sba – Quirk http://www.nlsquirks.in Sun, 11 Nov 2018 13:15:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 http://www.nlsquirks.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/favicon-110x110.jpg sba – Quirk http://www.nlsquirks.in 32 32 Where is Institution Building at NLS? http://www.nlsquirks.in/where-is-institution-building-at-nls/ http://www.nlsquirks.in/where-is-institution-building-at-nls/#respond Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:14:21 +0000 https://nlsquirks.wordpress.com/?p=749 Continue readingWhere is Institution Building at NLS?]]> This article was written by Apurva Shukla (Batch of 2016) who is also the current SBA Vice-President.

Like an ideal student in an ideal college, my life had been focused mainly on myself and whatever activities I wished to pursue in Law School. Like most, my interactions with organs of the university were limited to whenever I wanted something to be done for my own ends. However, things changed this year and I was forced to look at our university from a different perspective.

I will focus in this article on how, in my experience, I have felt the absence of institution building processes at our college and why perhaps it’s exigent to discuss it.

I must first define what I believe an institution is. An institution is formed when some people with a somewhat unified purpose come together and share a vision for how that purpose will be realised. A successful institution creates a self executing framework which is an engine to the ideas underpinning its existence. It runs on the effort of people, and yet, continues to live beyond them. It disentangles challenges of the present by designing structures so that it can focus its energy on becoming better in other ways. So a simple example in our context would be to have an exchange policy drafted after adequate consultation with all relevant stakeholders and then to focus our attention towards making a better equipped exchange office or getting better colleges as our exchange partners. That being said, simply declaring a vague common vision may not be enough for the creation of an institution. A true attempt must lie in turning desired institutional values into habits that members of that institution imbibe into their daily lives.

Per this definition, perhaps NLS is not an institution and sadly not even remotely engaged in any effort to become one. It is not uncommon for us to experience random ad hoc executive actions aimed entirely at short term gain. Faced with these we are forced to re invent the wheel or, as in many cases, entirely dismantle them. I am willing to share the blame for these faults as well. As the SBA, we have often discarded larger institutional aims and sought reliefs centered solely around convenience. In the case of Turnitin, which has the potential to usher great administrative convenience, we have stayed silent about its proper usage because it requires us to perhaps work much harder on our projects. As students, we have often demanded legitimate rights such as medical make-ups or attendance condonation but rarely have we engaged in united policy making or rule drafting for such demands. We experience the sweet taste of success of such demands in the short term, but rarely do we ever push to make them institutional. What we overlook is that these demands are often satisfied with executive discretion with little guarantee that they would continue. This puts all of us in a place where we are forced to engage in the most futile and energy expending struggle to request such benefits year on year, often with a misplaced focus on ‘legitimate expectation’.

Our affinity to make demands based on short term convenience has a deep impact on NLS as an institution. The instances when we have turned away good faculty because of our concerns regarding excessive workload (In re Mr. Murali Neelakantan’s course being offered and turned down thrice) or poor grades (In re a vote against having Sitaram Kakarala take a portion of the Political Science II course) definitely reflects the kind of momentary gain we seek. The price of placing grades over knowledge is not concentrated to any one batch but to an institution. Even outside academics, most of our committees and student bodies are run with little thought beyond an academic year. A recent trend has been to offer lengthy complaints on online media about everything wrong in college, but such passion has not found its way to the empty classrooms during one credit courses and guest lectures. A recurring question posed to me during the time I stood for SBA elections was how I proposed to break student apathy. My answer used to be a carefully constructed set of works which used to change form depending on who would ask the question. Diplomacy aside, I think the true answer to this question is ‘if you seek, you do’. That’s the only manner in which this apathy can be broken.

The fault is only partly ours. Rule making and a clear outline of policy happens when organs within the university administration are accepting of change and willing do their job perfectly. It would be unfair to place responsibilities on students in place of the university administration doing its job with efficiency and a clear eye for the future. I believe we need to think deeply behind the causes of not having clarity or focus on how basic organs work, despite our nearing 30 year existence. However, ultimately as students these factors are often out of our control. Thus it becomes imperative to understand our role and ability in areas we can control. When accorded with all the responsibility of making changes, a great degree of power vests with us. We ought to bring proposals to ensure progressive change, carry collaborative lobbying efforts, interact with key stakeholders in the administration and faculty on civil terms and finally support these ‘just institutions’ when they are created, morally or otherwise.

Would anyone be against institution building processes? I highly doubt it and think that it’s mostly about lack of thought being given to this issue than any the active prevention of the pursuit of this endeavor.

Any institution works well because there is a delineation of roles and everyone does their job. At the moment, there is very little clarity within the students as to whether Examination Department’s role is that of a secretariat to the Undergraduate/Post-Graduate Councils or whether its role extends to maintenance of academic standards. To illustrate, the decision on whether a makeup needs to be supplemented by sufficient proof is not in the rules and is simply a requirement imposed by an executive decision. The role of the Exam Department should ideally be limited to confirming the veracity of the makeup against the corresponding hour missed in the attendance register and the signature of the faculty advisor. In the ideal design of an institution, it is the faculty advisor who should demand proof. That not only reduces administrative costs but also puts the correct actor with presumed domain expertise in charge of this particular action.

