SUC Report Cards 2019: Vaishnavi Reddy
Written on December 29th, 2019 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}Vaishnavi Reddy, the General Secretary of the Student Union Council has highlighted 8 issues in her election manifesto, with Mental Health, Campus Culture and FGP standing out amongst a host of other general issues. With point 8 talking about Harassment, she assures that the GB can reach out to the SUC at any point. Point 9 of the manifesto promises a dynamic manifesto which encompases the general isssues tackled which are outside her manifesto. Out of the other 7 issues (9 point manifesto) and her plans to address them, 1 has not been fulfilled, 5 have been partially completed or are in progress, and 1 has been fully fulfilled.
1.Mental Health – IN PROGRESS
This point is easily one of the most important, unfortunately, there has been little to no progress on the 4 points mentioned in the manifesto.
The orientation by a professional counsellor for the GB in the first semester has not happened and appears to have been merged with the ACC’s project orientations (refer to topic 4).
The anonymous counsellor appointments and review system, which was also promised by the previous SU, has not materialized yet. The portal for the same will be hosted by the SWD from the beginning of the upcoming semester.
The final point, which was about the curation of self-help resources by one of the counsellors, has been delayed as the SUC awaits the deployment of the aforementioned review system before deciding on the counsellor to approach regarding this, while it could have easily approached more than one counsellor and been more thorough about it.
2. Freshers Guidance Program – FULFILLED
The SUC successfully implemented this novel idea for the 2019 batch in order to help them during their first few weeks on campus. Considering that this was their first time, some leniency should be given while examining their implementation. However, looking at the feedback from the 2019 batch, the mentors should ensure that they get in contact with all their assigned juniors, the mentors should be available to advise even weeks after joining and this programme could be implemented on a larger scale by involving the alumni and extending this programme to students of all years, similar to how its implemented in a few colleges in the country (viz. IIT Bombay).
3.Campus Culture – PARTLY COMPLETE
Many initiatives were proposed under this category.
i) Establishing campus tradition: The ambitious plan of erecting a monument of sorts, decorated by BITSians during their graduation, will be filed as a work order and will come up in the next academic year.
ii) Gurukul: The plans for a “Gurukul”, an initiative for like-minded dance, music and art enthusiasts to hone their skills and develop their passion, possibly even under the mentorship of the respective performing clubs, did not happen this semester. The reason given was that due to Renaissance taking place this semester, the enthusiasm may be muted. It has been promised that forms will be floated soon for setting up of Gurukul and the hope is that the students taking part in it may even perform in the inauguration of Pearl ‘20.
iii) Revamping RAF: RAF has followed up on its promise by hosting screenings of several cricket matches and even a tennis match, so far, a Telugu movie has been screened in the auditorium wherein a part of it was funded by the SU. The General Secretary has stated that while screenings of such movies are possible since there is a large gap between the theatrical release of the film and when it can be shown in the auditorium, this will lead to only a small audience watching them. However, she has stated that if a regional association is interested to screen a movie, the General Secretary will extend support to them.
iv) BITSianConnect: The “BITSianConnect” app, which appears to be a chatroom-based system that will help connect BITSians with others who have similar interests, also has seen no progress with it having a hard dependency on the long-awaited SU portal once again.
v) LAN gaming contests: LAN gaming contests have been conducted this semester. The progress on unblocking more ports for other games is unclear at this time.
vi) Freelancing and non-academic internship drive: The General Secretary has stated that the freelancing and non-academic internships plan has not been fulfilled at all. The General Secretary has stated that she will be working on this in the next semester.
4.Technical Culture on Campus – IN PROGRESS
BITS being one of the most prominent technical institutions of the country, should have a high focus on the technical culture on campus.
i) Project Orientations: The proposal for an illuminating session by ACC regarding student projects is planned to take place during the next semester, where it will be more relevant to the students.
ii) Tech Night, Tech follow-up: The plan for a ‘Tech Night’, which is slated to be an opportunity for technical clubs to show their skills and work to the general body in the form of demonstrations in the auditorium, has not happened yet as well. Tech follow-up is a system to complement workshops by ensuring participating students are given ample opportunities to clarify all their doubts and set a firm base for them to continue learning on their own. This is done by having follow-up sessions by members of the organizing club. The General Secretary has also stated that the Tech Night and the Tech follow up are a part of the Student Mentorship Programme. ARC and IEEE have implemented this in the first semester, the assocs are to implement this in the upcoming semester.
