This article is submitted anonymously.
I am a victim. I am a part of the system. I have been there, done that.
I am an enthusiastic ex-organizer. Ex, for many reasons, one of which I will talk about elaborately in this article. I have voluntarily organised nearly 3 events in NMIMS, and aided a few others while they were being organised. One of the major upside of having an authoritative position, was being able to tell people that you had an authoritative position. Unfortunately, it ends there. This, in NMIMS School of Law, is essentially the person who manages everything between the students and the administration.
The NMIMS administration. Ah. That glorious body, whose sole purpose is to discourage a student from organizing an event anywhere ever. The administration department of NMIMS School of Law is not evil, it is simply frustrating. The purpose of the administration department is to create a system helpful for the students, to encourage them to approach the authorities. In SOL, not so much. The admin department hides behind the garb of paperwork to make sure that the spirit of the student is utterly crushed by the time his approval is in place. With their patented dialogue, “You are future lawyers, you need to rely on paperwork”, they have managed to singlehandedly jeopardize the entire environment by the sheer number of applications and paper they ask the students to print (mostly using the student’s money). The NMIMS SOL office makes you type applications so that you can be allowed to write applications, so that you can go ahead and get the permission to have access to class till 8, which they will eventually rescind anyway, because why not. People who have organised events in SOL know the importance of a team just for typing and submitting applications. It doesn’t matter if you are just planning an event or if you are LITERALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ONGOING EVENT, if they want an application, you’ll need to give it.
In my college, everyone wants an event to happen. The students, the committees, the student council, even the admin department. The students help by volunteering, the committees by organizing, the council by aiding, and the admin department, by, well…the admin department doesn’t help organize events. It helps build your resilience though, and is extremely good if you want to have field tests for your anger management techniques.
This might look a lot like a rant that’s pretty much uncalled for against people doing their jobs, but it’s not. It is a plea. A cry for help, a cry for change. A cry by someone who once wanted to change the system, who once wanted to be able to help the college, who wanted to create a “Culture” in the college. I was once an enthusiastic worker, and worked outside of the system just so that I could help the people who wanted to do something. Then I joined the System, and it all went downhill.
It’s not like I didn’t try to change the system either. So many suggestions have fallen on deaf ears up until now, that the suggestions that are actually paid heed to seem out of line now. The best solution would be to keep one, just one point person in the admin department for the students to have contact with. That one point person then goes and gets the approvals, and guides the documentation. Sneha ma’am has to a certain point filled that role, but in her seat, there was only so much she could’ve done. Another simple solution was to reduce the number of signatures required. If the signature of just the faculty head would be authority enough, getting approvals would’ve been so much more convenient and faster. Another simple yet obvious solution would be to assign faculty heads who know about the committees’ mandate. A faculty head who knows how things happen and what is to be done, is more of a boon to a committee than any outsider would understand.
But I see hope. With a few outstanding events being organised in SOL, small but outstanding events, there is hope that the admin department of SOL will learn in time that the larger the event gets, the easier they are supposed to make things go for the students. Someday, SOL will leave its mark on the circuit, and that day, hopefully, all of us will be seen as the harbingers of the Moots and the Debates and the MUNs and Meraki. Or not. It’s a thankless job, and we don’t need to be recognized. We will be just as happy to work from behind the veil as we were to work in the limelight. It’s the results that count and nothing else.
For the time being, my hearty condolences to the Student’s Council.
Le Monde de Kulcha 