From a design perspective, would it not be simpler to eliminate attendance marks altogether and keep attendance requirements at 70%, as stipulated by BCI? This removes the annoyance of makeups, allows students greater academic flexibility, treats everybody as mature adults and enormously reduces administrative burden. For the exceptional scenarios of people falling below 70% in their attendance have a uniform, carefully considered and planned procedure. Make the perils of being in such a situation clearly known and its implications strict. Establish to me how it deteriorates academic standards and you have my 1000 bucks. An ideal system should not conflate strictness of law with administrative harassment.

There are several other issues on our campus which call for our attention. It ought to be fairly evident to anyone that the three academic programs at our university and students studying therein are not integrated one bit. As our small college is expanding its footprint and assuming a more university like form, integration is necessary and one small way that could be done is to revise our housing policy. Let’s remove this weird hostel separation requirement we have at present and let all students live together. What better way to learn from our more mature (and possibly wiser) counterparts in the MPP and LLM program than to share a room on the same hostel floor? My point here is simply that, regardless of your opinion on the outlined policy, discussions like these are crucial but sadly, absent at present. Such discussions are unique as they are geared towards achieving additionality and increasing value to our university experience and not just putting bandages over bruised wounds.

Similarly, should it not be the prerogative of the official IT Committee in college to undertake a study on what college network requirements are (not hard at all) and take responsibility to bring that change? Students are more than willing to provide all assistance, but ultimately the call on all matters lies with the various official committees. It is often only due to passivity that one is forced to centralize decision making with the Vice-Chancellor.

I believe a larger issue is one of lack of communication and coordination between organs of our university.

One significant lesson I learnt this year is the crucial role of collaboration in any policy making and execution. Any reform, be it concerning infrastructure upgradation or academic innovation, requires a committed team behind it. A team that constantly engages with the problem it is tasked to solve. One of the biggest challenges Nayan and I face daily is getting bodies within the administration to meet, take responsibility for a problem and collaborate with us to solve it.

Communication of reasoning behind certain decisions, such as keeping improvement examinations in abeyance or a pre-communication regarding stricter enforcement of simple rules like project submission deadlines, on a public forum like ugstudents is genuinely hard and perhaps scary, but it ensures smarter and reasoned decision making. It leads to a higher degree of compliance as information asymmetry is reduced and a variety of views are pondered over. Moreover, frank communication leads to an increase in trust between stakeholders. There is a sentiment at the moment amongst the students that Examination Department and the Undergraduate Council are out to make their lives harder. These organs believe that students play a series of devious stratagems and will do all they can to reduce academic workload. Both perspectives are not true and an exchange of individual aspirations and restraints is the only way to break this suspended state of apathy.

It’s easy to believe that a lot of things are amiss. When things have been directionless for sometime, we fall prey to terrible institutional habits and decay. This doesn’t mean they cannot be changed. We should not forget that we have a far more liberal structure than most other universities and our focus should be on becoming better. What we require is strong top-down commitment to this mission, as institutional interest will need to be prized over narrow individual interest, and more transparent communication between all parties.

To borrow a few lines from Obama’s most recent State of the Union Address,

“Progress is not inevitable. It is the result of choices we make together. And we face such choices right now. Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and the incredible things we can do together? So let’s talk about the future.” 

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NLS Alumni Association: A New Hope http://www.nlsquirks.in/nls-alumni-association-a-new-hope/ http://www.nlsquirks.in/nls-alumni-association-a-new-hope/#respond Tue, 23 Feb 2016 23:49:46 +0000 https://nlsquirks.wordpress.com/?p=612 Continue readingNLS Alumni Association: A New Hope]]>

The alumni is the pride of any institution. Our college has been around for almost 30 years and it’s only recently that a formal NLS Alumni Association has been set up. Needless to say, we at Quirk are very excited and hopeful about the endless possiblities that lie ahead.

Quirk: Could you tell us a bit about yourself ?

NLS Alumni Assiciation: The initial and interim Governing Board of the NLSIU Alumni Association hail from the first five batches of NLSIU and board members are: Dayan Krishnan (Class of 1993), Senior Advocate based at Delhi, Rahul Matthan (Class of 1994), co-founder & Partner of Trilegal based at Bangalore, Umakanth Varottil (Class of 1995), Professor at National University of Singapore, Pramod Rao (Class of 1996), General Counsel of Citibank India based in Mumbai, and Siddharth Raja (Class of 1997), co-founder of Samvad Partners, based at Bangalore.

Why did you decide to start the Alumni Association?

The decision to either restart the old Alumni Association or start afresh was taken at the NLSIU Silver Jubilee event and among the decisions taken was to constitute an Interim Committee to examine a few items, and place them for the consideration of the wider alumni body. Given the wide prevalence of social media –LinkedIn and FaceBook – the NLSIU Alumni were brought together on those social media platforms for ease of communication and interaction, and indeed to consider, comment and provide feedback on the work of the Interim Committee. The email database as available from the alumni directory created for the NLSIU Silver jubilee event was also harnessed.

