EFSI Endowment Lecture by Shree Venkatramani

In the morning I received a call from office of DoAC asking me to be present for the lecture as I will be presenting the speaker, Shree Venkatramani, a bouquet. In any case I was going to attend the lecture. This was EFSI Endowment Lecture arranged every year in our institute. Shree Venkatramani is the Managing Director of India Pistons Ltd, a major supplier of pistons and piston rings to almost all the automobile manufacturers. He was given welcome in the Board Room with high tea. Somehow they thought it alright to invite me also for joining them for high tea. It turned out to be quite interesting interaction.

The lecture itself was quite a revealation. He spoke on “Changing face of Industrial Relations from the context of Globalization”. The speaker has seen his organisation going through various phases since globalization started in 1984. All the experience of the distinguished speaker was visible throughout the lecture.

After the lecture, I had a brief chat with him. The mention of Tata Motors was obvious when he asked about my background. It was quite a good feeling when talking about 407 and Spacio, BS2 emission development of these two vehicles.

Hike in Cable Connection fees

Executive Committee of the Staff Club has DECIDED to increase the amount of subscription to Rs 75 per semester per students (from Rs 50). Thus any hostel with @225 inmateswill end up paying ~ Rs 3125 per month which is certainly a huge amount.Bigger hostels like Cauvery, Krishna are already paying ~ Rs 5000 whichwill increase to Rs 7500 with this hike as they use two connectios. This is especially uneconomic when a much cheaper alternative is available inmarket that is DTH. DTH connection can reduce these expenses to ~10% ofthis and also the equipment will be owned by the hostel.

There are DTH services provided by Dish TV and one by Star-ESPN network.Please study their packages. You can get information on internet.

In fact, General Secretaries of Cauvery, Krishna, Sarayu had decided tochange over to DTH in June/July itself. But as some popolar music channelsand sports channels were not available so we cancelled the plan.

May be this is time for us to seriously think about continuing staff club cable connection. DTH is working very well in Sindhu. Other hostels can follow this route.

Students evaluate performance of Campus Cafe

There is a mixed reaction to the running of canteen by institute staff that was previously outsourced canteen known as Nandhinee. Most of the comments/complaints were oral. So I decided to conduct a brief survey. I would like to present the outcome of this survey to you. I have found that all the respondents (100.00%) have stated clearly in their feedback that the performance of Campus Café is not up to the mark.

After compiling the feedbacks, I have interpreted the feedback in the following way.* When the comments of respondents are categorized on the basis of quality, quantity, service and hygiene, it can be noticed that except for quality, Campus Café even fails to open account for other criterions. There are some respondents (9%) who have said that they are satisfied with quality, where they mean the taste of the items served is good. But then there are 74% who report that the quality is bad. 17% respondents have not commented about quality of the items served in the café.

Not all respondents have mentioned their opinion about all the criterions. Their opinion is counted as neutral. Perhaps if they were asked categorically to evaluate the café on these criterions, we would have had smaller percentage under Neutral.

There are more respondents who have not commented upon the service provided in the café. It is understandable as the café works on the self service by the customers.

One thing worth mentioning here is that many of the respondents have strongly appreciated the special tea served in the Campus Café. Also there are comments which say that the rates of items are less as compared to outsourced canteen. But the question is at what cost this low prices can be set?

It is a fact that the largest number of customers for the Campus Café is student community and, surprisingly, their representation on the Canteen Committee has been nil. It is a point that need to be noted by the authorities and should include a student member in the committee as it is done in practically every committee related to facilities in the campus.

Consolidated Results:

Parameter (Percentage of total respondents)
(Good,Bad,Neutral)

Quality (9,74,17)
Variety (0,74,26)
Service (0,65,35)
Hygiene (0,78,22)
Overall (0,100,0)

* As the feedback was invited, technically, it is not a survey that is based on usual random sampling. The percentages presented above are based on the interpretation of the comments/observations willingly given by students on a particular criterion.

I hope the Canteen Committee will take enough corrective actions to ensure better functioning of the Campus Cafe.

Email Accounts for getting Feedback about Facilities

Email accounts for feedback about facilities:

Some email accounts can be created to get feedback from the students about various facilities, transport, alumni affairs involving students and external enquiries. It may be appreciated that these accounts are easy to remember and they will eliminate the need of knowing name/contact of the person accountable for a particular facility. Thus feedback can be given by students pretty quickly and the feedback will be documented properly. To elaborate this point further, I will explain how these accounts can be used as the link between a particular portfolio and the general student body.

transport@iitm.ac.in
Students can give their feedback about the transport facility. They can also register complaint about the facility.
sfc@iitm.ac.in or facilities@iitm.ac.in
Students will report the complaints about facilities in Students Facility Centre, power laundry, eateries (not hostel dining halls) etc. They can also suggest any new addition to the present facilities.
network@iitm.ac.in
Students can write their problems/suggestions about the internet and intranet access to this account. The problems can be forwarded to the newly proposed Campus Network Users Committee for the further action.
aaincharge@iitm.ac.inThis will be used by the Alumni Affairs In-Charge who is the link between Alumni Associations, Office of Alumni Affairs and current student body.

