Faculty, who wrote against IIMC DG, removed as hostel warden

The IIMC administration has removed Anand Pradhan, one of its senior-most faculty members, as its hostel warden, amid a clash between the media institute's teachers and its Director General.

Pradhan, along with seven other teachers of the State-run journalism school, had written to the I&B Secretary on July 7, alleging that DG K G Suresh's statements in the media "publicly insulted" them and "callously sullied" their reputation.

On the same day, in a separate letter to Suresh, they had accused him of running a "unilateral, non-transparent administration marked by ad-hocism".

Pradhan, an associate professor who has been with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication for the last 14 years, received an order today, which said he had been relieved of his administrative duties as hostel warden with "immediate effect".
 

The order is dated July 7.

When contacted, Suresh said since IIMC was restoring its old policy of having only women's hostels, the order pertaining to Pradhan was "in the fitness of things".

"It has nothing to do with the current controversy. It was in the process. Even our prospectus said that hostel facility will be provided only to girls. Moreover, his accommodation was in the girls' hostel. We, as an institution keeping in view the security of women, have decided to restore the old policy," Suresh said.

However, a number of faculty members, speaking on the condition of anonymity, hit out at Suresh, saying that he had "no idea of academic norms".

"We had requested that we be relieved of administrative responsibilities but that was conditional. It was a show of no confidence on his leadership considering there is a complete loss of faith and trust between the faculty and the DG," a faculty member said.