Smt. Smriti Irani
Hon’ble Minister
Human Resource Development
5 June 2014
Dear
Madam,
Madam,
The Delhi
University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) thanks you for meeting the delegation
of teachers and students on 30 May 2014 and the positive approach you showed to
all the issues raised by us in the interaction. The DUTA specially appreciates
your intervention to ensure dialogue between the Delhi University
Administration and the elected bodies of teachers and students (DUTA and DUSU),
as a result of which the Vice-Chancellor met the office bearers of the DUTA on
3 June 2014. Though the Vice-Chancellor did not respond to any of the issues
raised by us in the hour long meeting, it signaled a process of reversal of the
environment of fear and intimidation that is inimical to the very idea of a
university. The administration has been making several decisions which ought to
be decided by statutory bodies, reducing them to rubber stamps. The long standing
practice of wide consultations, arguments and counter arguments over written
draft proposals on courses of study have been replaced by a system where the
Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Faculties are convened at short
notice, often hundreds of pages on agenda are placed on the table and consent
is acquired without members having time to peruse the agenda. Recovering
democratic functioning and an environment of free and fearless expression of
ideas and acceptance of the right to question and get replies is a necessary
step for academic scrutiny without which decision making processes are
impoverished.
University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) thanks you for meeting the delegation
of teachers and students on 30 May 2014 and the positive approach you showed to
all the issues raised by us in the interaction. The DUTA specially appreciates
your intervention to ensure dialogue between the Delhi University
Administration and the elected bodies of teachers and students (DUTA and DUSU),
as a result of which the Vice-Chancellor met the office bearers of the DUTA on
3 June 2014. Though the Vice-Chancellor did not respond to any of the issues
raised by us in the hour long meeting, it signaled a process of reversal of the
environment of fear and intimidation that is inimical to the very idea of a
university. The administration has been making several decisions which ought to
be decided by statutory bodies, reducing them to rubber stamps. The long standing
practice of wide consultations, arguments and counter arguments over written
draft proposals on courses of study have been replaced by a system where the
Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Faculties are convened at short
notice, often hundreds of pages on agenda are placed on the table and consent
is acquired without members having time to peruse the agenda. Recovering
democratic functioning and an environment of free and fearless expression of
ideas and acceptance of the right to question and get replies is a necessary
step for academic scrutiny without which decision making processes are
impoverished.
We also thank
you for having taken up with a great sense of urgency the issue of Four Year
Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), pushed through with such unseemly haste that
any reputed university world over would find shocking. Current students,
prospective students, teachers of the University and academia countrywide have
reason to have hope and feel relieved. The DUTA has been pursuing the matter
single mindedly following unanimous adoption of the demand for roll back of the
FYUP in its General Body Meeting on 31 January 2014.
you for having taken up with a great sense of urgency the issue of Four Year
Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), pushed through with such unseemly haste that
any reputed university world over would find shocking. Current students,
prospective students, teachers of the University and academia countrywide have
reason to have hope and feel relieved. The DUTA has been pursuing the matter
single mindedly following unanimous adoption of the demand for roll back of the
FYUP in its General Body Meeting on 31 January 2014.
We are sure
that you are also seized with the matter of the parity of the School of Open
Learning, so that admissions could begin at the earliest. Many school leaving
students of Delhi face an uncertain future as the university administration has
turned a deaf ear to entreaties made in the statutory bodies regarding dual
degrees and downgrading of the SOL when semesterisation of undergraduate
programmes and FYUP were rushed.
that you are also seized with the matter of the parity of the School of Open
Learning, so that admissions could begin at the earliest. Many school leaving
students of Delhi face an uncertain future as the university administration has
turned a deaf ear to entreaties made in the statutory bodies regarding dual
degrees and downgrading of the SOL when semesterisation of undergraduate
programmes and FYUP were rushed.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Nandita Narain, President
Harish Khanna, Secretary
Harish Khanna, Secretary
Encl:
1. Annexure I: Note on FYUP
2. Annexure II: Note on Appointments
3. Annexure III: Note on Violation of Reservation Roster
4. Annexure IV: Functioning of Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dinesh Singh
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