The Case for Fee Refunds
On the 14th of July, the student community received an email from Dean SA containing a letter addressed to respective parents/guardians, which conveyed, among other things, the institute’s intent to charge nearly full fee for the upcoming semester. Consequently, the fee “demand” on the ERP Portal, at the time of writing this piece, stands at ₹1,30,000 for the Autumn Semester for undergraduate students. This move has, conceivably, not gone down well with the student community at large and exacerbating the problem is the deadline for disbursing the same which is the 27th of July.
Fee Breakup
Right off the bat, it is impossible to comment on the exact savings per student for the institute vis-a-vis the unchanged fee and the online nature of the semester because information regarding cash flow of the fees paid and the government’s contribution isn’t publicly available. That said, even in the worst case, assuming for the sake of argument that:
1. All staff members are being paid salaries in full and mess contracts are going to be honoured
2. All cleaning and maintenance activities are going to be carried out like they would have been had the semester been executed normally and
3. Hall Rent, Laboratory and Tuition fees are sunk costs which are used to cover cap-ex, maintenance, salaries of staff etc.
there still is no explanation for unchanged expenditure towards:
1. Tech, Sport and So-Cult GCs that are likely to be cancelled and towards which a significant amount of our hall budget is devoted
2. Raw Materials Procurement for Messes’
3. Electricity and Water Charges
4. Internet Charges
5. Gymkhana Activities/TFS/Others
Given this, it is surprising that the institute has opted to reduce the fee cost only by a couple of thousand rupees when even in the worst case, they should be saving much more than that per student. This is evident from the fee structure of our sister institution IITB, where students have been exempted from paying hostel rents, electricity/water charges and hall establishment charges to a tune of 9000 rupees[1]. Similarly, IITH has exempted students from having to pay Gymkhana, Medical, Mess Establishment, Dining and Electricity costs[2]
Agreed, the institute is likely to incur additional expenditure vis-a-vis the cost of overhauling the semester so as to make it online, costs due to frequent sanitisation, precautionary activities and much more that we may not be aware of. Agreed, there is no legal obligation for the institute to reduce fees because they are still giving us credits towards the degree that they promised and that is the deal. However, from the students’ standpoint, we are not reaping the benefits of the services we paid for and are instead being asked to bear the brunt of insti’s additional expenditure.
Now in a pandemic of this magnitude, there will inevitably be one party that loses out economically. Given the financial insecurity of families, KGP’s huge endowment fund and the ease with which we should be able to raise funds from alumni, asking students’ to be that party is very inconsiderate. In addition, for an institution that prides itself on its ‘on-campus experience’ and mandates that all students stay in halls of residence due to the same, the fact that both offline and online semesters have the same fee structure is surprising and works against the argument it has been building all these years.
While to anyone not responsible nor involved in the process of adjudicating such crucial decisions, it would seem natural (some might even say glaringly obvious) that mandating students to pay such an amount amidst the ongoing pandemic would invite criticism from the affected stakeholders, the letter addressed to the parents[3] strongly indicates that the admin feels otherwise. To quote — “We are positive that whatever decision is taken, we will receive full cooperation from you and your ward.” and “We are more than sure that we will receive the cooperation of yours regarding the early payment” [3]
These lines are either an illustration of the institute’s appalling naivete or are a revelation of a not-so-subtle attempt at gaslighting the students and their guardians into acquiescing to pay the entire fee — the fact that despite this being an unprecedented scenario the admin did have to take such calls before (IIT fee hike 2016) strongly signals that perhaps the institute did try to influence the community, in which case, the strong opposition to the fee demand, so much so that a significant majority of the student populace is gearing up to abandon the registration entirely, should serve as a firm reminder in the future that the student community cannot be manoeuvred at will.
Even though the announcement has caused considerable distress, the institute can still redeem itself by rolling back the dues that are unjust or at the very least provide a reasonable explanation for each of the charges while extending the deadline to pay the fee because arranging all that money in such a short time is a big ask, especially now when the latencies to get official work done are at an all-time high. It is imperative that the admin does this because if history is any indication, such decisions cause major unrest and turmoil, which is desirable to none of the parties involved.
The current situation has highlighted yet again that there’s a need for a robust channel of communication to deal expressly with student grievances and to clarify admin decisions. In issues affecting the entire student body, students have time and again had to resort to mass mailing the Dean, a model which has shown itself to be lacking in efficiency. In extraordinary times like these, there’s only so much student representatives can do. An effective channel of communication would go a long way towards making sure that the voice of the students is being heard, while at the same time reducing the perceived tone-deafness of the admin.
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