A day after the Chief Election Officer of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections officially notified the results, union president Rocky Tuseed said the National Students’ Union of India-led DUSU would work for democracy, freedom and equality in the university.
Listing a number of measures that the NSUI wishes to bring about during the course of the year, Mr. Tuseed said the union will organise a bi-weekly “Democracy Dialogue” in various colleges across DU in order to ensure meaningful participation by all students. “We firmly believe that universities are a place to promote critical thinking, and that debate, dissent and dialogue are non-negotiable aspects of all universities,” said the DUSU president.
The DUSU is also starting an internship programme to enable students to engage and work closely with the union. An outcome of these conversations, the union hopes, will lead to the drafting of a charter of student rights.
Freedom campaign
The NSUI, with the aim of promoting students’ right to personal freedom, will also launch the “Meri Marzi” campaign. The campaign will focus on safety of female students without subjecting them to moral policing. To fulfil the promises made in its manifesto, drafted after consulting students from various colleges, the organisation said it will begin a campaign to restart the 24x7 library which was demolished in 2010. It will also conduct a study to look into the high variance of fees across colleges in DU.
Forum for students
Highlighting the role of DUSU in the governance of the university, the NSUI said it will provide a forum to resolve students’ grievances vis-a-vis the administration and enable structured student participation in academic and executive decision-making of the university.
To ensure transparency, the NSUI said the DUSU budget will be put online as promised in the manifesto. The organisation added that it will campaign strongly against the attempt to privatise DU under the guise of self-financing and autonomy as the universities are established for public good.
Cleanliness drive
Mr. Tuseed agreed that it was an ambitious agenda and requested all students, faculty members as well as the administration to work with them so that it could be an active union. He also invited Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members to join the NSUI in a cleanliness drive on Friday to remove all posters and elections paraphernalia that have been pasted on public property across the city.
