JNU admin approves creation of alumni endowment fund

JNU vice-chancellor (VC) M Jagadesh Kumar on Tuesday appealed to the university alumni to contribute to the JNU Alumni Endowment Fund to help the institution achieve "financial self-sufficiency".

Kumar's appeal came after the university's executive council approved the creation of the fund.

"On behalf of JNU, I passionately appeal to the JNU alumni to come forward and generously make your contributions.

"Let us keep a target of raising Rs 100 crore by the end of this year. Through your continued support in the coming years, let us target to achieve near financial self sufficiency for our university," the VC said.

Around the globe, higher educational institutions benefit a great deal from contributions received from their alumni, he added.

"The time has come for the university to reach out to its alumni across India and around the globe to contribute to the 'JNU Alumni Endowment Fund'," Kumar said.

He said the funds generated through this can be used to grant scholarships to the needy and deserving students.

"Faculty and students can be supported to participate in international conferences. Better research infrastructure can be created," Kumar said.

He said the funds will also be used to invite top-notch international scholars to teach at JNU.

"The university will become more autonomous if we become financially self-sufficient. We have more than 80,000 alumni. Even if each one of them contributes around Rs 5,000 in a year, that will be about Rs 400 crores. Our ultimate goal is to have around Rs 1,000 crore corpus fund in a few years," he added.

Meanwhile, the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) alleged that the executive council has decided to stop the deduction of the JNUTA monthly subscription fee from salaries.

"By his decision to end what was a purely administrative arrangement the process of the voluntary subscription of JNUTA members being automatically deducted from their salaries he has only revealed that he treats the university as his private property," the body said.

"The JNUTA makes it clear that this step of the VC will only serve to increase the resolve of the teachers to fight and end his misrule," it added.