COMMENTS ABOUT
EFFECT OF UNLIMITED BROADBAND INTERNET ON CAMPUS LIFE AND CULTURE
AN OPEN LETTER TO DIRECTOR, IIT BOMBAY
Author - Anil Chawla
|
|
COMMENTS ABOUT |
My open letter to Director IIT Bombay about Effect of Unlimited Broadband on Campus Life and Cutlure attracted some interesting comments. This page is Part 2 of the comments that I have received.
For Part 1 of the Comments, please click here
With Best Wishes and Regards,
Anil Chawla
January 2006
From: Sunil Sainis
Hi,
I read your letter to the Diro. I feel you are missing a historical piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
The student activity scene and hostel atmosphere was killed by initiatives in Deepan Ghosh's time DoSA. Under the guise of eradicating "ragging", DG wiped out the peer relationships and mentoring that developed during the freshman years. All forms of hostel activity were now carried out with the constant fear of someone misrepresenting your actions as "ragging" before the Dean. This drove seniors away from mentorship and without the mentoring system - hostel activities withered away. Those of us who were witness to these unfortunate events did what we could to protect the last remaining bastions of student activity - the SAC and MI - our efforts met with limited success as we found ourselves paralyzed by the Deepan's extensive network of collaborators and allies within the Senate and the student body.
In the recent years it appears that DoSA Amarnath has further tightened the constraints regime, both SAC and MI are now effectively out of reach for the students. This is merely an extension of the Deepan Ghosh's philosophy - neither man sees the utility of allowing students to develop a broader world view outside of tech.. Dean Amarnath is using a sledgehammer where Deepan Ghosh used a scalpel.
The expansion of internet usage is a good thing. Atleast the students have some place in the virtual world they can call their own.
I don't think you are going to succeed in convincing the Deans. You will have better luck with the alumni. In my opinion the IITB management is keen to attract research capital from reliable sources. Alumni should make their largesse to IITB conditional on a restoration of the student culture - otherwise those deans are going to convert that place into a slave labor camp.
Regards
Sunil.
From: Venu Chandra
Dear Sir,
I Venu Chandra am doing Ph.D. in the department of Civil Engineering. I did by M.Tech from IITK in the year 2003. Today I have read your letter to the director IITB regarding the policy of providing unlimited broadband Internet connection in every hostel room and how it is damaging the student's social life. I am really impressed to read your message. We are also facing the same problem in IITK. Thank you for giving such suggestions to the directors to develop a good relationship in between the students.
I am also an average student and only because of discussions with my friends now I am here. The suicide person of IITK also a brilliant student and he didn't have any interaction with his hostel wing students, which lead him to commit suicide.
From our students community I promise you that we will also discuss the problem and will take the necessary steps.
Thanking you sir
Your's sincerely,
Venu Chandra
From: Pramod S Phadke
Dear Anil,
You are talking of 70's and 80's. I am from 1967 batch B Tech PLUS 1969 M Tech. We had very lively hostels and in my opinion, whatever alumni have achieved can be mostly attributed to the vigorous interaction we had in the hostel : starting from day 1 at IIT!!
What you are doing is very laudable and I support it fully. There should be some marks given for participation in sports and other extra curricular activities. In fact, as a desperate measure, such participation may be made compulsory!
Keep it up. Regards,
Pramod S Phadke
Consulting Chemical Engineer
Satyajit Society
Erandavana
PUNE
From: K S Sudeep
Dear Anil,
I am a PhD student at IIT, and though I can relate to some of your concerns, I don't quite subscribe to the reasons that you try to connect.
The main point rised in the article, that the people are becoming more and more involved in themselves and there is a lack of group spirit, holds with today's society in general, and I don't think we can blame the IIT authority for it for "hurrying into the tech bandwagon". If at all the IIT could be blamed, I would put that blame on the outdated course structure and even more, the increasing set of "rules". But that is also a reflection of what happens in the world outside!
Yes, IIT is less removed from the world outside than it was 10 years back. Is that something to complain about? I guess not..
-sudeep
Department of Computer Science & Engineering,
IIT Bombay
Postscript from Sudeep
Dear Anil,
A little more than the computer games about the alienation in IIT and the lack of interaction and the silence in the campus.
