Back to class but no roll call - Is it Santiniketan? No it’s jadavpur university

Undergraduate students of English at Jadavpur University attend a class under the shade of a tree
in the green zone of the campus on Wednesday afternoon. Picture by Subhankar Chowdhury

TT, Science students at Jadavpur University broke ranks and returned to their classrooms on Wednesday, forcing engineering and arts students to reconsider their decision to continue the academic boycott that is already 29 days old.

Sources in the university said the science faculty’s hand was forced by the imminent semester examination, scheduled for mid-November.

A total of 14 class days have been lost since the start of the academic boycott. On an average, a science student attends four practical classes and three theory classes daily. In those 14 days, the students have lost 56 practical classes and 42 theory classes.

“Practical classes are an important component of science studies. Without attending practical classes, it would be difficult for any science student to appear for the semester examination in mid-November,” said a teacher on Wednesday.

The decision to resume classes was taken during a general body meeting of the Science Faculty Students’ Union (SFSU) on Wednesday morning, albeit with a rider.

Science students said they would attend classes but not be part of the roll call.

The university authorities said they didn’t mind students attending classes without giving attendance because their primary aim was to ensure classes resumed. Dean of science Subrata Mukhopadhyay said 80 per cent of the scheduled classes were held on Wednesday.

Abhijit Mandal, a member of the SFSU, admitted that without attending practical classes it would be difficult for any science student to complete the course and write the semester exam. But he clarified that attending classes didn’t mean the students had budged from their demand for the ouster of vice-chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti, whose decision to call the police to the campus on the night of September 16 and the fracas thereafter triggered the academic boycott.

“We have come here to study and if the teachers are willing to take classes, we won’t object. But we won’t give attendance as a mark of protest,” Mandal said.

Vice-chancellor Chakrabarti told Metro that he “welcomed” the science students’ decision to resume classes.

The engineering and technology faculty students’ union said it would take a call on resuming classes on Friday. “We have our general body meeting on Friday and that is when we will decide our stand,” said Chiranjit Ghosh, a leader of the union.

Representatives of the arts faculty union said they too were contemplating returning to the classrooms. Arts and engineering semester examinations will be held around mid-November along with that of the science departments.

Officials of JU’s engineering section said some departments had held classes over the past two days that the majority of students attended, but without giving attendance.

Engineering students have also written supplementary exams in the middle of the academic boycott.

Rimi B. Chatterjee, associate professor of English, took a class for undergraduate students in the green zone opposite the amenities canteen on Wednesday afternoon.

A university official said although it was not for the students to decide whether their attendance would be recorded or not, the authorities would be lenient with the science students as it was crucial for the class boycott to “formally” end, at least in one faculty.

“For the restoration of normality, it is imperative that classes resume. The topic of resuming roll call can be taken up later,” an official said.

On whether students wouldn’t be marked “discollegiate” for recording below 60 per cent attendance, the official said the “extraordinary situation” on the campus had forced the university to be flexible.

“Now that a section of students has returned to the classrooms, we don’t want to be rigid with attendance.”