Pesky-centenary
On the last Thursday & Friday, my college celebrated its "sesquicentenary", arthaat
its 150th anniversary. COEP (or as the reluctant postscript goes, "Now known as
PIET") was the third oldest engineering college in India (after Roorkee & Guindy - though
the head of the COEP alumni association claims it is the 2nd oldest). This post isn't
an ode to its greatness. In contrast, it is about why hardly anyone I knew, from my class
or in adjacent graduating years, was interested in attending this "celebration".
The main reason is that the function is essentially a back-patting exercise for the
college biggies to indulge in. Undoubtedly, COEP has been a leader in technical education
over many years. But talk to alumni and you will realise that most of the good things
they derived from the place was from essentially student-driven activities and there is
a sense that things could easily have been much better.
For those who do not know, COEP is essentially sarkaari in its running. But with a name and background that
it possesses, it became the college of first choice in the area among engineering students.
Unlike its "academics-only" perception among many people, COEPians usually have indulged
in academics as an extra-curricular activity, having their days filled with lots of other
activities. The college has done well at activities that have nothing to do with mundane
engineering, such as Firodiya, orchestra, street play, debating, quizzing,
sports (our football, cricket, hockey and several other teams were among the top ones
in the city),
magazine and so on. Of course, we had our regular share of University toppers & rankers.
The point is not to strew laurels about, just to indicate that all of the above hardly
included the contributions of the staff.
Ok, to more immediate irritants. The sesquicentenary celebrations seemed more like a
fund-raising event among NRIs among the COEPians in the US. I did not attend any of
the events, so I may be unjustified in speculating in this manner. However the appeals
on the website for funds (and did the President of India come?) seemed clearly that way.
The problem with COEP is that the college staff does nothing to inspire loyalty and
confidence among its students and alumni and then expects to be cared for like a loved
parent.
Most COEPians I know are quite proud about their alma mater; however this pride does not
extend to most of the teachers. COEP has now become autonomous and become PIET. They have
been cut from the past. Instead of basking in your greatness, please take this
opportunity to recognise the gaping problems:
Hire better teachers: The biggest flaw in COEP: poor teachers. Autonomy seems to
nowhere indicate that the college will spend money in hiring better teachers. Heads of
Dept. have no confidence in most of their staff. Frankly, several profs. don't have the basic
qualification to teach - they are here because they would not be good at
anything else. Autonomy should not mean just the convenience of setting and correcting
exams in-house. I had to re-learn all my basics after leaving college. I may be a bad
student, but I know several others who did similarly, and they all were not poor
students. The majority of teachers in COEP are either slow-witted or vindictive or
unhelpful and so on. This is not a tirade, but an observation.
Bow to common sense in setting syllabi: Autonomy should mean more meaningful
& dynamic contents in syllabi, right? Not if you are in COEP. Two years ago, I attended
a meeting to guage views of alumni on drafting a new syllabus for CS & IT. None of our
(as in all alumni present at the meeting) practical suggestions could be taken on board,
for some strange rules demanded that the First Year be exactly common for all depts
without variation and that one dept had to "export" a subject to another dept. in the
Second Year and so on and so forth. Ideas on revamping practicals, project work and
vivas could not be entertained. Bottomline: the status quo could hardly be breached.
It was a waste of three hours.
Infrastructure: Funds are being solicited in the name of improving infrastructure.
Instead of just spending on infrastructure like laptops for all and more
bandwidth (all this seems just IT related infrastructure, btw), spend on getting better
instructors. We had no infrastructure to speak of 4 years ago in our dept., unless if
you were shooting an attack on a ravaged war camp. But all CS students could afford
a PC at home to work with. We need better teachers, or atleast teachers who can operate
the so called new infrastructure. I'm willing to wager that hardly anyone in COEP knows
network or system administration, and I'm sure the college won't bother hiring anyone
with that experience. Result: the new comps that have been purchased will be used as usual
by peons to play Solitaire. The rooms are dusty and health hazards. What talk of
infrastructure when the CS dept has no classrooms and is housed in what would best
described as the outhouse of a bhoot bangla where even ghosts would have asthma in the dust.
Students going elsewhere: Very rarely does any COEP student do an innovative
project of any kind during their undergrads. In contrast, there are always stories
of such things from colleges like PIET & VIT. It points to probably more motivation for
such things there and also a tradition. At COEP, we have been content to just do our
"maaz" for being 12th toppers and go to the BC deriding acads. Not that we did any
worse, but we didn't do much good as well. I think the best students no longer think
of COEP as their top choice - in some courses, other colleges have stolen the show and
with far greater justification.
The name: I wonder if the college management thought that Shakespeare is always
right. Changing the name to PIET singlehandedly wiped out all the accumulated brand
equity that COEP had earned in the past. All recognition among other colleges and
universities and corporates has been made tenuous. People think it to be suspiciously the same
as PICT or just a typo. Almost every alumnus who has spoken at a PIET/COEP function
in the last year has blasted this decision. The decision is devoid of any common sense
as far as I can see - just the whims of a few people who want to be seen as taking a
forward step. What has changed beneath this superficial nomenclatural adjustment?
I'm more than a little peeved because I've known the place for 7.5 years now. To try
making a difference, my friends and I gave much of our time in the last 3 years to teach
in our dept. The realisation at the end of it was the place is a mammmoth that does not
want to lift its tail to flick the irritant flies. It revels and wallows in its status
quo. Autonomy is just new paint on a crumbling edifice. I won't be nostalgic because I
go there every week. That's only for people who can be touched for funds without making too
many demands. Last week at COEP was probably like a Karan Johar film tailor-made for his audience abroad where you shell out money unquestioningly and feel great about it.
