It is criminal to start Schools without facilities, says JNU V-C 

‘What has already begun, we can’t close them down so we are looking at how to strengthen them,” says Pandit

Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit on Friday said the university had shelved the plan to start a medical college and a 500-bed hospital as there was no space on campus or funds to continue with the announced project. She said the School of Engineering as well as the School of Management that were started recently were also having teething problems as they were started without having the basic infrastructure in place. “It is criminal to start Schools without facilities being in place first. JNU is a brand. If we are offering a management course we have to offer quality that compares with the IIMs. What has already begun, we can’t close them down so we are looking at how to strengthen them,” Ms. Pandit said.

The School of Engineering and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship were started during the tenure of the previous Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar, who is now Chairman of the University Grants Commission. Ms. Pandit said that during her tenure, there would be no new Schools announced but the university would instead focus on consolidating its strengths.

Ms. Pandit, who returned to her alma mater in February as Vice-Chancellor, said much had changed since she was at the university when it came to the culture of debate. “Earlier, the debate used to be very academic and constructive. It was in the form of speeches and pamphlets. There was no violence. I find it extremely unfortunate that the debate today is not intellectual and has become physical which is not good for any university,” Ms. Pandit said. She added that there was a lunatic fringe of 5% of students due to the activities of which the university was being stereotyped as anti-national and she was working on changing the image of the university. “We are a place for academics and research where there can be differences of opinion. I respect dissent, difference, diversity, democracy and development. An important message I want to give to all students is that we are all JNUites and we are human and should not spread hatred due to difference of opinion,” she said.

On whether there were plans to bring back the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) which was replaced by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at the university, Ms. Pandit said the university had to follow the guidelines set by the UGC but admitted that the redress mechanism needed to be strengthened. “I am aware that there are many professors who are misogynistic and self confessed molesters and that they have to be brought to book. No faculty has been punished yet. I think if we punish one, it will send out a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated,” she said.