New varsity: Staff in a quandary over jobs

Mangaluru: In September last year, the Karnataka legislative assembly passed a Bill amending the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000 (Karnataka Act 29 of 2001) to constitute eight new universities, including Kodagu University. With the setting up of Kodagu University, the four-decade-old connection of nearly 24 colleges offering undergraduate courses with Mangalore University (MU) will end. This has left the faculty of the MU constituent colleges in Kodagu worried, wondering if they would be allowed to continue there or will have to return to the parent university.
At present all the staff (teaching and non- teaching) at Jnana Kaveri PG Centre, Chikka Aluvara, Somavarpet, and Field Marshal K M Cariappa College (FMKMCC), Madikeri are appointed through Mangalore University.
PS Yadapadithaya, vice chancellor, Mangalore University, said the university has discussed several options with the government, which include, that staff recruited from MU and posted exclusively for Kodagu district colleges be allowed to continue in those campuses. “It has also been discussed that those posted on deputation to work in colleges in Kodagu must be sent back to their parent departments which are at Mangalore University. All the guest lecturers recruited through MU, should be allowed to continue under Kodagu University (once the university is set up),” said Yadapadithaya.
The process of appointing a new vice-chancellor to Kodagu University will be done by the end of this month. The administration office of the new varsity is likely to come up at Jnana Kaveri PG Centre. Among the colleges in Kodagu, FMKMCC is the oldest and biggest college in terms of student numbers.