BU to set up school of economics, despite land row

Disregarding opposition by a section of students and academicians, Bangalore University (BU) has decided to go ahead with setting up of Sitaram Jindal School of Economics on its campus.

Given the controversy over establishing the school, the university called a special meeting of its syndicate on Wednesday to discuss the matter. At the end of it, the university unanimously decided to go ahead with the project.

Some members of the syndicate and students expressed deep reservations about the proposal, fearing the university’s land would be given away for the school. Allaying these fears, Vice-Chancellor

B Thimme Gowda said the school hadn’t asked for land.

Even though the building was coming up on the university’s campus, the land would still belong to BU, he said. “The university does not have the prerogative to give land to private entities. Moreover, they never asked us for land.” The land would not be leased out either, he added.

“Jindal is establishing this school as part of its corporate social responsibility. The university has nothing to lose from this.”

Alteration of name
At Wednesday’s meeting, a slight alteration was proposed to the name. While earlier, it was proposed that the school would be named ‘Sitaram Jindal School of Economics’, it has now been decided to name it ‘Sitaram Jindal School of Economics in Bangalore University.’

Jindal would also provide partial financial assistance to run the school for the first three years. Besides, it would offer scholarships to students. An advisory committee will be set up to manage the school, in which there would be one representative from Jindal. “This could give the university an opportunity to set up a school of global standards,” the vice-chancellor added.

Meanwhile, a group of students belonging to the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest on the campus asking the university to withdraw the proposal. They were later forced out of the campus by the police.