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From MPC’s Desk: Adios Amigos March 28, 2014
I am demitting
office as Dean Engineering of Amrita University on April 2, 2014 after serving
this institution of our beloved Amma for six years, seven months and two weeks.
Looking back I have only pleasant memories to carry home. As everyone would, I
too feel that I have tried to do my best in the interest of growth and
sustenance of this great institution. It is altogether a different matter if my
best was not good enough for the University.
I was invited to
this position in 2003 on my resignation as Director, NIT Calicut. I could not
join due to various personal reasons and apprehensions, but was finally
persuaded to join in 2007 August. Much water has flowed under the bridge since
then. Two revisions of syllabi took place under my stewardship, and the third
was on when I was asked to stop the proceedings. The University is in the
process of a major renewal and it is only proper that old and outmoded faculty
should step down to enable the infusion of youthful energy into the system. I
believe that my exit is part of that process. I have always held that B. Tech
program is our staple diet and everything else should be built on a strong
Undergraduate program. I have expressed
unequivocally that hollow non content publications in large numbers cannot
strengthen or sustain an academic system, in spite of possible, ephemeral
victory in some number games and rankings across the arena. Such victory,
unfortunately tends to foster delusions of grandeur that turn a deaf ear to
Truth.
The
undergraduate population that joins the B.Tech programs across the country is
gradually deteriorating in quality, thanks to the proliferation of engineering
colleges and diminishing quality of school education. We at Amrita are not
immune to this deterioration. This is pressurizing the teaching and evaluation
system to be more and more liberal, avoiding analytical and mathematical
topics, reducing engineering studies to a ritualistic exercise in mediocrity.
As on today we have approximately 30-35% students who can compete with the best
anywhere, another third who can do well if they try. To the last 30%
Engineering, certainly, is not their cup of tea. Our assumption that students
are here to learn applies only to about half of them and the other half is
angling only for an Amrita degree.
The challenge
before the teacher is to persuade the unwilling to learn. I was advocating a
continual feedback system through what I called “Monday quizzes” to bring them
to the habit of regular learning. I had done it in all my courses with great success.
In Amrita the idea met with a passive resistance from faculty and active attack
from the elders until it was torpedoed to annihilation. I still plead to young
faculty to try this, if you wish to be called a good teacher when you grow up.
I realize that
no academic activity is possible unless we have an ingrained discipline in the
campus. While talking about discipline we assume that teachers are all
disciplined and students are not. If teachers adhere to academic plans with
self discipline students will follow suit. Here in Amrita we have a lot of wrong
emphasis that causes rupture at weaker seams of our social fabric. We have seen
time and again that discipline enforced from outside is not sustainable. Ragging,
drinking and associated problems cannot be wished away so long as the ambient
social value system is based on money and profits. All that we can do is to be
vigilant and to bring as many students as possible to the proper side of the
fence.
In the matter of
discipline, Amrita behaves like a soft organization, often letting things to
drift until Time solves the problem. We mix hierarchical lines of authority
with devotional issues and forget the need for uniform justice. This can cause
a great deal of damage. I find a lot of extra-constitutional authorities who
have no respect for systems and procedures poking their nose at unwelcome
points; they would rather have it their way and see that Academic Council
decisions are gone with the wind. This
is not done by everybody, but only by a privileged few. This privileged few can
be located in one or more of the categories listed below.
I have
classified Amrita faculty and staff into four categories: ”Devas” who
have renounced all personal comforts in order to work for Amma against all odds;
“Gandharvas” who come through the sky, land in one of the campuses, discover
new defects in the system and offer instant solutions without ever completing
any work they started. These are people
who know exactly what everyone else should do and shirk any responsibility
assigned to them. “Manushyas” who work for their wages and pursue a certain
amount of personal ambitions and goals; “Asuras” who appear in any garb, even
Sathwik ones and cause strife and discord, conflicts and clashes; These
categories are not hierarchically stratified, but weave through the entire
academic and administrative edifice. It is indeed a colourful population that
Amrita has.
Shirking
responsibility is a contagious disease. It affects the overall health and
strength of the system. I consider a degree of non-involvement pervasive in our
institution and a great weakness to be overcome. Added to this, most people,
irrespective of their position harbour a breezy disregard for timing,
punctuality and mundane qualities of that kind. Nevertheless this is a great
institution, far ahead of its competitors.
During my tenure
in Amrita I had the good fortune to meet and interact with a large number of
sincere and well meaning faculty, staff and students. I am greatly moved by the
sentiments expressed by them on my impending departure. To crown it all, the
large student body sprang a surprise on me by loudly celebrating my birthday
during their musical evening on 21st March. I do not know how to
express emotions, but what little love and affection escaped through my rough
exterior was returned to me most abundantly and extravagantly. I have nothing
to regret about. I leave you all with a sweet feeling of satisfaction and
contentment.
Adios Amigos
