VJTI loses Autonomy?

A third year student sends in this article but asks to not be identified. We’ll oblige:

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There is a big hue and cry over VJTI losing its autonomy, claims by a “well informed” journalist and “clarifications” to the same.

Firstly, I would like to admonish all those who have denounced the news piece as a piece of shoddy journalism.It takes a lot of effort and cunning to set up a network of “informers” who can regularly provide unconfirmed,unreliable and sensational news. A job well done. Also, all those who have denounced the concerned journalist know not what they speak.Great indeed is a person who can persist for so long with such vigour on such a glorifying and uplifting task as mud slinging.Hats off to said journalist.

Secondly,whatever it meant to whoever decides VJTI’s status,or to those who reported it or to the concerned authorities, the people to whom it matters the most have not been taken into consideration at all.The students.

The students are currently unaware of the actual “state” of VJTI.Are we students of an “Autonomous” college or not ? What syllabus do we follow ? When does that syllabus come into effect ? Will we have to give University exams this year itself ? What about our faculty ? What about our activities ? The student community is in the blind about these issues. The attitude has changed from shock, to apprehension, to fear, to resignation. Is this all the consideration the student community deserves ?

That being said, lets sit and reconsider a few things.

1. Why should we rely on others to tell us the “state” of our college. People who say things are doing their job,and if what they say affects us so much, they are doing their job well. Lets do our own jobs well instead of crucifying others for doing their job well.

2. An Institute is as good as its students. Its the student body which makes up the Institute’s fame. Without student initiative and effort, an institute is just a building. We are the ones who work the magic. Continuing with tradition, VJTI still has the best students in the region and it is upto us students to show how “important” labels attached to us really are.

3. VJTI’s autonomy has been in existence only for 5 years. VJTI has been in existence for 150 years. VJTI was immensely popular as an excellent Engineering institue and still is.

4. Most of VJTI’s well placed and distinguished alumni passed out and made a success out of their lives. VJTI’s not being autonomous never affected them. Why should it affect us ?

5. For all those who are “hoping” or have”given up hope”, “Hoping” is what those who either can’t or won’t do anything to change thing do. This is not our situation,nor shall it ever be. Whether we have the label of “autonomy” or not is not going to affect our quality as brilliant engineers unless we want to let it.

The one’s who make the best out of times of turmoil are the ones that win the world. We have a chance. Lets use it.

VJTI : Fact versus Criticism

VJTI has been getting quite a lot of bad publicity in recent times and people have begun saying that “VJTI is going down” and that “VJTI has nothing more left other than its name”. Both statements are miles away from the truth. VJTI has a lot more than only its name.It has spacious classrooms , workshops  for almost everything and most of all so many laboratories that it will take any organization at least two decades to build such a well planned institution, if at all they manage to do it.

Now, to address the first statement. VJTI IS NOT GOING DOWN. We are students of VJTI and we are not saying this in defence or out of affection. What do people mean when they say VJTI is going down ? The classrooms are full of junk and broken benches ? Look again. They are not. They are bigger and brighter than most others. The laboratories are not up to the mark ? Well, the laboratories have gotten almost every possible device an engineer might use.And what’s more, we get to use them too, unlike other colleges which have so few laboratories and so many students, the students generally write practical journals based on theory rather than experiment.Sure, there are a lot of red-tape problems for students to have their work pushed on, but its no worse than any other college. And yet, so many people have managed to achieved a lot of great things.  The faculty is bad, some say ?? Consider this : Even the IITs have some 100 odd vacant lecturers’ and professors’ posts. The situation in other colleges is even worse. There is a severe dearth of teachers in the engineering field as most engineers opt to work in the industry rather than teach. Considering this, and in comparison, we have a very decent faculty, which knows its job well. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, VJTI has the best students in the region, some even from outside.

A senior once shared something that shows where VJTI stands :

“In the International Finals of the Robocon 2008, there was a stampede as there weren’t enough seats in the arena. But the people in charge still made way in the middle of the crowd, for six students from VJTI.”

This is not hype. This shows the standing of VJTI.

Now, we,as VJTI students, ask all those who have heard, or say, or believe all the bad things about VJTI that are being said,
why ??? Why all this mud slinging at the entity “VJTI” ??  Blame the faculty,blame the administration, blame the students and we will either prove it wrong or correct the faults. Why are we writing this article ? Well, someone has to do it. We cannot and will not watch haplessly while someone thoughtlessly maligns our reputation.

True, the institute had gone through bad times recently, but no more. All that is past. The past year has seen a new beginning, and we are determined to carry on the change. We are up for the challenge.

Watch out for us !!

You know you are a budding engineer from VJTI when:-

1.     You unconsciously sign next to six different names on the attendance sheet.
2. You laugh at stupid pj’s such as  “ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI”.
3. You don’t know most of the 100+ functions in your calculator, but you do know how to spell your  name  on  it.
4. You burst out laughing at the very thought of writing your assignments yourself.
5. Having to climb three flights of stairs is a good enough excuse not to attend lectures.
6. u wud hav prfrd riting ur xam pprs like dis.
7. You swear by “Five point someone”.
8. You have spent more money taking Xeroxes than buying books.

