Things don’t seem to add up at BU Maths Dept.

Bharathiar University is in the news again. The sidelining of a senior professor of Mathematics, the delay in complying with a High Court order in the issue and stoppage of grant from funding agencies for the department show that things just do not add up there.

This time, a professor of Mathematics has moved the court and obtained a stay on appointing a faculty of another department as head in-charge of his department.

After the retirement of the then Mathematics Head of the Department (HoD) Balachandran sometime in June this year, the university administration designated the senior most faculty S. Saravanan as HoD in-charge. It did not give him the full designation as HoD, as it did with other senior most faculty in other departments.

Soon after he became the HoD in-charge, the university forwarded a proposal for his consideration – the proposal was for transferring students of mathematics to advanced mathematics. After convening the faculty meeting, Mr. Saravanan rejected the proposal saying it could not be done.

Soon thereafter, starting July 13, 2016, he began facing pressure to reconsider the proposal and when he could not face it, he went on leave, he said. In his absence, the university administration handed over the control of the Mathematics Department to a faculty from the Statistics Department.

This was against convention and rules, said Mr. Saravanan pointing out that the university ought to have given the charge to the next senior-most faculty. Meanwhile, he moved the court against the appointment of the Statistics Department faculty and obtained a stay.

Justice B. Rajendran granted the stay on July 22, 2016.

But when he returned duty a few days ago, the university administration asked him to route his joining letter to the Statistics Department faculty, whose very appointment he had challenged. He refused and is fighting the battle.

The recent developments have left the Mathematics Department high and dry in that the University Grants Commission’s Special Assistant Programme fund and National Board for Higher Mathematics’ fund have not reached the department yet.

Sources familiar with the developments also said that the University was once again meddling in the Mathematics Department in that in 2005 it divided the department into mathematics and advanced mathematics. In 2015 it merged the two and in 2016 it attempted bifurcation, again.

The university registrar in-charge P.S. Mohan said that the university administration was examining the HC’s stay. Meanwhile, Mr. Saravanan has to route his joining letter only through the Statistics Department faculty.He added that the Vice-Chancellor A. Ganapathi was doing all that was possible to set right the system and things would improve soon.