Campus trouble at JU takes its toll over placement

Mou Chakraborty & Romita Datta
Kolkata, April 11, 2007

The career prospects of Jadavpur University students hit a low on Wednesday when the placement interviews were called off till the non-teaching employees withdraw their ceasework.
Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) was scheduled to go on a recruitment drive at JU on Wednesday, but the company stayed away after university authorities informed them that it would be impossible to hold the interviews till such time that the campus unrest settled down.
Infosys, which was to conduct interviews on Thursday, and Wipro too have been asked to postpone the programme. The engineering students will have their semester examination from April 23, as a result the interviews will be deferred by at least a month.
“We went to the vice-chancellor but no one seems to be bothered. The university authorities and the non-teaching employees are trying to teach us a lesson by not ensuring smooth placement interviews. We feel victimised for no fault of ours,” said Amit Chakraborty, a fourth-year mechanical engineering students and the spokes person of faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union (FETSU).
The students fear that the companies will not return to recruit from JU this year. “The companies will go to other colleges and universities. It is true that JU’s name carries a weight, but if they find good students elsewhere why will they come back? Hence it is the loss of the general students who are not involved in any politics,” said Sarmistha Patra, a fourth-year engineering student.
Classes and research work remained suspended as the non-teaching employees refused to call off the strike sespite appeals from Governor and chancellor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and vice-chancellor S.K. Sanyal. The library, laboratory and toilets remained shut.
“We respect them both but everyone is requesting us to bring back peace on the campus and join work. No one is telling us when the inquiry commission will be formed,” Swapan Ghosh, general secretary of the non-teaching employees’ union of JU, said.
JU officials, headed by Sanyal, visited chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday and discussed the situation. Bhattacharya urged the university to conduct an impartial inquiry into the matter. “It is very tough to get an unbiased person who would agree to conduct such an inquiry. We have zeroed in on one such person. If he agrees, we will launch the inquiry commission in the next two days,” said professor Siddhartha Dutta, pro vice-chancellor of JU.
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