Someone at TOI hates VJTI

         Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock would be aware of the constant negative publicity that the Times Of India has subjected our college to. It first started with a story about our director mishandling funds, which seems like a valid enough article to be printed, considering the fact that VJTI is supposed to be a highly reputed college and wasting money on things like a mobile and a camcorder could seem newsworthy. But since then, the articles appear to contain increasingly irrelevant content, ranging from our first year classes having more students than the AICTE prescribed limit to our results not being printed on suitable A4 paper. Though I am not challenging the truth behind these stories (for I must agree, they are very much true), I personally feel that there is a lot more juicy ‘khabbar’ in this fine country of ours that they can report instead of just trashing our image. 

I don’t understand why TOI has to report things like bigger classrooms and crappy mark-sheets and make such a big issue out of it, when we, the students, don’t perceive these as big issues at all. And if you check this article, which talks about the mark-sheets, you will notice it was printed just below an article talking about the recent Hyderabad blasts. I frankly can’t understand how such a petty issue can appear on the same page as such an important story.

OK, I must admit that the only reason I am bad-mouthing this newspaper is not because I have any affection for our college, but because I just don’t want its image as the best runner-up to IIT-Powai to be ruined. As you would know by now, VJTI has only a good reputation… and nothing else. So, the more negative publicity we get, the more it jeopardises our future as students from a college which is thought of as ‘nearly’ perfect. And if you think my fears are baseless, just recount how much the media influences our lives, with the bad being as much present as the good. So I just hope our college stops coming in the news for all the wrong reasons and VJTI pulls up its socks and starts making more responsible decisions in the future.           

User’s guide on “HOW TO SURVIVE LECTURES”

I am taking this opportunity to inform all the first years, people bored of attending lectures and anyone else who cares how to make the most of the time spent in college. We spend on an average about eight hours in college on weekdays ,and along with watching TV, playing videogames , orkuting, eating, sleeping , meeting friends ,playing some sports ,reading ,travelling and loads of other stuff that our parents seem to think are unimportant ,we have barely any time to complete our journals and copy our assignments. So as budding engineers who need help desperately, am giving you guys the following pointers:-

1. NEVER ever become the C.R. you will have to run useless errands for the professors and in case of a mass bunk; you will be the first student to be caught.

2. Always sit as far away as possible from the black board. You wouldn’t want the professor to find out that you have only one notebook for 7 subjects would u?

3. Sit for even the boring lectures, in case the professor is not strict, because it’s a great way of getting your attendance and still being able to complete your journals.

4. Vow never to write your journals at home. Completing them just 5 minutes before their submission gives you a thrill of its own.

5. Join as many committees as possible for your college fests, because you have that many excuses for bunking lectures.

6. Befriend the class nerd, he’s your easy access to all the notes and Xeroxes you will need before your exams.

7. Know your seniors ,because they hold more knowledge than all the books in the library combined (you wont get to know which lectures to bunk, which classes to join and which are the best places to hang out by reading a book).

8. Boring teachers have the magical ability to make the minute hand of your wrist watch much more slowly and in some cases, make it come to a complete halt.

9. Always remember that the gymkhana is your “oasis in the desert “ and standing in line for playing table tennis is any day more fun than studying how a circle is a curved straight line.

For further tips and assistance, please approach the people in and around the hub.

Hello world!

One of the first things you notice about VJTI’s online presence is its lack thereof. There isn’t really anything there to be proud of. Sure there is an official website and all, but seriously, have you seen it? It’s disturbing in a way I can’t even begin to describe! There really is nothing on the site that might make the average student want to check the site on a regular basis. One doesn’t really get a feel of what’s happening in the college. Where is the students’ point of view?

We have a web community on Orkut, you say? This? Seriously? With all the spam floating about in it, it’s a wonder there are still people joining the community.

Well, this blog is an attempt to remedy all this. Particular emphasis on the students’ point of view.

One of the things, amongst many others, that this blog is meant to serve as is a news outlet. Provided of course, the blog becomes sufficiently popular. Using a blog to inform people makes perfect sense. It’s collaborative, since it has multiple authors, and is fairly simple to use on a regular basis. As far as the ‘many other things’ are concerned, the individual authors will have a fair bit of artistic license. Some people will use the blog to voice their opinions, others to showcase their creativity. For some, this will be their first foray into the blogosphere.

Whatever the reason, we are very interested in what you have to say. Via posts or comments. Picking up something from the Yahoo blog, we must insist that while you’re here, please use good blogging manners. You know the drill… stay on topic, be courteous and productive, and avoid profanity, racial slurs, patent rudeness or anything that we see as grossly inappropriate. This is a moderated site and we’ll reject comments that paint outside the proverbial lines.

For all those who forego English for SMSese, it makes you look like you have as much a flair for language as Van Gogh had an ear for music.

If you have something to say, or if you think you should be an author here, drop us a line at blogvjti [at] gmail [dot] com. We’ll talk.

P.S. For whatever reason, if you don’t like the idea of checking up on the blog on a daily basis, you could either subscribe to the feed, the link to which you’ll find on the top of the page (hint: if you don’t use a feed aggregator add the feed as a live bookmark to your browser). If you’re not into feeds, subscribe via email using the link on the column to the right.