5.General Improvements to Campus Life – PARTLY COMPLETE
i) Campus to airport transportation: The plan of the General Secretary to arrange for cabs at discounted rates for students during times of high demand has not materialized as of now. Negotiations are said to be underway with small as well as well-established players in the segment, and we can expect positive news regarding this relatively soon.
ii) LAN backup for all hostels: There is now LAN backup for all hostels as promised.
iii) Covered walkways and grills for water coolers: The plans for covered walkways and water cooler grills(to prevent animals and insects from contaminating the water) have been planned as work orders to be constructed next year.
iv) Waste segregation: Waste segregation into dry and wet types will take place at the source itself, with new dustbins having partitions for the same stated to arrive during the winter holidays.
v) Intime extension: There is also no formal procedure for intime extension implemented as of now.
6.Street Food Day – IN PROGRESS
This is another unique idea to give students a taste of street food from all over the country. The General Secretary had announced in the last GBM that she instead planned to have various food trucks come to the campus on a regular basis, with 3 trucks set to come for the first phase of the plan. Two out of the three trucks have already started coming. The others will be added in the next semester and the trucks will be rotated every month or so.
7.Advisory Board – INCOMPLETE
Another novel idea by the General Secretary was to take inputs and feedback from the SU election candidates to help the SU in its functioning. The body is slated to be completely informal with the candidates being able to freely choose whether to contribute or not. However, there has been no activity or progress regarding the advisory board as a body during this semester. It is unclear whether SU election candidates have had a say in the SU's decision making as individuals.
Other issues being tackled (Not in the manifesto)
The General Secretary, aside from attempting to fulfil her manifesto, has also strived to address campus issues outside it. This proactive effort from her part is nice to see. We will attempt to focus on a few such issues here and to inform the general body about them.
There has been an ongoing problem of a large number of dogs on campus. This issue is rather sensitive and contentious since a sizable number of students and faculty want the dogs to remain on campus. Under Indian law, it is not possible to directly drive away adult dogs away from campus. Sterilization of the adult dogs is underway with several female dogs having already been sterilized. Meanwhile, an NGO has decided to put up the puppies present on campus for adoption, with progress regarding this expected in a month or two. This two-pronged approach to this issue should ensure a gradual decrease of the population in a few years’ time, while also being perfectly humane.
The SU portal is one of the more ambitious and intensive projects undertaken, with it being handled by the Students’ Union Technical Team (SUTT). Some of the General Secretary’s endeavours (one being the aforementioned “BITSianConnect”) depend on the SU portal is up and running. However, there have been severe delays with this, and it is currently expected to be operational in the coming January. Assuming the SU portal is fully operational, a student is now looking at atleast 4 different websites/frameworks for his day-to-day campus activities, namely the SWD portal, CMS, SmartCampus and the SU portal. This fragmentation is not ideal but seems to be unavoidable at this stage. The SU portal is also said to provide flexibility for the SU to implement “new ideas and initiatives” rapidly. We will have to wait for the deployment before making judgements regarding this.
Just as the SMC has the responsibility of handling the mess deductions and keeping their quality and hygiene standards high, a new Vendor Management Committee has been constituted to keep the vendors’ prices and quality in check. The VMC is a fully independent body comprising of one SUC representative, SWD Nucleus member and a GB representative each and set of 30 students, the criteria for the selection of these 30 members has not been disclosed. Food will be regularly sampled from the vendors to ensure hygiene is kept up. The General Body is also encouraged to keep a vigilant eye for hygiene and inform a VMC member if any issue is detected. After verification and follow up, a formal warning will be issued from the administration. After repeated warnings, the vendor is liable to be removed from campus. Besides this, plans are said to be underway to regulate vendor food pricing with respect to quantity.
Regarding the last SU's plan for a LAN-based radio system, the current SU has found this project to be unviable and has scuttled it. To remind the GB, the LAN radio system had received funding to the tune of 9 lakhs and a lot of the underlying code for the same was written as well. This money will now be diverted to other projects of the SU. One such endeavour is the Competitive Coding competitions, 3 of which are planned for the next semester. To encourage participation, massive prize pools have been planned which are coming out of the SU's budget.
Regarding the mobile network issues on campus, while the SUC and the administration have been trying their hardest, the tower company (Indus Towers, who service all major telecom companies in India) has been uncooperative and while they acknowledge a new tower is needed on campus, there has been no progress on this front so far.
Written by Kevin K. Biju and Rajas Raje
Edited by Yogitha Garlapati