First, a post by a Prof two days after the suicide on Nov 16th.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A student dies under tragic circumstances on the 16th and we greet it with silence. There is no official announcement. No postings in IIT-general, in IIT-discuss, in discuss-faculty. No condolence meeting Any question we ask into this silence runs the danger of sounding melodramatic. And of disrupting the professionalism with which we go about the business of exams and evaluations. But let us run that risk. Was this boys life so dispensable, so forgettable that we do not even want to mourn him? Is ANY life dispensable?
When Bombay drowned earlier this year we as an institution looked the other way for the most part. (True, there were a few students who got together and organised relief work on the strength of their own will, but as an institution our only response was silence.) It could be argued that we cannot respond to every issue and tragedy out there. But this student was one of our own.
I do not know why he felt so alone and lost that he thought he should end his life. We need to recognise however that by doing so he sent us a vote of no confidence. He told us that we, as an institution and as people he knew, did not offer him hope. This is a terrible indictment.
What is to be done? I do not quite know. But surely we need to mourn him. We do not seem to have paid him enough attention when he was alive. Surely we cannot ignore his death as well? We need to also actively explore ways in which we can establish support groups at all levels in hostels, departments. These have to be professional (from what I can gather we have one counsellor for so many, many students and staff) and personal.
From conversations I have had since yesterday I hear that there have been other attempts, that depression and stress is more present than one imagines. That students have dropped out of courses (at least one student has left this institution because he was maligned for his sexuality good grief!). That students die in different ways.
I do not of course know how to deal with all these issues. But I strongly think that it is not by institutional(ised) silence.
A Faculty Member, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Bombay
From: Devendra Rane
Sub.: Regarding the chaning culture at IITB
Dear Sir,
I am from the batch of 2000, and I must say that your article is exactly what everyone from my batch has experienced. The pathetic social life inside IITB is very much a direct result of the LAN network, but its not the END of the reasons as such. I am from the fortunate/unfortunate batch which experienced all these changes and so I believe there are more than one reason for the same.
When I entered IIT, it was probably very near to the situation you would have experienced in your times. The hostel lounge was a 24 hr lively place, infact there was some activity going on at any given point of time. There were around 12-15 computers in computer room (abt 3-4 students had computers in their room), so the computer room was a place to listen to songs, chat around, check mails etc.Cocurricular activities filled up the atmo, while some maintained a good balance between acads and these, some devoted themselves religiously to these activities and ended up goofing up acads. But by the end of their IIT stay, the one very important lesson they learned from IIT would have been of time management. My seniors would advice me "Do whatever interests you, you'll finally endup doing whats best for you " The schol scene for futher studies, job scenario was good and noone had to worry abt wht might happen to his career. So students did wht interested them, which ranged from technical activities, sports, music, lit and what not.
Things changed with the DOTCOM fall. It affected everything about the thinking of an IITian. For the first time in these 50 years the placement season left more than 40% no where..... with financial emergency in california and other US states, students got admits but no scholarships. I was a state of disorder, a total chaos which was very much visible on the faces of my seniors.
The following year, the job scenario improved a little but the schol scenario became more pathetic. So the advice changed to "Schol scene is bad, no point in applying to US.... Companies shortlist on CPI or compy fundaes, so either become a maggu or be a compi stud".... following which there was rise in number of computers in IIT, the rise became exponential after CC made LAN available to every room in IIT.
The DOTCOM rose again with BPO, so the placements became better and IT placements shadowed NON-IT(core-field) placements both in pay package and number of recruitments. Now, to have a comp in your room was more of need than comfort. But since the placement was going good and IT companies have their own training programs, you dont need to learn programming rigorously and with a powerful LAN the next best thing to do with your computer is to play games.
The situation was bad but not pathetic, it became pathetic when the faculty thought that the loss of academic interest is due to sports (they cannot be blamed for this, they were clueless abt LAN games).
At the same time, a group of students (mostly from my batch) tried reversing the system by forcing freshies and sophies to indulge in extracurriculum but they ended up with DACs and later, authorities banned almost every non-academic activity (including bikes).
