Governor clears list of HoDs, deans to Calicut varsity Senate

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has recommended 11 persons in the category of heads of departments and deans handling various disciplines as members of the Senate of the University of Calicut.

Mr. Khan, however, is yet to clear the list of 16 others, including students’ representatives and experts in various fields, which will ultimately pave the way for the elections to the Syndicate, the “chief executive” of the university. Syndicate members other than ex-officio members and those nominated by the government are elected from among the Senate members.

The heads of departments chosen to the Senate are Rajeev S. Menon, Department of Chemistry; C.C. Harilal, Department of Botany; V.L. Lajish, Department of Computer Science; S. Sindhu, Department of Nanotechnology; R. Sethunadh, School of Distance education; T.M. Vasudevan, Department of Library and Information Science; and Lekshmi Pradeep, Department of Communication and Journalism.

The deans selected to the Senate are P. Sivadasan, Department of History (humanities); Kavitha Balakrishnan, Department of Art History (fine arts); Abdul Gafoor, Department of Education (education); and Anu Joseph, Department of Biotechnology (medicine).

A senior university official said on Saturday that it would not be possible to hold the Syndicate elections without the full quorum. It has been over three months since the university concluded the poll process to pick Senate members representing various constituencies. Since the nomination of members to the Senate by the Governor, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the university, is not complete, the Syndicate elections are getting delayed. The reconstituted Senate is going to have 108 members.

Fourteen of the Syndicate members are elected from among the Senate members. Six others, such as the Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Higher Education Secretary, Director of Public Instruction, Director of Collegiate Education and Information Technology Secretary, are ex-officio members. Another six have already been nominated by the State government.