Friendship Day celebrations, other fun activities disallowed
As colleges start today, principals say they will ensure
students stick to academics; Friendship Day celebrations, other fun activities disallowed.
As first- year junior college (FYJC) classes begin across the city and Pimpri- Chinchwad
today, college authorities have made ample preparations to ensure that students
have a all work- and- no- play schedule.
From the principal’s address to the personalised guidance sessions and individual
department- wise orientations to classroom etiquette, these are just a few of the
programmes that await FYJC students on the first day of college.
"While keeping an eye out for ragging through our committee of professors, students
and security staffers, senior students too have been warned not to interact with
FYJC students in the initial days and special vigilance squads have been set up.
We want students to focus purely on academics as ours is a traditional college,”
said Dr. Rajendra Junzarrao, principal of Modern College in Shivaji Nagar.
Garware College Principal Shrikant Gupta said there would not be any college festivals
or any fun activities for FYJC students now or in the coming few weeks. “We don’t
have the concept of festivals or days. There might be a few inter- collegiate competitions,”
he said.
One thing that has got principals a little worried is Friendship Day, which is expected
to be celebrated in colleges today and tomorrow.
"We heard about this particular day from teachers and though we officially don’t
grant permission to students, they keep doing things on their own. We try to keep
them under control, but the problem is when students or political organisations
try to enter campus on the pretext of controlling students who fall for this so-
called Western influence of celebrating days. So we will be extra vigilant to see
that no such thing happens,” said Bhagwan Thakur, principal, Wadia College.
In the meantime, both student organisations as well as NGOs have started campaigning
against ragging before FYJC classes began.
“The idea is to remind senior students about the law and repercussions of ragging
as well as to ensure that freshers have the confidence to confront ragging,” said
Shailendra Singh, co- ordinator of NGO Savera, which works against ragging in colleges.
6,000 seats vacant
THE last date for ATKT admissions as per the centralised admission process
(CAP) got over on Saturday. Though the process of admissions is still on for a few
ATKT students who were left out as well as for 114 CBSE students who recently got
relief from the state government and were allowed to take admission in state- board
affiliated colleges ( unlike a ruling earlier prohibiting their admissions), roughly
6,000 seats were vacant. CAP officials said this was mainly because of dualform-
filling by students, that is, students who had filled forms for two streams like
commerce and science.
Courtesy: Mid Day
