Madras univ VC convenor committee reconstituted

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The syndicate of University of Madras reconstituted the vice-chancellor convenor committee, which discharges the duties in absence of the VC, on Friday.

Two additional syndicate members, Professor S S Sundaram, head of the history department, and S Murugesan, principal of Thiruthangal Nadar College, have been added to the committee. It is headed by higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal, the director of collegiate education, and Ajeet Prasad Jain, principal of a school in Chennai.

It was a long-pending demand of syndicate members to reconstitute the committee as it was bereft of academicians or professors from the university . Syndicate members felt the committee was not being apprised of routine issues in the University because of this. The syndicate also passed a resolution allowing 10 research institutes affiliated to the University to guide PhD students. It appointed a joint secretary-level officer as the convenor of the four-member committee formed to investigate the illegalities in `47 crore fund diversions in the University's finances. A month has passed since it was formed, but the committee has not met even once. Registrarin-charge S Karunanidhi, head of the economics department Jothi Sivagnanam, and governor nominee Vishal Kumar are the other members in the committee.

The syndicate also reconstituted 10 syndicate sub-committees in Friday's meeting as a section of the members felt that its original formation was done on an ad-hoc basis.
Another contentious administrative decision, the appointment of university-nominated members to the governing council of affiliated colleges, was also reversed.Around 43 members had been appointed without the approval of the syndicate in February . Seniority was also bypassed in this decision, syndicate members said.

The syndicate deferred the ratification of this decision and sent the list back to the College Development Council for a review to ensure that the preference was given to seniority in university professors and then to retired professors on the syndicate.