I want to change the image of JNU. It is a nationalist university’

Shantisree Dhulipudi Pandit, vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who took charge in February this year, says that the university is not looking to start new schools but to strengthen the strength of the existing ones. Speaking to The Hindu, he said that plans to start a medical college and hospital have been put on hold and the university has been able to provide its school of engineering and school of management with the infrastructure it started without. is trying. Part:

It has been more than three months since you returned to your alma mater as Vice Chancellor. How do you think university has changed? What needs to be changed?

It was wonderful to be back in an institution that helped me grow. When I came here from Tamil Nadu, JNU gave me a pan-India outlook and it opened up the world to me. What has changed is that when I was a student, debate used to be very academic and constructive, regardless of the dominant viewpoint. It was in the form of speeches and pamphlets. There was no violence. I find it extremely unfortunate that today’s debate is not intellectual and has become physical, which is not good for any university.

This whole debate questioning JNU’s nationalism in the last six years has hurt me a lot because JNU is a nationalist university.

I do not believe in representing any point of view. I believe that I represent JNU and here all students are equal. We may disagree politically and agree to disagree, but on a human level we can still be very good friends. This is what JNU taught me during my student days.

Another thing that has changed is that when I was a student, JNU was not crowded. At that time we were only 3,000 students and now we are 9,000-10,000 students. It has increased significantly, which has given rise to many challenges.

Do you think the university is facing an image crisis?

I want to change the image of JNU because what is being shown is not reality. You can’t judge a university by a 5% crazy fringe. Most of the students here come from marginalized background who want to make their career, so this stereotype hurts not only the university but also the students. We are the apex university in many fields not only in the country but across the world. Perception is changing; People outside the university have understood that JNU students not only protest, pelt stones, fight and raise anti-national slogans. We are a place for academics and research where there can be differences of opinion. I respect dissent, difference, diversity, democracy and development. I want to give an important message to all the students that we all belong to JNU and we are human beings and hatred should not be spread due to differences.

There is a need to improve a lot of infrastructure in the university, which is crumbling, as well as the need to build hostels for the increasing number of students. There are several green laws that do not allow construction on the premises. How is JNU trying to accommodate so many students?

We are not going to start any new school or plan to expand during our tenure. During the tenure of the last Vice Chancellor, many new schools were started and now we are facing problem as we opened them without infrastructure and faculty. We have to solve those issues first and strengthen ourselves. Even in the areas where we were given construction clearance by DDA in 2010, we have not been able to start projects and will start doing so soon. Higher education financing agency loans will help us build and we are bringing in private philanthropy to update our laboratories. We are also planning to restart our classes and bring in state-of-the-art hybrid classrooms where a teacher can teach an audience outside JNU as well. This will help us reach rural India, not on campus. For classes as well, we are looking at private charity. We have not yet received any contribution from our alumni to fund development projects and the funds we get from the central government are limited.

JNU had announced plans to start a 500-bed hospital and medical college. What is the status of that plan?

That plan has been postponed for now because we don’t have space and it also requires a lot of money. Even engineering and management schools have faced teething problems. JNU is a brand name and I don’t want to do anything just because it has to. Our management school needs to compete with an IIM and we need to offer placements to a faculty and students of the same caliber. Same is the case with engineering school, we don’t have building, we don’t have lab. Starting a school without facilities is a crime. We cannot charge different fees from the students and then provide them the same facilities as other students. If we cannot offer half of what IITs offer to students, then we are failing students. We can’t stop what’s already started, so we’re looking at how to strengthen them.

What are the other development plans?

Apart from IITs, JNU is the only other university that has a demand for offshore campuses. This shows that we are recognized all over the world. Several African countries have shown interest in starting offshore campuses in JNU in the fields of social sciences, international relations and languages. We are looking at how to strengthen our strengths and build infrastructure, get better faculty and update our programmes. We are looking forward to offer Joint Degree as NEP has introduced Academic Bank of Credit. When it comes to international relations and languages, we have huge money coming in from the EU as well Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Malaysia. We are also strengthening our e-learning offerings as we aspire to be a digital hub of knowledge as well.

First year students attending online classes are demanding immediate allotment of hostels. What steps are being taken to accommodate them?

UGC is giving extension to PhD students and around 200 PhD students of JNU have sent appeals that they want extension. Then how can I throw them out of the hostels and allot rooms to the new students. This will create another problem, so we are looking at ways to get first year students who are online, back on campus. We have only two new hostels. One is Barak, which is for the students of North East which is funded by the Ministry of North Eastern Affairs which will be inaugurated in a month. The second is Shipra-II, which will cater to the growing number of female students on campus.

Are there any plans to reinstate the Gender Sensitization Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), which was replaced by the Internal Complaints Committee? There has been a huge demand from the students as they feel that GSCASH was more effective.

We have to go as per the guidelines laid down by the UGC. But I agree that there are many professors who are anti-feminist and self-confessed molesters and should be punished because the student always suffers because it is an unequal relationship. Any student who comes and makes a complaint takes a lot of courage, so we are looking at how we can work on strengthening the redressal mechanism. I would trust a student rather than a faculty because I don’t think anyone will lie on such an issue. I am trying to make people more sensitive, empathetic and empathetic. I am also telling them that not only girls but men need counseling. So far no faculty has been punished. I think if we punish someone, it will send a clear message that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. We are also going to have a new security agency on the campus, which will be more gender sensitive.