Students who want to do research and good academic work in IIT realize (wrong) that they dont have a very wealthy future compared to their peers who are doing cool activities. In the mess of confusion, nonone is able to decide wht to follow, passion or career or what? Getting a core tech. job after IIT is frustating not just because of the PAY but also because there is no TECH work left to do or given to them. And whatever may be the view of the faculty, most of our research is way way behind the west, and while we believe in PUBLISHING papers, they believe in making successful companies out of it. The problem here is that nobody (students+faculty+authorities) wants to look at the bigger picture.
Everybody is trying to do the best for himself without giving any regards to the other group's agenda and we all finally end up blocking the whole PATH, its a traffic jam.
Consider the example of my wing where there were 2 computers when I entered and we enjoyed watching movies together (10-15 people in small H9 rooms) and discussed career, philosophy, sex, personal problems and everything. and Now, there is one comp in every room, some students do not come out except for food or may be exchanging notes. Most of the sophies, thirdies, seniors in my wing dont have any confidence in their talk, cannot tell the names of most of their batchmates outside hostel, have low humour standards, dont know much abt their wingmates, havent trekked in the sahayadris at all, havent gone to maddu mess or tried eating khopchas in the rest of the bombay..... and if i DARE scream at them, they'll probably run for the DOSA and get me sacked....as far as i know, no IITian has the guts to rag a junior and make him feel like commiting suicide, on the otherhand it develops a bond between them and boosts confidence (don't ask me how )...... Inside their rooms, they are playing compy games or studying for a quiz tomm...... not knowing that they are missing on something much more vital.
You cannot just switchoff the LAN and make students go back to the 80s or 90s. The solution has to be something which keeps up with the technology and at the same time gives room for the personal-development environment IITians can always boast about.
Regards,
D.K.Rane
IITB, Batch of 2000
Dual Degree, Aerospace engg.
From: Akash Gupta
Dear Sir,
I have been saying the same thing to all my friends from my first year...I have kept my computer at home this semster to have some life out of room. Thanks for bringing this to light before the world.
The most important thing is that students think that they can do any thing because they are living away from their parents and the people who are like our parents in the institute do not wish to control us if we are going out of path. we can never do the same thing at home because our parents are there to vigil us.
Thanking You,
Akash Gupta
Senior Undergraduate
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute Of Technology,
Kanpur,India.
From: Amar Chandra Vutha
Dear Mr. Chawla,
I bumped into a copy of your letter to the IITB Director while it was being passed along the IIT grapevine. I am an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, and I graduated last summer after 5 years as a physics undergrad.
Rather similar your batch being the last to use slide rules, mine was the last batch to see any semblance of community activities, and perhaps coincidentally, also the last batch to not have LAN connections in every room. When I left Kanpur, it was with a similar sense of sadness, having seen some catastrophic changes in just a couple of years. Batches junior to ours by just two years had completely forgotten some of the things that we cherished most about hostel life -- wing 'bull' sessions, evening games in the halls and quads (of course, none of us were great sportspersons, but that is beside the point), heated arguments and debates in the quads stretching from mess-closing time to mess-reopening time, the 'informal introductions' to junior batches (which I am sure your batch has fond memories of as well). It was sad to see the newer batches of guys who have not even explored their own hostels, people who had no clue who was living in the same wing as theirs, folks with anything like a well-rounded life (not that we were particularly great all-rounders either, but these guys make us look like we were :).
There is, in my opinion however, a combination of causes for this. While it is undoubtedly true that the new advanced infrastructure has to shoulder part of the blame, IIT has never been about buildings and facilities - it has been about people. And one of the things that turned us into motivated, open-minded people was the interaction with senior batches who lived with us, borrowed our pencils and radios, showed us where to get the best chai and aloo parathas, showed us what mattered and what didn't. That aspect of it has been completely killed in recent years, at least in Kanpur and almost surely in the other IITs as well. In the name of preventing 'ragging', hostels have been turned into virtual fortresses (complete with guard towers), totally isolating batches from each other. There are no more 2nd and 3rd yearites living with freshers, dragging them away from their books and libraries and showing them the ropes; and after 3 years of this, even the final year batches now have no clue about what used to be.
