Zero attendance, now streaming exclusively in the alumni’s fond recollections of their college days, once constituted the grasslands where UNICORNS could graze. It afforded a most valuable resource — time. Left to their independent devices, JEE-struck students rediscovered passions and callings, and formalised themselves into student bodies, as much for hobbies and heritage as for welfare and representation.

The year in Pilani is divided into semesters; perhaps just as natural is an informal division into trimesters, nestled between the three fests that characterise the BITS calendar. The first and traditionally early exposure to the Big Three for freshmen is the BITS Open Sports Meet, shortened to BOSM. Next is Oasis, the cultural fest and, punctuated by a semester break, it is followed by the technical fest, APOGEE. In a sense, BITS is an octopus with its fests as three pulsating hearts. The organising bodies for the three fests are respectively headed by the Council of Students for Sports Activities (CoSSAc), the Students Council for Cultural Activities (StuCCA), and the Council of Students for Academic Activities (CoStAA).

These councils comprise the President, the General Secretary and the coordinators of the major departments of the respective fests. Major departments have a logical contraposition in the existence of minor departments, and they brew together several organisational ingredients into a fest. Here, a list of departments is warranted; by design, however, departments are meant to be mysterious and no freshman initiation is consummated without a little sleuthing into the names and nature of these student bodies.

Clubs of every flavour exist at BITS, from satellite-making to the altruisms of journalism. Most fest events are their offspring, and members meet at varied intervals to fulfil their ultimate objectives. Some require substantial commitment throughout the year, while others are less active. In any case, most whir to life in the days preceding a fest. The nature of clubs groups them as follows:

I. Volunteer Groups

1. Anchor
2. Nirmaan
3. NSS
4. Pilani Atmanirbhar Resource Centre – PARC
5. SMILE

II. Tech Teams

1. BITS Pilani x Postman Innovation Lab
2. CRISS
3. Inspired Karters Electric (IKE)
4. Inspired Karters – Gravity (IKRG)
5. Kalipatnapu Research Lab (KXR)
6. Radio Control
7. Robocon
8. Sally Robotics
9. Students’ Union Technical Team (SUTT)
10. Team AcYut
11. Team Anant
12. TEAM BITS
13. The Radio Astronomy Club

III. Chapters

1. 180 Degrees Consulting
2. American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
3. American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
4. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
5. Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W)
6. Enactus
7. Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE)
8. Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE)
9. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
10. International Finance Students’ Association (IFSA)
11. Toastmasters

IV. Growth and Skill Development

1. Centre for Entrepreneurship and Leadership (CEL)
2. Coding Club
3. Communo
4. Consulting Club
5. Embryo
6. English Press Club
7. Film Making Club (FMAC)
8. Google Developer Student Club (GDSC)
9. Hindi Press Club
10. Operations and Strategy Club (OSC)
11. Photog
12. Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Society (PIEDS)
13. Product Management Club
14. Quant SIG Club
15. Renewable Energy Club (REC)
16. Student Alumni Relations Cell (SARC)
17. The Debating Society (DebSoc)
18. Wall Street Club (WSC)

V. Hobby Clubs

1. Association of Rock, BITS Pilani (ARBITS)
2. Astro Club
3. BITSMUN
4. Comedy Hub
5. Creative Activities Club (CrAC)
6. Cubing Club
7. Dance Club
8. Embryo
9. English Language Activities Society
10. Fashion Club
11. FitBits
12. Gaming Club
13. Gurukul
14. Hindi Activities Society
15. Hindi Drama Club (HDC)
16. KalamVansh
17. Karaoke Club
18. Matrix
19. Mountaineering and Adventuring Club (MAC)
20. Music Club
21. Poetry Club
22. Public Policy Club
23. Radioaktiv
24. Ragamalika
25. Sovesa
26. TEDxBITSPilani
27. The Culinary Club
28. The Eastern Outlook (TEO)
29. The Nuclear Society BITS Pilani

VI. Department Associations

1. Biological Association (B1)
2. BITS Pharmaceutical Society (A5)
3. Chemical Engineering Association (CheA)
4. Chemistry Association (B2)
5. Civil Engineering Association (A2)
6. Computer Science Association (A7)
7. Economics and Finance Association (B3)
8. EEE Association (A3)
9. Instrumentation Forum (A8)
10. Manufacturing Engineering Assoc (AB)
11. Mathematics Association (B4)
12. Physics Association (B5)

Cultural Associations result from the natural predisposition of students of a feather to flock, when the feather in question is linguistic, ethnic and cultural. A new college at an isolated corner of the subcontinent can breed alienation, and cultural associations can be the dash of familiarity, the reassurance of hearing your local tongue, and a sense of belonging that shared traditions sometimes afford.

Working together can cement a sense of common culture, and cultural associations let their members accomplish just that through various activities such as grubs, the Founders’ Day performance, and cultural nights, among others. The former is a feast with local delicacies on the menu, intended to popularise the culture’s unique cuisine. Founders’ Day performances experiment with plays centred on folklore, cultural dances, music and other performative art forms. These are brief, since the evening is divided among several associations; in contrast, an association’s cultural night can go on for hours.

