Cuttack, July 28: Ravenshaw University is weighing options to replace direct elections to the students' union. The university has constituted a committee to recommend an alternative model of representation to the students' union to be adopted in 2017-18.
On July 18, the varsity issued a notice inviting views of parents, students and civil society groups to help the committee "design an alternative model of representation of students". All the views can be submitted by July 22 to the committee, which had its first meeting yesterday.
"The committee is expected to come up with its recommendation after its next meeting on August 1," vice-chancellor Prakash Chandra Sarangi told The Telegraph today.
"The majority of views are in favour of introducing an alternative model in place of direct elections," Sarangi added. Admissions to all courses will be completed by August 12. The students' union elections for 2017-18 will be due after that.
Authorities are worried, as the university campus remained disturbed for almost a month because of the election affecting the academic schedule. An official said this trend was observed over the past few years. The committee includes chairperson council of deans Gouranga Charan Nanda, professors Pradipta Mohapatra, Sangeeta Rath, Chandi Prasad Nanda, associate professor Sanjay Satpathy and university faculty member C.S.K. Bharadwaj.
"Our primary aim to introduce an alternative model is to prevent use of money, muscle and violence during the election," Sarangi said.
However, the decision has not gone down well among all students. "Doing away with the direct election will be a murder of democratic rights of the students and democratic heritage of Ravenshaw," said Saroj Mansing, a postgraduate student.
"The concern over disturbances in teaching is a plan to cover up administrative failure," said Arati Meher, an undergraduate student.
The Ravenshaw Bikash Abhijan (RBA) has strongly opposed the move to do away with the direct election "The university authorities should refrain from making the premier institution a laboratory for experimenting with an alternative to direct elections," Mohanty said.