Unfortunately, this happened at the same time as the introduction of the LAN in hostels, entangling these two causes while their effects have been reinforced. So while visiting alumni see the more visible cause for the death of everything they loved about IIT life, this other invisible cause has been at least equally serious, if not a more important reason. It pains me to see this sudden death of everything I loved about IITK, and makes me worry about the future of this great institution. Undoubtedly every effect has a complex network of causes, ranging from narrow-minded administrators looking for short-term gains, to the isolating effect of computer networks, to the greater isolating influence of brick walls and blind rules.
It would be wonderful to see some kind of strong resolution from the alumni of the IITs to solve this pressing problem - please accept my full-hearted support for any plans that you or your batchmates and other IIT alumni may have. At the same time, if you have any suggestions on how to go about getting concrete results, I would be very glad to hear about it.
With best regards,
Amar Chandra Vutha
Batch of 2005, IIT Kanpur
From: Hemendra Godbole
Anil,
Your article was a compelling reading. I had a similar feeling on the overall 'cultural erosion in a '98 Y-point issue: OKBaba's Ashram
As with tangibles such as (Broadband access, good / dangerous?), IMO, when viewed from our context as alums, even correcting for present, a few intangible 'culture debilitators' need deliberation:
On the positive side, TechNik seems to have added to MoodIndigo as a cult-driver fostering good organizational skills and pride.
NET: I share your concern as an alumni - cultural erosion can undermine our brand.
Question: What can we as alums help on this particular point barring sporadic visits to the hostel and the annual batch reunions?
Points to ponder as I sign off for now.
Thanks for the article.
Hemendra Godbole
810412 (H4/EE/85)
From: Pramod Khargonekar
Hi Anil,
I hope I am writing this email to Anil Chawla whom I knew at IITB in Hostel 5. If I recall right, we were wingmates but I was several years ahead of you.
I found your letter very interesting for many reasons. It was interesting to read about the reality of student life at IITB today. I was at IITB for a day or so a couple of years ago but had no idea of the situation you observed during your visit. I am also Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida and so I can relate to your comments as an educator and leader in the academic world. Finally, I am father of two children; my son is about to finish a undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University. So, I can relate to your observations on the impact of ubiquitous and constant access to the internet and computing devices on student and personal life.
Your observations on the importance of learning from peers outside the classroom are absolutely correct. If your observations are really reflective of the actual reality for a majority of students, then there is a reason for deep concern. I think IITB leadership should conduct a statistically valid survey of the student body to obtain more systematic data. If communication skills have really suffered, it is imperative that this problem be addressed in a meaningful way.
Any new technology causes changes in behavior. Take, for example, television. It has had a dramatic impact on human life as we know it. After an initial overreaction, society came to a new equilibrium in which television became a major part of our life in entertainment, news, etc. A much older example is the printing press, which revolutionized human society. You can imagine other examples such as the automobile, telephone, electricity, etc.
I think the question of our time is: what will be the new equilibrium after IT becomes a part of our everyday life. We need to recognize that the technology is still evolving. Brooadband wireless access to handheld devices is the current transformation. I think there is more to come. There is the potential to connect people across geographical and temporal boundaries. Thus, for example, the notion of wingmates may well change rather dramatically. New social structures may and will emerge.
Will we retain and enhance all the good things we had and improve society? I am not at all sure. I used to think that society as a whole continues to improve even though there are short-term downward movements. I have now begun to think that the notion of progress is questionable. Are we concerend about the growing divide between haves and have-nots? I can give more examples that make one wonder if we as a society are really making progress. At the end, however, it is better to be optimistic that we will figure out how to use new technologies for the improvement of the human condition.
I think your comments deserve to be taken seriosuly. Many constructive steps can be taken to understand the problem and then devise suitable solutions.
Pramod
16 April 2006
For the original article "EFFECT OF UNLIMITED BROADBAND INTERNET ON CAMPUS LIFE AND CULTURE, AN OPEN LETTER TO DIRECTOR, IIT BOMBAY", Please click here.
Please write to me your comments about the above discussion.
samarthbharatparty@gmail.com
ANIL CHAWLA is an engineer by qualification but a philosopher by vocation and a management consultant by profession.
© All Rights Free