Term Review Interview: Mayank Srivastava (VP)
We caught up with the current VP, Mayank Srivastava, where he shares his experiences at the highest student post in the institute and his takeaways from his tenure.
TSA: With your tenure nearing its end, has it been a satisfying experience for you?
Mayank: The experience has been pretty good. Once you are elected and get acquainted with existing protocols, you realise the differences in how things work as opposed to the way you think they do, at the time of candidature. You learn about the various guidelines and rules that need to be abided by but eventually, you realise there is a way out of every problem. There have been ups and downs and it has been far from a smooth ride but the support from students during difficult times has helped. So yes, it has, on the whole, been a satisfying experience.
TSA: What is the status of your proposals and how far are they from fulfilment?
Mayank:
MyKGP:
Proposal: The website (My KGP) will feature various options to serve different purposes,
which are organized into various tabs containing information as follows:
1) Information on Courses
2) Professor Information
3) Timetable management
4) Cab sharing
5) Venue booking
6) Lost and Found
Status: A lot of work on this has been done in collaboration with metakgp. A partly functional version of the website has been released. A few backend algorithms are still being developed and I have been receiving good technical support. The final version of the site should be up and running soon.
Student Support Services:
Proposal: establishment of Student Support Services for the students of IIT Kharagpur.
Student Support Services will provide advice and recommendation for students and act as a repository of information, resources, and referrals across the student community of IIT-Kharagpur. The Student Support Services would have a professional, available during office hours from 9 AM to 5 PM, for appointments which the students can meet or send their grievances through e-mails. If the grievances is not a case of a referral or an information requirement, such cases will be escalated to a committee comprising of a representative from the Counselling Centre, a Professor in Charge and a Student Representative for further action.
Status: I had mentioned in my proposal that there would be a receptionist to receive student calls and would work towards resolving issues with the help of a committee. I faced an issue in trying to implement this as I realised, after being elected, that the VP does not have the power to hire someone and this is something future candidates should keep in mind while formulating their proposals. What one can do is get existing people to contribute in different ways. So what I have done is establish a point of contact for every kind of problem a student might have and a complete repository of the contacts as well as FAQs will be released soon.
Efficient room allocation:
Proposal: The classrooms in various academic complexes all over the institute should be made available for use by the student community after the class hours for a better utilization of the resources that our institute has. This will make way for more meetups, workshops, and seminars by the various societies, research groups, start-ups and students with similar interests for the KGP community.
Status: The existing protocol involves an eight-page memo that you need to submit to all concerned stakeholders, the Security, the VP, the AC operators etc. Now to shift the whole process online we need every section to be able to work, efficient, online and the security on campus cannot work online which was the major bottleneck. So instead of running after fulfilling the proposal for the sake of it, along with Vaibhav Dusad, I have been working with the establishment section and we have been trying to adopt a system, similar to the online booking system for SAM guest house, throughout. Fruition might take another semester
Fair Play Award:
Proposal: The introduction of Fair Play Award in the General Championship with an addition of 10% of the points to the winner of the Fair Play award that will surely encourage the halls to maintain proper ethical behaviour and enjoy the events responsibly. Not just that, it will provide the participants with a congenial atmosphere in which they can perform and excel in the events.
Status: We had a discussion with the President of the Gymkhana regarding this and we thought hard about the ideology behind this. This is simple policy making and implementation doesn’t take too long. My reason for proposing this was to control the crowds turning up to cheer for their halls during events so that there are no mishaps. However noticing that, as of now, things have been peaceful during GC events, we decided against implementing this but should the need be felt in the future, this could definitely be implemented.
ER Cell:
Proposal: Setting up an External Relations Cell that will bring the student community closer to the corporate life. The External Relations Cell will invite speakers and representatives from various companies and start-ups to deliver presentations and conduct workshops to introduce the students to the corporate world. Also the Cell will invite eminent alumni from various sectors of industry and academia to help students get involved and also provide mentorship to them.
Status: The ER Cell has already been established and the main aim was to get students in contact with the corporate world. So with this aim in mind, we have begun focussing on first, second and third years with regards to career guidance and preparation for placements. People may say it’s too early but the fact is that they effectively have only three to four years on their hands to prepare for the same. A lot of initiatives in this direction have been taken and some are currently being formulated.
