, we weren’t Cult Secs or Sports Secs only, we were members of the SUC, and that’s what matters.
Keshav: Lines were blurred here. Everyone was equally involved in the Council, regardless of their posts.
Monica: It’s true. The SUC functioned more like a family than a team. We had a President and a Gen Sec who would always support your ideas, and a Cult Sec who would make sure that all work is completed efficiently. Then the H-Reps, who would always be ready to take up any amount of work you need. They would fill-in, if we weren’t able to attend something, and get things done, because they knew what they had to do, and we trusted them enough to do it. This sort of trust, and commitment, I feel, has been a major factor in everything we’ve been able to achieve.
Keshav: We were perfect work buddies. We found joy in working together for the campus, and bonded over it. We have never needed to go out to a restaurant or a picnic to be able to bond. We may have not been able to bring something revolutionary to the fests, but one thing that we did bring in, that was new, is a united SUC. We have a common interest of working for the campus, and that’s what gets things done.
What is your opinion on the mind-set of the people? How do you manage to get things done, that the GB is not necessarily in favour of?
Monica: With activities and events, there’s an infinite loop that comes into play: People come to an event that’s popular, and an event is popular if people come to it. People come only if the event starts on time, and an event starts on time only if people come. This is an issue that we have faced throughout. So, getting people interested in anything new is pretty difficult.
Siddharth: The thing is, people love something new, but it has to be put forward well. Last year, the ethnic day wasn’t successful, but this time, we refreshed the idea, marketed it well, and got the audience we wanted. This should be carried on by the next SUC as well.
Sampath: They’re right, people do attend events if they are interested, and publicising events is necessary to generate the interest.
Dhairya: Well, we never had that problem with sports activities. It’s easy to do anything new in this field. Whenever we had an event, people would come in droves. It was controlling the crowds that was the problem. The only thing we really needed to take care of was the timings, and the refereeing. J: It’s true. People are pretty aggressive when it comes to sports, and that’s all we needed to take care of. We were able to host a successful Arena thanks to the help from the rest of the SUC, and the people too.
Keshav: Well, the aggression was there for the girls too. Whenever we asked what they wanted, or their opinions on anything, they would say, “In-time extend karo, phir baat karenge.”
What about our technical culture?
Keshav: Our campus is budding, and we had a great team for the technical aspect. We had Rajat Bansal, Ebin Philips, Sagar Gupta, and some more, who have really helped us in improving the tech culture of the campus. Everyone had their own views, and it was an amalgamation of these ideas that has helped us in achieving what we have. Rajat has tried implementing stricter deadlines, Ebin has tried to lay out a plan to combat the event fatigue that we have. Sagar and Dhairya Gandhi have been working on the 212 tracker and Cashless Campus, and we have people working on the SU website as well. We had a very good team, leading the charge for improving the tech culture, and they have people working under them, so hopefully, we’ll be able to progress even more in the coming years.
We have tried to implement the SU Tech Challenge and mentorship programs, to help projects. This campus is pretty young, and we have to offer people help to do these projects that they want to do, but can’t, because of constraints. We’ll tackle this phase-by-phase, to get the projects money, then getting the HD and PhD students involved, getting the faculty to help, and finally, getting external sponsors and mentors. Currently, projects are functioning in a very haphazard manner, and we want to eliminate that. The BPHC brand brings with itself an aura, and we have to live up to it. ATMOS should be mind-boggling, and a platform for everyone in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to showcase their work. And to get to that level, we ourselves must be the best in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The People
President: Keshav Kedarnath
General Secretary: Sampath Balineni
Cultural Secretary (Boys): Siddharth Metta
Cultural Secretary (Girls): Monica Adusumilli
Sports Secretary (Boys): Dhairya Patel
Sports Secretary (Girls): Juhi Sharma
Hostel Representative (Meera Bhawan): Harika Kothapalli
Hostel Representative (Malaviya Bhawan): Harika Trikutam
Hostel Representative (Malaviya-Boys): Pranjal Gupta
Hostel Representative (Ram Bhawan): Aditya Mishra
Hostel Representative (Krishna Bhawan): Arjun Lokireddy
Hostel Representative (Shankar Bhawan): Srikar Renikindhi
Hostel Representative (Vyas Bhawan): Aravind Dhulipla
Hostel Representative (Gandhi Bhawan): Sai Tarun Ghanta
Interviewed by Samkit, Musaiyab Ali Mirza, Palak Oswal, Tisha and Lipi Deepakshi Patnaik. Originally published on BITS SWD Chronicles on July 21st, 2017