These accounts can be displayed appropriately so that they strike students’ attention. They can be displayed at respective facilities also. These accounts can be operated by the respective in-charges in General Secretary’s Council.

Email accounts for Hostel General Secretaries:

There are email accounts created by hostel names. There is ambiguity in minds of most Hostel General Secretaries upon who operates these accounts. Perhaps the wardens are operating these email accounts. In order to facilitate a better communication from secretaries to students and from students to secretaries I suggest creating email accounts for General Secretaries of all hostels. The Ids can be

gsalak@iitm.ac.in, gsbrahms@iitm.ac.in, gscauvery@iitm.ac.in, gsganga@iitm.ac.in, gsgodav@iitm.ac.in, gsjamuna@iitm.ac.in, gskrishna@iitm.ac.in, gsmandak@iitm.ac.in, gsnarmada@iitm.ac.in, gssaras@iitm.ac.in, gssindhu@iitm.ac.in, gssarayu@iitm.ac.in, gssharav@iitm.ac.in, gstapti@iitm.ac.in

To take this point further, all other hostel council members can also be given email ids using a combination of abbreviation of the post and the hostel name as given above.

Bus Route Modified and Other Points

Minutes of Transportation Committee Meeting held in Office of DR-Admin on 12th Sept 2005 at 1645h

1. I briefed about the feedback given by student community about transportation service. Based upon these inputs and also upon inputs by other members, the committee has taken the following decisions.
2. A new route will be introduced from 13th Sept 2005 in hostel zone during the time period when students go to classes. The route is as follows: Jamuna – Tapti – Taramani Guest House – Cauvery – NCC – MSB – Gajendra Circle.
3. The electravans will operate on this route will run at 0740h, 0750h, 1240h, 1250h.
4. A diesel bus will operate from hostel zone to the academic zone (without going to Tapti for the time being) at 0745h and 1245h. Transportation Cell will study the route via Tapti keeping running of diesel buses on this route and will come up with recommendations in a week. Administration will take necessary action based upon these recommendations.
5. In order to keep a check on the running of buses on scheduled time, timing ledgers will be kept at Main Gate Security and at Jamuna Hostel Security desks. Committee will review the provision of timing ledgers after one week (on or ofter 20th Sept 2005). Random checks of these timing ledgers will be carried out by the committee members.
6. Transport Cell will display the time table of bus services in all the hostels, all terminuses and at key bus stops to enable the campus residents and also visitors to know the bus timings. It will also make arrangements to put permanent time table at all terminuses (bus stops at Gajendra Circle, Jamuna Hostel and Main Gate). This display will be updated as and when time table is changed.
7. Use of Smart Card for billing of travel by students was reviewed by committee. Committee felt that such provision will significantly reduce the load on bus conductor (driver in case of electravans) arising from giving tickets to students. The committee will work out the details of such a provision in due course of time.

Telecon with DoP About Problem in Internet Access

After reading the mail that I sent yesterday night and the mail that I sent today morning at around 11 am, DoP called me and we had a very elaborate discussion on phone. One might guess what it was about. I am sure most of you must have guessed correctly. Our talk was about the painfully slow internet access in hostel zone. He said that Prof TAG is fully upon it. One of the prominent reason for the sluggishness in internet access, as per their investigation, is the net servers which are run from many computers in the hostel zone. But he said that there could be other reasons also and they are being checked. DoP has assured that the problem will be solved and also we will be getting 34 Mb/s connection but... it will take some time. Hopefully this time will be counted in days not weeks or months!

Anyway now a Campus Network Users Committee will be constituted and I am asked by Prof TAG to nominate somebody as students representative. I have nominated Abhiram (Internet Incharge, General Secretary's Council) for the job. This committee will form a much-needed feedback control loop. For satisfactory performance of the system this loop is the most essential component which is missing at presence.

Our first meeting will be on Monday, 4th Sept, to finalize the details of working of this committee.

Ambassador of USA Visits the Campus

Dr Robert Mulford, Ambassador of USA, wanted to interact with students and thus officials US Cosulate in Chennai felt that our institute could be one place he might be interested in. And thus his visit to our campus was decided.

Today evening he was here after visiting a school in Teyanampet. He was accompanied by other officials in Consulate those included Dr David Hopper, US Consul General of South India and his deputy. Dr Robert Mulford talked mainly about the developing US-India relationship and said that he was optimistic about India's position of great strength after twenty years if, in his opinion, India continues with its plans and policy of open economy.

It was a quite good experience as far as arrangements and coordination was concerned. Also there were security concerns. The hall and surrounding area was thoroughly checked using metal detector and also by a sniffer dog.