Faculty interaction cell:
Proposal: Often the faculty has a lot more to offer to students than what is prescribed in curricula. IIT Kharagpur has a world-class faculty which consists of accomplished industry professionals and renowned academics. The Faculty Interaction Cell aims to promote interaction between the faculty and students outside the limited scope of the classroom.
Status: At the time of formulating your proposals, you aren’t well acquainted with the existing problems on campus. There is a problem of dilution of PORs. Once I formed External Relations Cell, I saw the mentality of the students and hence decided against opening another cell. I realised that the motto of faculty-student interaction could be easily achieved by making use of existing hierarchies and societies, that could coordinate to ensure this.
I would also like to advise upcoming candidates to not propose new student bodies but rather focus on improving the efficiency of existing bodies.
Several steps to increase faculty-student interaction have been initiated. Starting this year, we have a UG student council with representatives from each department to voice the grievances of the students and take part in academic decision making. We also organised a Mass Sensitisation Programme where we had DoSA, Dean UGS, representatives from CDC, HMC and Gymkhana interact with the first years. Additionally, I have also tried to establish internship programmes within the campus, like the one that HMC recently floated
TSA: Any other initiatives that you would like to mention?
Mayank:
Medical Facilities:
Post the tragic death that occurred the last sem, in coordination with Atal Ashutosh Agarwal and the A-cell we contacted several alumni and began a crowdfunding campaign for a new state of the art ambulance which will be arriving on campus soon. We are also working towards digitisation of student health records and annual student health checkups.
National Cultural Organisation:
The plan is to start an NCO alongside NSS, NCC and NSO. Here, students with cultural inclinations including music, dance, art etc. would be able to pursue that for two years instead of NSS, NCC and NSO. We recently proposed this to the director and he liked it a lot. This will be coordinated by the Gymkhana and the Rekhi Centre for Happiness.
Cycle Sharing:
A model of cycle sharing, similar to the ones in IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras. There had been a few proposals and we have chosen to go with OLA. It should be functional in April.
Centralised Laundry System:
A proposal for a centralised laundry system has been made. The services can be availed by calling them, after which they will come, collect your clothes, wash and deliver them back to you. A tender has been put out by HMC, which by the way will control the entire system. The process involving tender work is pretty long so, this could take some time to establish, probably will be functional in the next semester.
Renovation of Netaji Auditorium:
Netaji Auditorium is set to be renovated. After which, the auditorium will be equipped with projectors capable of streaming live football, cricket (IPL) and other sports matches. A request has been made to the Dean of Student Affairs, regarding the release of funds for the same. We are also trying to come up with a way to screen movies based on student opinions.
Google Group for the Entire Batch:
In order to communicate with the entire batch with relative ease, a google group has been created for each batch with everyone from that batch added to it. This way one can stay in touch even after he/she graduates. I request people to turn on notifications on google for the groups.
Blogspot on the Gymkhana’s website:
A forum where the students can voice their opinions about various things, such as the recent ban on cigarettes, has been created on the Gymkhana website. This way the people responsible for the welfare of student community can get students’ perspective on different things. It would be very beneficial for us if the student community could get active on that.
TSA: Do you coordinate with previous VP’s and work toward finishing things started by them?
Mayank: The post of VP is such that the current scenario can be communicated only by another VP himself. Yes, there are a lot of things that go through. There were certain good proposals that were presented by Shovan (ex-VP) that I tried to continue such as, the centralised laundry system that I was talking about and career conclave that I have handed over to External Relations Cell. When the tenure of a new VP begins, for a week or so, there has to be coordination between the new and the ex-VP.
TSA: Did you face any difficulty in cooperating with the Administration during your tenure?
Mayank: Administration should not be viewed as a hurdle, it is more like a parallel system. The people in the administration try to support you regarding any initiative that you might want to undertake. The administration is not going to oppose directly but there are certain rules and regulations that they are bound to, certain limits that they are not going to cross at any cost. But one has to learn to coordinate with them to achieve one’s end and that is always possible.
