42 Teachers of St Stephens Reply to Principal’s latest email
42 TEACHERS OF ST STEPHENS ASK PRINCIPAL SIX BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘AUTONOMY’ PROPOSAL
In response to the email dated 11th March (copy attached) sent by the Principal Dr John Varghese to 41 teachers who had written to him on 10th March asking him to honour his written commitment to the Staff Council, 42 out of 53 permanent teachers of St. Stephen’s College who are available/not on leave have re-iterated their appeal and raised certain fundamental questions about the proposed autonomous status.
The letter submitted today is copied below :
28 March, 2017.
The Principal,
St Stephen’s College,
Sub: In respect of your e-mail dated 11 March 2017 to the forty-one Teachers
Dear Sir,
We begin by requesting you to honour the commitment you made at the Staff Council meeting held on 3rdMarch 2017 which is – that the consensus based decision of the Staff Council under your chairpersonship, shall be officially placed before the Governing Body, and permission shall be obtained by you to begin consultations with all stakeholders (faculty, students and non-teaching staff of St. Stephen’s College)and then decide whether or not to apply for autonomy.
As important stakeholders of St Stephen’s, we feel that information now available – in the UGC guidelines on autonomy and in your brief document on what an autonomous St Stephen’s might look like – is highly inadequate and cannot form the basis of either an informed decision on the question of autonomy or of meaningful consultations on it. In fact the UGC guidelines are simply a set of instructions issued to the prospective colleges regarding the detailed preparation they have to undertake before they contemplate an application for autonomous status. The guidelines offer no further information or details. For meaningful consultations, it is imperative that the Governing Body bring out a White Paper or some such legally binding document in which it clearly addresses our concerns and those of other stakeholders. An illustrative list (by no means exhaustive) of some of the concerns that we would like the Governing Body to address in the proposed White Paper are posed below.
1) Can St Stephen’s preserve its tradition of being a leading liberal arts and sciences college within the new scheme? In the absence of the supervisory role of Delhi University in academic programmes, in evaluation and in faculty hiring, can a small institution like St Stephen’s maintain its high academic standards? With the withdrawal or reduction of funding by the UGC, will the college not be forced into starting expensive progammes that go against its ethos?
2) Will we, like scores of other autonomous colleges, have dual streams (aided and self- financed) of courses, fees, faculty, students, pay scales, security of tenure, service conditions and so on?
3) What will be the academic and administrative model of an autonomous St Stephen’s when it is less closely bound to the Delhi University? Who will determine the protocols for the hiring of faculty and other staff and the service conditions of the employees?
4) What precisely is the financial model envisaged to support an autonomous St Stephen’s College? This is a matter of utmost importance that affects virtually everything else, including the academic ethos of St Stephen’s, the way the college is governed, the kind of infrastructure available, the kind of students and faculty that it is likely to get. There is absolutely no clarity with regard to the level and extent of committed and assured grants in aid to the college by the UGC to fulfil its financial obligations to the past and current faculty and employees, including pensioners.
5) If the financial model includes a range of expensive programmes beyond the reach of most college-going students, what will happen to the inclusive character on which St Stephen’s now prides itself?
6) In the absence of the checks and balances provided by the Delhi University what will be the service conditions of the faculty and other workers – both those now in the employment of the college and those that may be hired in future? How will grievances be addressed? How will salaries and promotions be decided? What will be the new conduct rules?
There are numerous other questions that would arise once the consultations ensue around the White Paper. It is precisely for this reason that many other similarly placed and prestigious colleges in Delhi have, after consultations in their Staff Council, and in accordance with the consensus that was arrived at, decided not to apply for autonomous status at the present juncture.
Sincerely,
(Signed by 42 permanent teachers)
Meanwhile,many teachers and students of St. Stephen’s College are gearing up to participate in the Joint Rally called by the DUTA tomorrow from Mandi House to MHRD (Jantar Mantar) to protest against the fragmentation, privatisation and commercialisation of DU through grant of autonomous status to its colleges.
Nandita Narain
(President, Staff Association,
St Stephen’s College)
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