NU statutory bodies to have equal nos of elected & nominated/ex officio members

Nagpur: After all Nagpur University's statutory bodies are in place by March next year, it would create a history where nominated, ex officio and invitee members would outnumber the elected representatives, except Senate. It was been made possible by the new legislation that changed the entire equation, the statutory bodies used to function till 2015.

In all previous acts (1974 and 1994) governing traditional universities in state, the emphasis was more on elected members, who used to have dominance over all statutory bodies, due to their higher numbers as compared to nominated ones, as per NU academicians.

But after a series of incidents in various universities, including NU where elected members allegedly misused their position to oust the vice-chancellors, for their alleged 'vested interests', the government decided to end the game of dirty politics from the academics. In NU, members led by senior academicians like Baban Taywade and Dr Vedprakash Mishra had joined hands to expel former VC Vilas Sapkal in 2013, when latter refused to lift ban from 250 colleges, operating without a single teacher and infrastructure.

The new 'Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016' increased quota of nominated members and brought them at par with elected one, thus ending their monopoly and made VC a virtual 'boss' of the university. It would be for first time in history of traditional universities that most of the statutory bodies would have equal number of elected and nominated/ex officio/co-opted representatives.

NU officials said that though various groups were staking their claims of attaining majority on statutory bodies, it would be the VC, who would be calling final shots on any issue. He would be nominating 17 members on Senate, five in Management Council (MC), 438 on Board of Studies (BOS) (73 boards of various subjects), 365 on Research Recognition Committees (RRCs) (Of 73 subjects) and 20 on Academic Council (AC). Additionally, he would be appointing 20 ex officio members on Senate, six on MC (along with three invitees) an, 85 on AC, and one on 73 BOS which would have five invitees on each of them.

Even VC SP Kane agreed with the academicians view and defended the government's move while speaking to TOI in the past. According to him, the elected members could register protest against administration's move which they think was wrong, but they can't defeat the entire proposal. "The nominated and ex officio wouldn't usually object to the VC. The decision to make VC powerful was taken by the eminent academicians, who framed the new Act, after they themselves faced bitter experiences during their tenures as VC. Rooting out dirty politics from the academics, which earlier proved to be the bane for its development, and ultimately led to the sufferings of students, was another objective" he had told TOI.

Even in MC, the VC would have complete dominance as he would be nominating chancellor's nominee with latter's consent apart from five direct nominations. Similar is the case with BOS where those nominated by the VC would obviously take his consent before co-opting six other members. Among 24 members on MC, the VC would nominate two deans for two and half years along with one head or director from university departments and one eminent expert from the organization of national repute. Moreover, it would have secretary for higher education or his/her nominee, and directors of higher and technical education or their nominees. The registrar would be member secretary while pro-VC would also be its members.

# Members on various statutory bodies as per new Varsity Act:

Authority --------- Ex officio ----------- Nominated ---------Co-opted/invitee --------- Elected ------- Total

Senate ----------- 20 ---------------------17---------------------- NA--------------------------39----------------76

Mgt Council ----- 06---------------------05-----------------------03 (Invitee) ---------------10-----------------24

Acad Council----85----------------------20-----------------------NA--------------------------08------------------113

Brd of Studies*----01---------------------06-----------------------05 (2 Invitee) -------------03------------------15

(* There are 73 BOS for various subjects in NU) After all Nagpur University's all statutory bodies are in place by March next year, it would create a history where nominated, ex officio and invitee members would outnumber the elected representatives.