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

held on 13 Feb 2004 at Choksi Hall from 4:30pm onwards

Agenda:

1. Confirmation of the minutes of the previous GBM
2. President's remarks
3. Secretary's report
4. Election results
5. Discussion items

Minutes:

1. The secretary welcomed all members for the GBM, especially six new members.
2. The minutes of the previous GBM were passed without discussion.
3. The President started by recalling the discussion on email usage in the last GBM. He moved a resolution to circulate future notices of the FA by email instead of hardcopies. He observed that this will be faster, more convenient and will save xeroxing costs. After some discussion, this resolution was acceptable to all the members with the proviso that (a) important notices like GBM announcements should be displayed on department notice boards, and (b) the notices should be put up on the FA website also.
   
   Next the president displayed a slide with information about the housing situation on campus. He pointed out that while several housing blocks (Ramanuja, Aryabhata, Tunga, New D/E) have been constructed periodically during 1980-1997, no new construction has been undertaken in the last 5 years. This has created an unprecedented crisis wherein the waiting list now for E-type has exceeded 140. FA's efforts did not succeed in spite of repeated discussions with the administration. As a last resort the FA should act collectively and send a strong message to the Director since it is not treated seriously by the administration. However he cautioned that the FA has to behave in a dignified way while forcefully trying to achieve its goals. Several possibilities (signature campaign, protest in court meeting etc) could be pursued. The president hoped that the new EC will be able to rejuvenate the sagging morale of the FA.

4. The Secretary presented the report of the activity till date:
• The EC and office bearers have met twice since the last GBM to plan the activities.The Office bearers of FA met the Registrar on two occasions; however the Registrar could not make any definite commitments without consulting the Director. An appointment with the director was sought more than a month before the GBM. However till date an appointment was not given since the Director was travelling out of Bangalore frequently.
• The secretary also informed the members that seven nominations have been received for the Staff Appreciation Award. He urged the members to send more nominations in the next three days. The president has formed a committee consisting of Jayant Haritsa (chair), Abinandanan, Arunan and Venkataraman to select the awardees.
• 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 report of the elections to the new executive committee of the FA was presented by the returning officers (Shivaprakash and Abinandanan). Six members of the EC were retiring while another seven were continuing. Out of the six vacancies, four nominations were received and therefore elected unopposed. They were Kumaran (Chem engg), Umapathy (IPC), Nandakumaran (MA) and Adinarayana Murthy (ISU). The officers requested that two more EC members be elected on the floor. The members proposed and seconded the names of Shivakumar and Raju which was accepted by the candidates. The returning officers declared K.R. Shivakumar (CAF) and S. Raju (MBU) as elected to the EC.
6. Items from Members
• The vice president (B. Ananthanarayan) informed the members that while the main focus of the FA was housing, it has not been idle on other issues. For example the issue of provident fund (GPF/CPF) has been taken up by the FA. Ananth also pointed out that more faculty have to participate and the FA is only as good as its members. He urged members to send hard copies with all supporting documents before action can be taken by the EC.
• The issue of disparity between TO's and other staff was raised by Ravishankar. He pointed out that certain benefits such as telephone reimbursement has to be extended to the TO's. Another glaring discrepancy was that while TO-grade3 and PRS are eligible for E-type quarters, SSO and AP are not. Also the TO evaluation policy has been increased to 7 years resulting in discrimination. Several members pointed out that many of these problems arise because the institute does not follow clear cut rules. Earlier, designation (instead of basic pay) was the guideline for house allotment etc. But now most central government benefits use basic pay as the guideline. Members urged that this issue should be resolved in the FA and then taken up with the administration.
• It was pointed out that IISc reimburses only BSNL landline telephone expenses. Other vendors such as Tata and mobile telephones are not covered. It was felt that in this age of liberalisation and information revolution, this distinction is unwarranted.
• FA action on the housing issue was open for discussion. The members agreed with the president that a letter with supporting signatures be sent for discussion in the next court meeting. The president requested a small committee consisting of Abinandanan, Kumaran and Debasis to draft the letter and send a copy to the Court members. It was pointed out by Prabhu that the housing issue is one of several examples in which the institute lacks vision. He appealed to the FA to consider the problem of long term vision of the institute. A draft document of vision for IISc has already been prepared by K.V.S. Hari and should be considered seriously.

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