The students of Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD), are aggressively launching campaigns to demand that the administration conduct elections for the AUD Student Council (AUDSC), which has not happened for the past five years.
Today, February 7, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) unit of the university is organising a campaign called Box of Change. Students are invited to bring their problems to the campus in a box.
It is learnt that the university has not conducted elections for AUDSC since 2019. Although multiple representations were submitted to the administration demanding immediate conduct of student council elections in the past five years, the student claims that the administration has only offered false assurances in return.
In December, the students staged a mass email campaign emphasising the need for a swift call for council elections.
On January 17, the students submitted a memorandum to the university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof Anu Singh Lather. This comes after the administration failed to fulfil its promise to hold student council elections during the first week of January.
According to the memorandum dated January 17, which EdexLive has access to, the demands are:
1. Notify a date for the call of nomination for the election committee (EC) within the next week, as the PhD Interviews have begun
2. Formally share the AUDSC Constitution PDF copy with the students along with the Lyngdoh committee guidelines.
Since the administration has not taken proper action, the students are vigorously campaigning and emphasising the need for student council elections.
Highlighting the matter, Shefali, secretary SFI AUD Kashmere Gate Unit, told EdexLive, "The university is moving backwards in various ways. The syllabus is being meddled with under National Education Policy (NEP) and permanent faculty is leaving or being dismissed, throwing the academic rhythm in total disarray."
"Additionally, social welfare policies such as fee waiver and reservation are constantly being challenged, cultural societies are not being given funds, and the list of issues is endless. The AUD administration, in the last half a decade, has exercised a free hand, ignoring the student's voices in the absence of a union," she further claimed discontentedly.
"This undemocratic and unilateral decision-making by the AUD administration needs to end. The Student Union is the solution to this," she said, stressing the importance of having a student council that could serve to voice students' concerns.
EdexLive tried contacting Dr Santosh Kumar Singh, Dean of the Student Services Division at AUD. We will update the report as soon as we hear from them.