The cultural associations are listed as follows:

1. Andhra Samithi (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh)
2. Arunodoi (North-East India)
3. Delhi Capitol (Delhi and Delhi NCR)
4. Gurjari (Gujarat)
5. Haryana Cultural Association (Haryana)
6. Kairali (Kerala)
7. Kannada Vedike (Karnataka)
8. Madhyansh (Madhya Pradesh)
9. Maharashtra Mandal (Maharashtra)
10. Marudhara (Rajasthan)
11. Maurya Vihar (Bihar, Jharkhand)
12. Moruchhaya (West Bengal)
13. Pilani Tamizh Mandalam (Tamil Nadu)
14. Punjab Cultural Association (Punjab)
15. Sangam (Uttar Pradesh)
16. Udgam (J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh)
17. Utkal Samaj (Odisha)

All first-degree students are members of the Students’ Union (SU) and are therefore liable to be charged a small membership fee every semester. The Union Council (UC) is the representative body of the SU, and comprises elected members. The President and the General Secretary are elected by all General Body Members (GBM) except freshmen. The electorates for hostel representatives (HReps) constitute all residents of the respective hostel. Day scholars also elect a representative to the Union Council. Candidates contesting the position of the President must be in their third or fourth year, whereas the General Secretary is elected from students in the third year. No criterion exists for HReps, and freshmen can contest and vote in their election.  

The Union Council exists to safeguard the interests of students, and, to these ends, implement programs, conduct fests and oversee all SU clubs. The SU also has a core committee composed entirely of freshmen, and an executive committee made up of sophomores. These committees are nominated by the UC and oversee the everyday functioning of the Union. Electric shuttles and digitisation of most services, such as room-booking, are some of the most recent accomplishments of the SU and its related bodies.

The Election Commission (EC) ensures free and fair elections to the Union Council. It conducts periodical reviews and amendments to the SU constitution and fest charters in consultation with CRC, and reserves the right to interpret the SU constitution, the charters for Oasis and APOGEE and the non-financial sections of the Procedure Manual. The EC supervises voting in UC meetings as well. Following rounds of group discussions and personal interviews beginning in the fourth semester, students are inducted as volunteers and thereafter made core members in the third year.

Committees and election commissions are independent bodies that are selected through interviews, in contrast to the elected bodies they regulate. The Corroboration and Review Committee (CRC) supervises the financial matters of the SU, checks the Union Council for constitutional violations and records fest review meetings. The CRC oversees transactions and tendering, and also has the right to interpret the financial sections of the Procedure Manual. The Sports Financial Committee (SFC) is the regulating body of the SC that manages finances for BOSM and InterBITS. It participates in the election of Joint Secretaries and the Sports Secretary, and enforces the BOSM charter and the Sports Constitution. Selections for both committees begin before the start of the sophomore year and involve rigorous rounds of group discussions and personal interviews. Three students are typically chosen to serve as volunteers to the committee, and thereafter become members in their third year.

The institution of sports at BITS is managed by the Sports Council (SC). It includes one Sports Secretary, three Joint Secretaries and a sports representative from each hostel, who supervise sporting budgets, inventories and marketing. Joint secretaries must have experienced at least two BOSMs and are, in essence, selected by the existing SC members. The position of the Sports Secretary necessitates an experience of three BOSMs, and the electorate comprises captains of all registered teams.

The Society for Student Mess Services (SSMS) controls all operations of the messes on campus. It is empowered, for instance, to decide mess timings and the frequency of paneer on the menu. The Society is split into the five committees of Quality Health Safety Environment (QHSE), Grub, Menu, Human Resources (HR) and Finance. Mess Representatives are elected for eight messes, and the electorates comprise the residents of the Bhawans that populate the particular mess. Thereafter, the President, the Secretary and the Treasurer are decided by internal elections in the SSMS Governing Council, which constitutes all elected members as well as the Advisory and Monitoring Committee (AMC). AMC is a CRC/SFC analogue in the SSMS ecosystem, and comprises four students in their third year, who start as volunteers in their sophomore year.

Elections to the SSMS are supervised by its Election Commission (SSMS EC). Selection to SSMS EC begins before the start of the sophomore year and follows the pattern of selection to CRC and the SFC.

The Placement Unit (PU) and the Joint Placement Committee (JPC) invite companies and supervise campus placements and summer internships. The Training Unit organises sessions to create informed students long before placement season, and has implemented a points system to encourage attendance at their sessions. Students must have a cutoff point of 30 to qualify for placements. Numerous rounds of group discussions and personal interviews follow; the culmination of the process is an interview with the PU Chief Manager and the Deputy Placement Manager. The Training Vertical subsumes the four committees of Placement Repository, Consulting, Finance and Training Execution, in addition to a Technical Unit.

Infinities are relative, and in the frame called a student, student bodies are infinite. A freshman is uniquely positioned at a personal watershed moment. Their choice of student bodies is, in big and small ways, the selection of a singular pathway in an infinite crossroad—a choice that makes friends just as much as careers. Such a choice, then, is delicate. But all choices are, and since there really is no way to foresee their results, one way to navigate through this realm of infinities is by walking these paths yourself, following the compass of the heart.