Are they hostels or is it a jail now?

Prisoners of an Idiotic Polic (e) y
Prisoners of an Idiotic Polic(e)y

“Student suspended for possession of banned substances”

“Student suspended after detection of banned substances in his Urine sample”

 “Student suspended for coming late to hostel”

Prisoners of an Idiotic Polic (e) y
Prisoners of an Idiotic Polic(e)y

These are some of the notices that I have seen in the past week. Now if in my first year, in 2008, you had told me that in 4 years I would

be seeing such notices in my campus, I would have laughed on your face. Now after 3 great, fun-filled years in Manipal, I am wondering what the college administration is turning MIT into. The most recent rumor is of a perm time of 10 pm, which, if implemented, would be disastrous. I mean, I thought that the point of staying in a hostel was that one would have a home like feel away from home. What we now have is more like a Jail. I mean where would you find a college administration doing a Urine test on its own students just for returning late?  Where would you find a college suspending people because they enter the hostel late?  I mean what are they trying to prove?

 If my juniors knew the system we had in our 1st semester, they would find it unbelievable. We could actually get food from outside delivered to our hostels, we could even return late to hostel, with the maximum punishment being a warning. We could celebrate a friend’s birthday.  Soft drinks were sold at campus store!!! And yes, no idiotic and stupid warden would come to your room to tell you to clean it up. I live in the 9thblock and I can tell you that , we have a hostel where 4 floors share an internet bandwidth that is meant for 2 floors, where one doesn’t get drinking water half the time.

And what the warden wants is that my room should be in what he feels is a clean state. I mean seriously, is he kidding me!!!

 On top of all this, we have a Student Council which unfortunately has no real powers. Now I do not doubt their intentions, obviously no one likes these rules. My only point is that a council should act as a medium between the students and the administrative body. That is not happening. Instead  it is a body that does a cultural and a technical fest and makes an effort to do help bring about more permanent changes, which are mostly unsuccessful because of the lack of continuity , after all in Manipal, a year is not enough to bring about anything permanent.

 I agree that some sort of discipline is required in hostels. After all, hostels are not hotels. But turning them to jails is not a solution in my opinion. It makes things worse. You find an increasing number of people willing to stay in flats overnight and not come back to hostels and be caught. I mean, most of us are above 18, it is time that we started making decisions for ourselves. If someone drinks and comes back to hostel, its his choice and no one has the right to say if its right or wrong, till the student in question follows a reasonably and realistically decided perm time. Applying rules which prohibit keeping undesirable stuff in hostels are ok, but what is happening now is just pathetic. Dr S S Pabla was maybe one of the strictest directors MIT has ever head, but I remember that he said in our orientation that he would never let the Police come and interfere in any internal matter which could be solved by the college.

We had a chief warder in Col. Kulwant Singh who would at times punish students and try to keep them disciplined, but at the same time would be accommodating and friendly figure. What we have now is an administration which seems to be trying to target students and not trying to help them. All I can say is that there is a huge difference between what we had in September 2008 and what we have in September 2011. Lets hope that the administrators get some semblance of common sense and at least some of the independence we had 2 or 3 years ago is restored.

 

19 Comments

  1. Thou shall always wear collar shirts. Thou shall not have food after 9.30PM. Thou shall not use earphones to listen to music inside campus.( what next?!!!)

    Thou shall wear uniforms and polish your shoes everyday before college? (50k fine on that)
    Thou shall pin napkins on your chest and get spanked. Well, thou might as well kiss my *** while at it!Via a friend! 😉

  2. Its like they WANT the students to unionise

    Treat students well, and they wont feel the need to, but abuse your power and students WILL fight back

  3. at such times I am reminded of Dylan Thomas (the entire poem is so relevant to what is happening there, I won’t be surprised if the students all memorize the poem and march out reciting it at 3 am in the morning) : 

    Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    • There are a few more sayings which apply here as well:

      i) Those who give up privacy for security deserve none (basically those who agree with the rules)

      ii) There is a rhyme which can be modified for this purpose:

      First they came for the drug addicts, I wasnt one so I didnt say anything
      Then they came for the alcoholics, I wasnt one so I didnt say anything
      Then they came for the smokers, I wasnt one so I didnt say anything
      Now they’ve come for me, and there is noone left to say anything

      (recollecting from memory, partially correct only)

  4. Unfortunately….this is one of the rare cases when someone is trying use a shield as sword….disappointing….extremely disappointing…..I had felt that once I leave Manipal I will miss this place a lot….but, right now…I am missing the Manipal of my first and second years….where did those days disappear…..???

  5. Alright…about Urine Samples..I highly doubt that it’s in the law for them to ask you for one without just cause.  Though I do know for sure that this has happened when students have been suspected or someone told on them.  But on a note some form of reasonable facts have to be there for them to ask for it.  

    Also the warden’s have a habit of locking up vehicles of students when they feel like it..there are laws against that also.  Hostels are becoming a jail more and more so.  They are there to keep the “inmates” inside at all times.  If anyone hasn’t guessed already.  I hate the usage of the word “inmates” for student residents. Then again we have our “Wardens” for the jails already. Put central locking on the doors now and give everyone a steel toiletbowl and sink.

  6. All this happened because of a Karnataka-record-shattering drug bust recently, and the suspect was a student of MIT. So… their actions are with cause, as exaggerated as they are.

  7. this is mindf**king tyranny………..what , are these people followers of  Hitler? They shouldnt forget that dictatorship gives birth to world wars…..
    -upasana datta,passout batch of ’11

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