Bangalore University syndicate members sit on the ground in protest

Seven members nominated to Bangalore University’s syndicate by the governor and the state government attended the decision-making body’s meeting on Wednesday by sitting on the floor in protest.

The members filed into the syndicate hall located on the Jnanabharathi campus as soon as the meeting began. Their grouse? They wanted the Vice-Chancellor, Prof K R Venugopal, to withdraw the decisions taken at the special syndicate meeting on Tuesday. They suggested that the special meeting didn’t have a quorum and, therefore, any decision taken during it was illegal.

In particular, the members objected to the decision of releasing Rs 90 crore for the construction of a mechanical block at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).

Dr Sudhakara H, a nominated member, said the V-C had considered ex officio members as fulfilling the quorum at Tuesday’s meeting and passed a resolution on the fund release. “Ex officio members have no voting powers,” he said.

Ex officio members include the registrar, registrar (evaluation), commissioners of collegiate education, public instruction, and directors of medical, technical and pre-university education. The syndicate has 22 members.

“Including the V-C, who’s the chairman of the syndicate, there were only six members present at the meeting. The V-C is misguiding all by including ex officio members in the quorum. We will continue the protest until the decisions taken during the special meeting are withdrawn,” said another syndicate member who took part in the protest.

The protest was successful.

The V-C announced that all decisions taken on Tuesday would be kept in abeyance and placed before the next syndicate meeting.

The protesting members also objected to funds released for the UVCE.

“We had raised our objections earlier, too, because the UVCE has been given the university status by the government and the law has been passed in this regard. University status means the government will assist the UVCE financially and it will no longer be a constituent college of BU. When this is the case, what is the need to release funds from the university,” a member said.

The Bangalore University Non-teaching Staff Association also raised objections. In a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, its president, Shivaram, said the V-C had already spent around Rs 200 crore of BU funds on UVCE projects. “All this money was raised from internal resources, especially from exam and admission fees. How can it be spent on developing an institute which has been given the university status,” he asked.

Another member of the association said the university should instead spend its resources on improving infrastructure in its over 50 departments.

Prof Venugopal could not be reached for comment.

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