MODERATOR AND THE MAYAN PROPHECY

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MODERATOR AND THE MAYAN PROPHECY

 

“Unless we jointly fight this unscrupulous Moderator—who has no legal standing whatsoever to be meddling with the college affairs the way he is—this great institution will not exist where it does.”

 

RAJENDRA PANDIAN

Former Governing Council Member

 

An alumnus called me on phone a few days ago. He asked me about particular advertisements that he had found in some dailies. They had been given in the name of a staff association—I recalled—thanking the government of Tamilnadu for giving approval to Dr. Davamani Christober as the Principal of the American college. As the caller asked me whether the news was true or false I could only tell him it was perhaps both or neither. Because I just knew that Dr. Christober had managed to secure a fax message from the Directorate of Collegiate Education, Chennai that he had been given approval ‘subject to the outcome of the cases pending with the courts’. He also asked me questions like: Was it a valid approval? And, how could they give it when the court was yet to rule not only on disputes relating to his qualification and the selection-process but also the very legitimacy of the ‘council’ that appointed him?       

Well, the MK University gave approval to his academic qualifications in the year 2012 citing the norms of 2000. What may seem anachronistic to commonsense has been accommodative to the candidate in question. Now the DCE seems to have acted on the same logic—favoring the individual, however controversial their case may be. Dr. Christober was particular about getting at least the fax message by Aug 21, 2012 apparently to push his case with the ‘Rump Council’ that was in session that day and get its nod for securing the Secretaryship for himself without delay. Man proposes; Moderator disposes! The Rump, as I learn, formed a sub-committee to ‘[am]end’ the constitution of the college! I also hear that the committee has only outsiders as members who have nothing to do with the college. What could be their agenda is anybody’s guess. Things will change seismically that the college will go to the diocese and the Secretaryship will go along with it. Even if Davamani—the victim of his own sorcery—bulldozes his way to become the legal Principal of the college—even for a brief period—I don’t think he can become the Secretary of the Council/ College that easily as the Diocese has been eyeing that position for itself.

Unless we jointly fight this unscrupulous Moderator—who has no legal standing whatsoever to be meddling with the college affairs the way he is—this great institution will not exist where it does. Hope you don’t mistake me for a Mayan eschatologist, do you? My guess is, after concocting paper-evidences to tell people that this is a CSI  college, they may ask the Principal and the faculty to move the departments to the satellite campus, or to some diocesan ground with make-shift class rooms—in  a phased manner—under the pretext of some ‘renovation’ or ‘restructuring’. Then the present campus may metamorphose into something else or just disappear.  As I speculate—with an earnest anguish—it will be in addition to how they are going to run the college with the help of hoodlums; sell appointments and admissions; make unannounced deductions in the salary of the staff; penalize those who try to question them; and claim immunity under the minority status, after all. See the way they have been administering their institutions and show me one school / college under their control that can be quoted for its academic excellence. Will those of my learned colleagues who do not oppose the unjust aggression on this prestigious and sovereign institution now, do it then?

Let us ask ourselves in private: Are we really upholding or betraying this college—leave alone the leaders we obey or defy; like or dislike? Are we grateful to this organization that gave us job honoring our merit—without asking a penny; groomed many of us into globe-trotters and leaders at various levels; and elevated us and thereby our families to the privileged positions that we  enjoy in our society today? Are we sure that we will be at peace with ourselves for the stand that we have taken on this issue? 

I hope the answers that we get from such apparently embarrassing introspection will give us clarity over the issues at hand alongside the conviction to fight these aggressors out. No doubt the present state government has been very sympathetic with the college and offered to settle the problem in ways possible. We need to remember it with thankfulness and make use of the openings, if any, in the days ahead. While agitating before the courts we also can make representations to those in the upper echelons of the government and try to impress upon them how the ‘odd approvals’ granted by the University and the DCE can take things from bad to worse. 

 

 

 

 

 

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GREEN CAMPUS

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A LETTER FROM Prof. V.S.  TO Dr. RIESZ



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Dear Dick:

After many years a good news about The American College has appeared in The Hindu this morning and I thought I will share it with you. The news item with the attached picture says that the only two green patches in the city of Madurai left as seen from the air are The American College campus (you can barely see the Chapel dome and the roof of Main Hall in the picture) and the Railway Colony. The American Missionaries and the British Railway Engineers can take credit for this. I don’t think any new trees were planted in the last few decades. It is good news that the people who have spoiled so many good aspects of the college have not succeeded in spoiling the green cover the College has acquired over the years.

I am proud of this.

...........Seenu