Members of the Academic Council of Madurai Kamaraj University should spend quality time discussing issues related to academic requirements of the university rather than indulging in “politics”, Vice-Chancellor Kalyani Mathivanan said on Friday.
Addressing a special meeting of the Academic Council, she said: “This is an unexpected meeting called to put certain things on record… I would be happy if the members stay back and discuss academic issues with one another. But there should be no politics in it.”
She refused permission to Council member S.Vivekanandan to move an adjournment motion to discuss issues related to action initiated by the varsity against two staff members and payment of salary to faculty in the university’s constituent colleges.
“There is no precedent of allowing adjournment motions during special meetings except for what is there in the agenda,” she said, and carried on with the meeting which was convened to seek approval for starting two new Schools and renaming a few departments.
She also told the members that the process of National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) re-accreditation (cycle III) was on. A letter of intent was submitted to NAAC on November 22 and a self-study report would be submitted within a month.
The State Government’s grant of Rs.25 lakh for establishing Swami Vivekananda Research and Education Centre in the university would be deposited as a corpus fund and the interest accrued from that would be utilised for propagating the teachings of the spiritual leader, she said.
The Vice-Chancellor thanked Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa for having sanctioned Rs.3.5 crore for the creation of Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management and Rs.2.9 crore for the university’s green campus proposal, apart from revising the total outlay of government grant from Rs.12.48 crore to Rs.18.57 crore for 2013-14.
Ms.Mathivanan also informed the members that an M.Phil course in nano technology would be started soon, and Sheik Abdul Khader, a resident of Nagaiyakottai at Vedasandur in Dindigul district, had donated 9.5 acres of land in his native place for the construction of a permanent building for MKU’s constituent college.
She congratulated G.Marimuthu of School of Biological Sciences for having been selected by North American Symposium on Bat Research as a Senior Spallanzani Fellow.
