BENGALURU: Yashoda G.S., daughter of daily wager from Chakkere, a village in Channapatna taluk in Ramanagara district, became the first post-graduate in her family after completing M.Sc. in Chemistry. To top it all, she secured two gold medals and a cash prize, which her family back in Chakkere were eager to see.
However, on Friday, she was disappointed as she was given only the cash prize at Bangalore University’s 52nd convocation. “I am extremely disappointed. All my friends and family are waiting to see the gold medal. What will I show them,” she asked helplessly.
She was among many students to have left the venue without a medal. But some furiously walked up to the authorities and demanded an explanation.
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The university had faced a similar issue last year too. Many of the awards were instituted by donors long ago with sums as low as Rs. 500 in some cases. Now, the university is unable to fund the medals with the money from such endowments.
Each medal, which contains 20 gram silver and 1.3 gram gold, costs ₹3,735. Out of 203 gold medals that were conferred, only 100 were presented on Friday. The remaining students were only given a certificate and the cash prize instituted by the donor.
When questioned by some gold medallists, Vice Chancellor B. Thimme Gowda told them to pay the balance amount to get their medals. “Since the university cannot bear the cost difference, we decided to give them the cash award. If students are keen on the medal, they can pay the balance amount and we will give them medals,” he said, adding that the university paid for 82 medals of first rank holders. Prof Gowda explained many donors have refused to increase the endowment amount.
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Sowjanya S.K., an M.A. student, Department of Kannada who bagged the maximum number of medals this year, said, “I was to get eight medals but got only one. And why should we pay for own medals? We have worked hard for this. If I have to give money, I might as well buy it in a shop.”
‘Misplaced priorities’
Several BU officials feel that the varsity should have dipped into its funds to ensure that all gold medallists are given medals. An officials estimated that the cost of the 103 gold medals would be ost around ₹3.84 lakh. “Couldn’t the university shell out this amount to ensure that the medallists were not dejected? This is also an emotional issue for students. This happens almost every year, but nobody learns from this mistake,” said an official.
Another official pointed out that the university had spent ₹4.5 lakh on decorating the stage, which could instead have been used for providing gold medals to students.