Why I can't but HATE my University!

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          You Know I am talking about the English and Foreign Languages University. Without denying the fact that my university is a wonderful place, I should confess that I already hate my University. My University is international in its character, it has a great tradition, and holds a great name among academics all over the country. It is also one of the best contributors to the English Language Teaching and English Linguistics fields. My University stands proud with its specialties. It has 5 Schools and over 35 departments. It teaches English and many other foreign languages and offer courses from under graduate level upto research and post doctoral studies. 

BUT

          But my great University is on its way to some god-knows-what status. It expanded tenfold in 3 years. It has a buzzing population of over 3500 as of now! Considering the small area of 35 acres, this population seems quite BIG. And you would agree with me when you read further. 

Hostels

          The 3500 strong campus lives in congested spaces of the available hostels. Why are the rooms congested? Now you are wrong. Rooms are not congested. Those hostel rooms which were made for single person are inhabited by 2 people, those meant for 2 are inhabited by 3, and so on. So if there are 100 rooms, instead of accommodating a maximum of 200 people, we got over 300 people living in them. And the amazing fact is that most of the construction is still underway. People live in buildings where construction is still on. What are the problems experienced in hostels? There are 3 major problems.

1. Space

2. Food and Water

3. Electricity

          Space is already explained. 

          Food and Water: The mess which is run in collaboration with the students is not able to satisfy everyone in the hostel, because there are a handful of dividing factors among the students. Ethnicity, food habits, political and religious background, etc. keep the students in different groups which complain about every kind of food provided. And the food provided is actually worthy of complaints at least sometimes. Food is not ready on time on most days. Students are not there on time for breakfast on most days. 

          Electricity: No electricity also implies no study, no class, no water and sometimes, no food. This is not a rare phenomenon. There are times when students had to run around to find water to use toilet from early morning till evening.

Academics

          There are very talented and committed teachers in our University. There are also less talented and less committed teachers. There is nothing unnatural in it, because we live in a real world, not in an ideal one. But there are some students and teachers who wait to avoid classes, who wait to catch upon slightest opportunities to escape responsibilities, to tread the easy way! This makes me feel sick! I am tired of going to the university only to know that classes are cancelled and nothing moves on campus. I may differ from those who live on campus, because my experience has been different. 

          Whatever be the reason, when academics is compromised upon, the standard of an educational institution stoops. What gives us a stand is its scholarship and encouragement to learn and produce and think critically. Here, people are encouraged to remain under the critical level, not to think out of the box. Some teachers find it a threat! :-) 

          We spend hundreds of crores of rupees in building infrastructure. But people here forgot that only adds to the physical aspect of the University. Investment in academics is given lesser importance. Once things started moving in those lines, every group on campus got distracted from their central responsibility. Everyone here are supposed to help students learn. But some teachers forgot that, some non-teaching staff forgot that, some students forgot that. Everyone started wondering and eying fringe benefits, including me.

          Now, even if everyone desires a U-turn back into the academics, it is not possible in the near future. We have set things in motion, and according to the law of inertia, it will take time for the process to reach a stop and then to turn back.

Conclusion

          I hope that things will change at least by the end of this decade. There shouldn't be a time when I hesitate to say where I graduated from. Let us all try to make things fall in line- students, teachers, non-teaching staff and the bureaucracy. Long live my University!

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