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IIT-Indore ’s decision of prohibiting social media on the campus didn’t work out as well as they planned it to. Students of the institution have not stopped their protest, rather have taken up anonymous means to protest against the fee hike on the social networking site Twitter.
The administration tried to cut down the protests of Ph.D. scholars from the virtual world. Social media was banned on the Simrol campus and students informed that they being threatened by the college authorities that taking up the matter on social media will have consequences.
Students have been protesting against the fees hike for past 10 days as the fee for old Ph.D. scholars has been raised by 130%, i.e. from Rs. 8,350 to Rs. 19,900.
Regardless of all the stress and threats, students have taken up anonymous methods to protest against the fee hike.
One of the students wrote on Twitter handle @St0pMoNoPoLy921 said: “Help we are future scientist not future boot lickers #iitindore @PMOIndia @RashtrapatiBhvn @Swamy39.”
The students said that since the fee hike proposal was sent much after they had joined the institutions, it is not applicable to them. On the other hand, the institution insists that since the scholarship provided to the students is increased, the fee hike is much justified.
A student even said that taking the protest on social media and starting the Twitter campaign got the administration worked up and they started circling their names for payback later.
Once the campaign fueled up and gained popularity, the Dean of Student Affairs, Abhishek Shrivastava, had to issue a notice to all faculty members on July 10. The notice mentioned that the institution is a democratic organization and students are welcome to put up discussions and deliberations regarding the issues as have been done in the past. It also stated that college matters going beyond organizational premises shed a negative light on the institution’s reputation and requested the individual faculty members to initiate talks with their respective research groups and emphasize the impact of such initiatives to the students.
The decision to discontinue giving the HRA i.e. 20% of stipend amount for out stationed Ph.D. scholars was also taken on June 17. The administration also asked these students to move to hostel by July 31. The decision was put on hold after students protested against it.