The establishment of the NLSIU Alumni Association was made possible by interested alums and most crucially, the members of the Interim Committee constituted for the same. The Committee members were: T. Srinivas Murthy (Class of 1995), Pramod Rao (Class of 1996), Nithya Nandan (Class of 1998), Smitha Murthy (Class of 1999) and Kunal Ambasta (Class of 2010).

Our college has seen 23 batches graduate but it’s only recently that this AA has taken form. Why now?

This is actually our second attempt at having an Alumni Association – there had been an Alumni Association set up in late 90s, which turned moribund for a variety of reasons. The key difference one could say between then and now is the presence of social media platforms that provide ease of connectivity, link people together and have the ability to nurture the bonds among alumni. The new Alumni Association hopes to build itself with these platforms as key building blocks.

 

We realise that the future of AA will be decided by the elect- ed trustees, but where do you imagine it to be headed in the next few years?

Bearing in mind that the constitutional document of the Alumni Association envisages trustees / governing board members elected by ordinary members who would steer the Alumni Association and hence be responsible for the direction and deliverables, one can speak with broad generalities: Being relevant to the community, alums, to the students currently at NLS and nally to NLSIU – our alma mater – will be key to the future of the Alumni Association.

The constitutional document of the Alumni Association envisages a variety of activities that can be undertaken and also envisages Regional or City Chapters (and indeed on social media, we have alums in various cities within India and in various parts of the world already electronically linked).

The activities that further the connectedness and contribution to, by and among alums, NLS students and NLSIU will hence dene the future of the Alumni Association.

What drove you to initiate this process? Why do you care so much about this initiative?

There’s a shared journey that every Law Schoolite has undertaken – at a residential / hostel based 5 year education (with very many honourable day scholars) – one tends to know or atleast have an opportunity to know about 9 batches, and this builds deep bonds and connectedness.

The friendships (or rivalries) built then and thereafter professionally, as time goes by, or when one learns of the accomplishments of the folks who have had this common/shared journey, are indeed a source of pride and joy.

Finally, then, is the belongingness or nostalgia, reconnecting with folks one knew who may have got dispersed around the world, and nally, a spirit of contributing back – whether to community, alums, students or the institution. These are few of the drivers many of us have in wanting to see the formal Alumni Association come through and be around.

How has the response from alums been so far? (As per expectations, below expectations, above expectations). How do you think, it will evolve?

We are quite heartened by the response but it would also be right to say that it can be much, much more. e evolution lies in the sense of belongingness, activities that are relevant (to the community / alums / students / NLS) being undertaken and seen through. The challenge lies of course in proving that it’s for real and that it’s relevant.

 

We are very excited about the inaugural alumni day. What are your expectations from the event?

We are also very, very excited! The opportunity to meet faculty, staff and students and to hear back from all of you (and perhaps share some of our own experiences/journeys) and indeed relive some of our student life (whether with quizzes or football or basketball or a cultural evening) are all things being looked forward to. Gathering what’s relevant for the Alumni Association vis-à-vis the institution, faculty, staff and students will also be enabled by this maiden initiative.

What can we expect in the near term from the alumni association?

The Alumni Association’s partnership with the SBA (and various committees such as SIPLA and the ECell) has already yielded a revamped Alumni page, an Internship Policy, Single Credit courses policy, Collaboration of Alums and Students for Entrepreneurship Studies / Support project, and a workgroup focused on establishing a framework for alum support of student activities and of course the inaugural Alumni Day. These and many more relevant collaborations can be expected going forward as well. Among alumni themselves, a set of social gatherings and interactions have happened in Bangalore, Chennai, NCR, Mumbai in the last couple of years.

What role do you think the college administration should play going ahead in the Alumni Association?

 

This would be more relevant for the college administration to determine. However, from the alumni perspective, having an Alumni oce that coordinates the enrollment and alumni activities would be welcome though either the SBA or the Alumni Association itself can foster the same.

Taken from NLS’ perspective, an enhanced interaction of the alumni and the administration and faculty can yield many benefits and also serve to aid the grading of the university by UGC which has made Alumni interactions a component of university evaluation.

How has Law School changed since you last saw it?

Certainly – the campus & the academic block has only grown and expanded, in a very functional and yet aesthetically pleasing manner.

At the time of your graduation, how did you envision NLS to be in the future years? Did it turn like how you imagined it to be?

As an internationally recognized & socially relevant center of excellence for legal education – providing legally qualified professionals for all aspects of society, and in many respects it is indeed that.

What is your view on ‘falling standards of NLS’?

The question cannot be fairly answered at this stage especially by alumni hailing from oh so far back! The fact is that we don’t know whether standards have risen or fallen, or indeed whether the curriculum or method of instruction are delivering the intended education. Are we happy to collaborate for a review & bring our professional experiences to bear – that answer is an unqualied yes!

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