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

held on 20 Sep 2002 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. Treasurer's report

5. Discussion items

(a) Vision for IISc

(b) Housing: Invited presentation by

Prof. Arup Raychaudhuri, Chairman of the Housing Allotment Committee

(c) Medical coverage

6. Any other items

1. The minutes of the previous GBM was sent by email to all members. However, a member objected in passing the minutes and demanded that the minutes be read and also pointed that the minutes of the GBM did not include his remarks. The minutes were read, proposed and seconded and passed.
2. A resolution not to take up any items concerning minutes of previous GBMs was proposed, seconded and passed. This would ensure proper utilisation of time for current matters.
3. The President made the following observations:
• Accomplishments: Mainly on issues concerning work and residential life of faculty. In my impression, convincing the administration on many of the issues is largely by attrition.
• Example of housing: enormous initial resistance, agreement on construction, later emphasis on management of allotment of existing housing, now addition conditional on X plan grant. Similarly on administartive reforms/efficiency, transparency etc.
• After many representations, Unit III has significantly improved. Commendable work has been done by Adinarayanamurthy. New Asstt Reg in charge of Unit III is also a faculty facilitator for young faculty. He can be approached for practically all issues (including admission to schools).
• FA has suggested a faculty mentor for young faculty.
• Campus maintenance; subway across to KV; traffic, creche etc.
• Phones, internet etc. – continuous ugradation needed.
• Need IT services Dept. – need follow-up work.
• Soul searching on role of FA – perhaps should also be on long term planning for institute. Participate in creating a vision for IISc?

4. The Secretary presented the report of the activity till date:
• The EC and office bearers have met several times to plan the activities.The Office bearers of FA met the Director on 09 May02, 02 Sep 02 and also met the Associate Director on 09 Sep 02.
• Housing: The details of the housing are in the newsletter. FA's position is that about 120 new E-type quarters need to be constructed.

Members noted:

· that there were many vacant D-type houses. But these are for other categories of employees.

· that FA should also look at possible ways IISc can help faculty to build personal housing which would help ease the problem.

• Medical coverage: It was noted that too frequent changes in the policy is not helpful and a long-term policy is needed (see newsletter for details) Also, IISc is paying too much compared to other institutions of similar size.

Members noted:

(a) that FA should seriously look at IISc offering a choice to faculty to choose their own individual medical insurance and not make CHSS mandatory.

(b) that FA should look at options of having a group insurance policy only for Faculty. Need to explore possibilities

(c) with an insurance company, where, for example, there is a 5-yr coverage for a larger sum of, say Rs 5 lakhs

• Phones: FA noted that while it has improved, more features like voice mail are needed. IISc has promised addition of about 300 more lines to the campus.

Members noted:

· every faculty member must have an indivudal phone line (at least) and also have a phone line for the associated lab.

• Internet: FA acknowledges improvement but need more bandwidth (2-3 times) and quality service. Need for an IT centre which will take care of all networking issues.

Members noted:

(a) Chairman, SERC, noted that the cost of bandwidth is very high and needs to be considered. Also, VSNL has problems which get reflected in the quality of service.

• There was a call for volunteers to address these and several other issues.

5. The Treasurer presented the financial status of the Association.
6. Chairman, Housing Allotment Committee made a presentation about the current status of housing on campus. The highlights are:
• Need for FA to take active role in housing. A suggestion to create a task force to address the housing situation and plan for the future.
• HAC is formulating the rules of housing and request to all faculty to vacate DDQ if offered eligible housing
• 15-20 D-type and 15-20 E-type need to be built to ensure that a faculty does not wait for more than 2 years
• HAC does not have admin control on maintenance of housing and so there is a delay in people being able to move into allotted housing.

7. There was a discussion about the vision for IISc and the possible manner in which IISc could collectively create a more vibrant IISc, which would reflect the aims and objectives of the Association too. It was observed that steps be taken to spread the joy of our academic profession to others to build a good base at other institutions and universities.

It was also observed that other institutions in the world do have strategic planning in this regard.

Members noted:

(i) that FA should not get into such issues and should focus on issues of importance like housing, medical, school etc.

(ii) that over the past few years, FA has been pursuing activities which address professional issues concerning faculty and could look at these issues too without abandoning important issues like housing etc.

(iii) that there is a need to create an atmosphere where we can reinvent continuously and use technology effectively

(iv) a teaching award be instituted by FA to recognise the efforts of faculty

(v) a brainstorming session be organised by FA on the FUTURE of IISc!

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