The process of selecting a new vice chancellor for the University of Madras has begun with the Syndicate selecting its nominee for the search committee. So has a fresh round of controversy.
On Friday morning, the syndicate sat in session for two hours to select its nominee. The meeting was attended by 25 members in all. After a vote, R. Balasubramanian, Director, SRM University, and former HoD of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, was declared the winner.
The search committee comprises a nominee each, of the syndicate, senate and the Governor. The search panel recommends a set of names, of which the Governor-Chancellor nominates one as V-C.
In the election, Mr. Balasubramanian, favoured by government representatives, polled 14 votes. Academicians representing teachers associations and others backed S. Sathikh, a former vice-chancellor of the university, who could muster only 11 votes.
A section of the syndicate members now argue that this result came about because two government members in the syndicate, the health and law secretaries who had not attended earlier meetings, had sent their deputy secretaries to cast votes for the government nominee.
According to them, Chapters 6, 18 and 19 of Section XIX of the university statute have instructions that permit government officials to send their representatives to attend meetings, but bar ‘proxies’ from casting their votes in elections.
This section of the syndicate also opposes the vote by the Director of Legal Studies (in-charge), another member, in the elections. “If any person is in-charge of a department, they are not even allowed to vote in the academic council,” says a syndicate member.
“Minus these three votes, it would have been a tie,” says a Syndicate member. This section of Syndicate members said never before had proxies been allowed to vote.
Ten members of this group have already submitted their dissent note to the chairman of the syndicate, the vice-chancellor, expressing their disagreement with the result. Vice-chancellor G. Thiruvasagam could not be contacted.
In a special meeting on Saturday, the Senate will elect its candidate for the search committee.
