In a bid to resolve the ongoing students’ protests in BITS, the Directors of three campuses met for a teleconference on the 9th of May at 6:30 PM. Pilani Campus was represented by a student panel consisting of members from the Students’ Union, Senate, and Election Commission. The English Press Club spoke to one of the representatives, Sibesh Kar, a senior member of the Election Commission, to help understand the proceedings and explain the subsequent course of action.

Q. What led to the Director’s conference being called?

A. BITSAA International and the Directors of three campuses had a meeting at 9 PM on 8th May. The Directors were urged to take responsibility of handling the on-ground protests, in the absence of the Vice-Chancellor. The Vice-Chancellor was supposed to talk to Goa and Hyderabad on Tuesday. But because he unfortunately fell ill, it was postponed to Wednesday, and Pilani was also roped in. Prior to that, the meet was primarily supposed to center around Goa and Hyderabad issues since Pilani had already been addressed by the VC. Professor Raghurama [Director, Goa campus] took charge for most of the conversation. The agenda of meet was to have a single platform where the Directors could listen to the students’ qualms from all three campuses and make some form of official  commitment.

Q. Could you summarize the proceedings of the meet?

A. They started off by talking about how the fee structure is decided and what is the procedure for changing it. Prof. Raghurama explained the procedure. There are long-term (10-15 years) goals set for the university as a whole. Then, campuses discuss their own requirements internally. This information is passed on to the Financial Committee, which consists of 5-6 members including Prof. S. C. Sivasubramanian and the Vice-Chancellor. The committee vets the budget from the three campuses and then the Vice-Chancellor presents it to the Governing Board, which includes, amongst others, the Chancellor and the Pro-Chancellor, for approval. They meet once a year, and they have already met for this financial year. We were told that the meet is very difficult to call and has to be planned well in advance.

After explaining the whole procedure, Prof. Raghurama went on to explain the breakup of the 15% [fee hike]. There was a 56% fee hike in 2010. Since then, the 15% limit was imposed. But back then, the inflation rate was close to 10-12%. Now, post-2014 it’s around 4.2%. Prof. G. Sundar [Director, Hyderabad campus] mentioned that the Government revises teachers’ salaries by adjusting the Dearness Allowance, which increased by 8-10% over the last five years.

When asked about WILP (Work Integrated Learning Programme) revenue decreasing, Prof. Sundar said that there was no annual report stating that WILP had failed to meet its revenue targets. He also said that problems with WILP would be discussed with his team, and were not the subject of discussion of the meet. The Directors also mentioned that government funding is not factored into the Institute budget.

Students from Goa then asked them about student to faculty ratio. The Directors emphasized the importance of quality faculty, and how money must be spent on infrastructure to attract faculty. The students’ argument was that despite a proportional increase in the number of students and faculty, cut-off scores for BITSAT have decreased. They suggested that student intake be kept constant, and institute move towards a more sustainable student to faculty ratio.

Q. What were the core demands of the students that were brought up in the meeting?

A. 1. The current semester fee for the academic year 2017-18 be continued for the next year as well for all enrolled students.

2. The fee only be hiked once for incoming batches followed by a fixed fee structure for that batch. So, those joining in 2018 can know what they are expected to pay till graduation.

3. An official statement be sent updating the students at every step of the fee revision procedure.

4. No SWD dues pay slip to be released until an appropriate response is issued from the Governing Body.

There are also some additional demands that haven’t been discussed yet which include more alumni involvement in decision making and funding, as well as a revision of the fee hike percentage.

When asked what the procedure would be for the institute to act on these demands, the Prof. Raghurama said that they would discuss it among themselves, then take it to the VC, who would put them in front of the Governing Board. Upon asking him what would happen if students were dissatisfied by the Institute’s response, Prof. Raghurama said that they would cross the bridge once we get there. He offered no contingencies in place in case the demands weren’t met.

The Fee Hike Protest was successful to the extent that we now have an official record of the Directors agreeing to open a regular line of communication with the students to give official statements regarding the updates. They followed up with this on Thursday evening itself by sending a reassurance mail to all students in all three campuses reiterating their commitment  to solve this issue. They also agreed that until a resolution was not reached by the Governing Board, SWD will not send the pay slips to students.

None of the previous attempts at addressing the fee hike issue have even come close to this, and I believe this is because for the first time students across batches and campuses united together on one issue. There still is a long way to go, but I think this result is very promising, considering the short time span, the VC’s unexpected condition, and that this is happening during the busy compre time.

Q. What was your personal takeaway from the conference?

A. First, there was a slight lack of coordination among the campuses in the first half of the meet in terms of questioning, which was our collective fault, but we then came together strongly when the students’ demands were raised.  We need to stick to these demands across all narratives and across all campuses for this to work out in the end.

Second, with the Vice-Chancellor unavailable, Prof. Raghurama from BITS Goa was leading the discussion. So, Goa campus and it’s efforts to get a response from him would definitely play a more key role in future.

Q. What are the plans for the future?

A. The immediate plan for the future is to draft a document of demands in cohesion with the rest of the campuses and give it to the Directors to get an official statement. If the official statement about this document from the Institute is not out in time, stating exactly what has been done and what is being done, then students will push until that happens. Once people are off campus, we’ll have to find other ways to do it, but as we’ve demonstrated time and again, there is no limit to the innovative ways BITSians have devised to express their dissatisfaction peacefully.

Q. Your views on the protests as a whole?

A. I hope we get a positive outcome and the demands are met, but I think the Fee Hike Protest has and will achieve much more than just that.

I see a lot of parallels with the Salt March to Dandi back during the Freedom struggle. An unfair tax was being levied on salt by the British. So, as a symbol of protest, there was a march to Dandi to collect salt, and make a statement to the British about how India could sustain itself without their trade. Interestingly, everyone remembers the Dandi March, but no one remembers if it actually changed the salt taxes.

Fact is, they didn’t change a bit. The march was considered wildly unsuccessful at the time. People declared Gandhi’s methods crazy.

But the dissent served as an example for the future. People realised that it was a way to show resistance to an unfair law. The salt march led to a chain of events that had nothing to do with salt. A lot of Indian officials resigned from British offices and there was a boycott of British liquor and cloth. For a country so divided- politically, linguistically, and culturally – salt was the one thing that everyone used and so it united India in a way no other issue had. The unity which came because of that trivial condiment is what led to several non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements, and eventually, Independence. The symbolic importance of the Dandi March must be seen in the broader context of the other events that followed it.

Similarly, I think the fee hike issue is something that affects everyone, and hence unites everyone. Across batches, across campuses and across geographies.  The protest hence isn’t just about reducing the fee hike from 15% to 11%. It is a statement that if any element of the higher education system doesn’t work, then students can unite, rally around it and change it.

I think that realisation is profound.