IIT-J students protest against faculty termination

Irked by the ouster of a faculty at IIT Jodhpur, scores of students today staged a protest at the campus demanding sacking of the institute's director.
"We are completely disappointed with the way our director is functioning. In his stint so far, 16 faculties have been shown the door without any ground. If this continues, how would we be able to study, specially when the institute has already been grappling with the acute faculty crunch," said a student on condition of anonymity.
They termed the IIT-J director C V R Murthy a "dictator" for terminating the appointment of Ganesh Bagler in the name of unsatisfactory performance after the probation review.

The frequent terminations are also affecting our research works, they said.
On the other hand justifying these terminations, Murthy said that there was a clear procedure of review laid out during the probation period.
"We take the faculty on probation and get their performance reviewed by a committee, which we have no control over, on completion of one year and if the performance is not found satisfactory, either the faculty is given one more chance or his or her services are terminated," he said.

"We cannot compromise on the quality of faculty and let them continue merely to keep the faculty shortage under tab," Murthy said, adding that students need not understand this.

While seeking his comment on the issue, Bagler who has received world wide acclaim for his research on 'Negative Food Pairing' termed the termination an "absolute injustice".
"I had come to India after serving in Germany and US with a view to serve my own country but if this behavior is meted out to those who come with this intention, they would think twice before taking any decision on home-coming," he said.
IIT-J currently has 45 faculties, against the sanctioned strength of 90 faculties, out of which only 35 are permanent.
According to the IIT-J spokesperson Amandeep Sharma, seven faculties have been terminated either on unsatisfactory performance or completion of contract since September 2013.

The students have demanded a fair investigation in all these cases.