Patna University vice-chancellor (VC) Yedla C. Simhadri, whose second tenure is set to expire this month, leaves behind a mixed legacy.

There have been controversies over his decisions and there have been achievements such as getting the university hostels vacated and maintaining the academic timetable.

However, most teachers and students remembered his controversial decisions more than what he did to strengthen the academic infrastructure.

Simhadri was appointed Patna University VC on January 31, 2014, for the second time. His first term as VC was from November 2006 to January 2008. Teachers and employees recounted that when Simhadri was appointed VC for the second time, it was considered that he would work in restoring the old glory of varsity because of his image as a tough administrator in his first term.

A senior teacher in Patna Science College said: "Though Simhadri has kept alive his tough administrator image, he had taken several controversial decisions which didn't go well down with teachers, students and even staff members many times."

He added that Simhadri had cracked the whip by suspending teachers for "non-academic activities and insubordination".

In three years, Simhadri suspended four teachers of Patna University, most recently Hindi department teachers Matuk Nath Choudhary and Dilip Ram. English department teacher Shiv Jatan Thakur, suspended in July last year, had to be reinstated after two months on the directive of the chancellor's office.

Thakur said: "The VC has failed to make any significant contribution to the functioning of the varsity. The teachers' pending promotion issue was neither addressed nor was any demand of non-teaching employees fulfilled."

Sources said teachers' promotion had been pending for more than decade and the VC didn't take much interest because it was sub-judice.

Some students lauded the VC's tough stand on encroachers or illegal boarders living on different college premises and hostels.

Niranjan Kumar, a second-year postgraduate student at Darbhanga House, said: "Simhadri's biggest contribution is that the varsity academic calendar has been regularised and maintained."