Summary of the General Body Meeting of the Faculty Association, IISc

held on 05 Aug 2003 at Choksi Hall from 4:30pm onwards

Agenda:

1. Remembering Prof. G.N. Subbanna who passed away
2. Confirmation of the minutes of the previous GBM
3. President's remarks
4. Secretary's report
5. Audited statement of accounts
6. Items from the members

· Reconstitution of the Executive Committee of FA- N. C. Sivaprakash

1. A few moments of silence were observed in memory of Prof. G.N. Subbanna who passed away. The secretary thanked all retiring members for their services rendered to the the institute and the FA.
2. The minutes of the previous GBM were sent by email to all members. The minutes were proposed, seconded and passed.
3. The President made the following observations: The president started by observing that few faculty want to work for the FA. He said that younger faculty feel that housing is a major issue while the senior faculty want FA to discuss other matters. To encourage new faculty to participate in the FA, it was felt that their photo, bio-data etc should be circulated and they should be invited for the GBM. Members felt that this was a good suggestion. The president also remarked that telephone bill reimbursement has been extended to asst professors or equivalent.

4. The Secretary presented the report of the activity till date:
• The EC and office bearers have met four times to plan the activities.The Office bearers of FA met the Director, Associate Director and the Registrar a few times.
• Housing: FA had repeatedly raised the issue of lack of adequate housing on campus with the administration. However the Director continued to insist that X plan grants have not been finalized yet. The Registrar and Associate Director were in favour of leasing off campus accommodation. Members felt that this would not solve the problem and the only long-term solution lies in building more on-campus housing.
• The secretary also mentioned that the minutes of the GBM along with other information relevant to the faculty are available on the FA website.
5. The treasurer (Shankar) presented the annual audited statement of accounts.
6. Items from Members
• N. C. Shivaprakash moved a resolution to restructure the EC to abolish category-wise representation and reduce the membership to 8. Details of the resolution were already circulated to the members before the GBM. The resolution was seconded by Ravishankar and put for debate. Some members felt that instead of completely abolishing all categories, it may be prudent to keep two categories since the issues for junior and senior faculty were different. Majority members however favoured the resolution. The resolution was passed by vote of hands and will be implemented from the next EC elections.
• Report from the FA medical committee representative (Giridhar) : New hospitals have been added to the list of eligible hospitals covered by the insurance scheme. The agency has been changed from Jubilee to TTK Healthcare. The current insurance scheme ensures 100% coverage (no limit of 50000). The institute is picking up a tab of Rs.1.2 crore. There are 275 drugs stocked in the Health Centre and this will be increased.
• IISc Heritage Fund: The objective of the fund was to channel donations of alumni outside India such that they get tax-exemption in their home country. The fund is currently operating onluy in the US. The director is yet to decide whether money can be accepted for specific faculty/end-use. He wanted the FA to suggest somebody academically well-known who can manage the funds. The person should be an alumnus of IISc and preferably stay in California. The alumni list is being prepared by the departments.
• Report from the FA housing committee representative (Adinarayana Murthy) : There is no improvement in the allotment situation. There are 9 houses available against 84 applicants for D-type and 2 houses available against 60 applicants for E-type. Unit IA is computerizing the allotment process. In future it should be possible to check the availability status and apply through the web. Since there are no takers for C-type quarters, it may be removed from the faculty list. Members felt that more quarters have to be released in the D/E categories to compensate for this loss.

The Secretary thanked the members for their participation in the meeting.