When Prof. Arvind’s term as the Vice Chancellor of the University ended in the last week of March last year, it was expected that a new Vice Chancellor would be appointed soon. A few days later, the work of Punjabi University was handed over to the Secretary of Higher Education, Mr. K.K. Yadav. He was given this responsibility for three months. It was understood that in the light of the rules made by the UGC for the appointment of the Vice Chancellor, it may take some time for the appointment to this post. With the passage of time, the responsibility of the Secretary continued to increase, but there was a constant delay in the regular appointment of the new Vice Chancellor, which started affecting the day-to-day functioning of the University. Only the government can tell what could be the reason for this delay.
This is not the first time that the burden of this post has been placed on another government officer due to the absence of a regular Vice Chancellor. Such a system has been going on continuously before this too. Earlier, this responsibility was also under DPI Colleges, which was also opposed by the teachers’ organization PUTA (Punjabi University Teachers’ Association). PUTA believed that the DPI or Principal is the representative of the bureaucracy, so this trend should be stopped and a regular Vice Chancellor should be appointed at the university.
Although the existing teachers’ organizations of the university are constantly trying to run its administration smoothly and are trying to improve its financial condition by getting the debt of 150 crores waived off along with the problems of the teachers, but the concrete demand regarding the regular appointment of a Vice Chancellor seems to have been hidden from their sight. Those who believe in the proper conduct of the academic and administrative affairs of the university feel that there should be a permanent Vice Chancellor at the university, with whom teachers, students and employees working in the university staff can directly meet and resolve their problems.
In the past, when PUTA staged a dharna against the then Vice Chancellor to press for their demands, it was widely publicized that the teachers were staging a dharna only to meet their salaries. The government did not even agree to provide the university with enough budget in its budget to resolve the issue of salaries. When the then Vice Chancellor released a video in this regard, the message went far and wide that the university was not being provided with sufficient funds by the government as per its requirements. Due to this pressure from the Vice Chancellor, the government repeated its promise to provide the necessary financial assistance to the university and with the financial assistance that was given, the issue of salaries and pensions of the employees was resolved. Although many people appreciated this good deed achieved by the government, those who are aware of university affairs know that the university cannot be run smoothly with salaries alone.
Due to pressure from the Vice Chancellor and the general public, the issue of salaries of the accused was resolved, but the budget required for renovation of buildings, purchase of new books, expansion of the library, purchase of science equipment according to the needs of modern times, conducting workshops-seminars-conferences, etc., making Punjabi popular in Punjab, and making efforts for the promotion and dissemination of Punjabi in foreign states, was left behind. Apart from this, it is imperative to take policy decisions regarding the problems facing the new academic policy, solve the problems of academic and non-academic staff, provide the right direction to research work, resolve issues related to promotions and appointments of teachers, get the university out of the financial crisis and raise financial support for renovation of buildings and research. Only with the regular appointment of the Vice Chancellor and the provision of necessary resources by the government can the management of this academic institution be properly promoted.
When any Vice Chancellor is appointed in a university, he expresses his initiative and interest in taking the university forward or in fulfilling its objectives. When Dr. Jagtar Singh Grewal became the Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, he said that my interest is in history and important work related to the history of Punjab should be done in this university. He had planned to complete the work of preparing 10 volumes each on the subjects of ‘Socio-Cultural History of Punjab’ and ‘History of Punjabi Literature’. Similarly, in December 2007, when Dr. Jaspal Singh was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, he said while talking about the promotion of Punjabi that no student regarding Punjabi would be given exemption. For the promotion of Punjabi, he started organizing All India Punjabi Conferences under which a successful attempt was made to connect the local Punjabi community with Punjabi University by conducting these conferences in various parts of India.
From this perspective, the Vice Chancellor, as the head of the university, has a special role. On the one hand, he has to act as a bridge between the government and the university and on the other hand, he has to fulfill the objectives of the university and also immediately resolve the daily problems faced by the students and employees. The appointment of a regular Vice Chancellor demands special attention from the government for the smooth running of the university and for furthering this objective.
