There are big academic plans, but, there is a huge scarcity of administrative staff to execute them. This is the plight of Madurai Kamaraj University at present as the ‘University with Potential for Excellence' is gripped with an ‘in-charge' syndrome.
When the name of Kalyani Mathivanan was officially announced as the new vice-chancellor of MKU on April 7, everyone in the university heaved a sigh of relief since the southern districts' premier institution was leaderless for one full academic year since last April. This English professor has her task cut out in ensuring a smooth functioning on the academic and administrative fronts.
Senior professors and college principals already made their representations immediately after the former Finance Minister V.R. Nedunchezhian's daughter-in-law assumed charge on April 9.
“She has made an impressive beginning but there is a major crisis in MKU which has to be sorted out urgently. We have good teachers and laboratories, but, there is no sufficient administrative staff in this university. Unless we appoint them, it shall be tough to implement the plans from an administration point of view,” says P. Chelladurai, Professor and Head, Department of Youth Welfare Studies, MKU.
The university, he explains, has no adequate administrative staff in almost every section since 50 per cent of the existing staff had retired from service. “There are no adequate deputy registrars, assistant registrars, section superintendents and junior assistants. Recruitment must happen soon or else the under-staffed scenario can push MKU in to a severe crisis.”
Also, the new vice-chancellor's immediate focus has to be on appointing persons for key positions such as Registrar, Dean (College Development Council), Special Officer and Additional Controller of Examinations since many crucial posts were being managed on an ‘in-charge' basis for the past several months and years.
If filling up the vacancies is going to be a big challenge for the new vice-chancellor since it involves a lot of issues such as reservation and backlog vacancies, Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan's skills as administrator will be most tested on one count — the trust factor, winning confidence of teaching and non-teaching staff in view of the many legal issues faced in the last one decade and continuing even now.
“There must be transparency and a democratic approach in MKU. She must be firm on remaining as a good leader and should not become a puppet of power centres,” says R. Murali, principal, Madura College. His plea to the VC is to be “easily accessible and approachable” to colleges too.
“She has a challenge on hand to brush away the bad image the university had got due to some serious allegations in the issue of faculty appointments. It will not happen overnight but she has to do a steady work for restoring the credibility,” says Dr. Murali.
MKU College Principals' Association general secretary I. Ismail says that the daughter of MKU's former vice-chancellor M.D.K. Kuthalingam, who was the Professor and Head of Department of English at Ethiraj College for Women in Chennai, must adhere to the “quality education-quality teacher” norm. “There were alleged irregularities in this university in faculty appointments. Such things should not happen in future because our students should be taught by qualified teachers,” he says.
The university's priorities at the moment are to get NAAC re-accreditation and funds under the Twelfth Plan for which the new VC has begun taking steps. “Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan has made a right beginning by making a few good announcements on new courses. She should not get bogged down by legal issues since the courts will take care of them. Her first priority must be to conduct elections to the Senate for 15 Graduates Constituencies and also make a review of the Choice-Based Credit System,” says S. Vivekanandan, president, MUTA.
As several academic and administrative matters have to be put on track, the university's first woman vice-chancellor will have to do a fine balancing act in order to keep the human resource happy as well as to engage the entire university staff in developmental plans.
A common demand that has come from the Madurai region is that the vice-chancellor should think of launching employability-oriented courses, tie-ups with local industry, new funding sources and upscaling the ongoing research projects.
