Saturday, September 29, 2007

Campus Development Report

What is this Report all about?
There are lots of things that are under-planned, wrongly-constructed, or mismanaged on our campus. No hot water some mornings, no cold water on others, no water at all sometimes.. Garbage burnt just below your window.. Dogs overturning dustbins in the loo.. Fungus on the wall.. Lights missing on the pathways.. No dustbins on the field, or in the nation's premier law library.. Trees cut down and benches 'de-constructed' overnight.. Canteen closes at 6 so in the pouring rain having to battle slush to get a cup of coffee to stay awake to finish that damn project.. TV not working, not enough chairs to sit on in the common room...
One of the main aims of this Report is to provide a list of the issues on campus that need to be tackled. Short term, medium term and long term. Equally important will be the Proposed Solutions which have a decent amount of research to back them up in terms of a Cost-Benefit-Analysis.
The other objective is to provide a vision statement sort of thing.. what do we, the student body, expect our campus to have within the next say 5 to 10 years? Do we want an amphitheater? A sports complex? A jogging track? A dance hall? (a bit of disciplined wishful thinking!)
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Why such a Report?
A comprehensive document of this sort will help both the general study body, the coming generations of committee members, the faculty, the admin and whoever is interested in either a general overview or detailed knowledge of the problems on campus and some of the possible solutions to them. We hope that such a document will show the students' interest and willingness to be a part of the decision making process and in future help us to demand to be consulted. If no one bothers about the Report we could maybe leak bits to the Press? (just a thought.. its a possibility though.. wouldnt they love to know that parts of our library collapsed soon after being built and that the committee set up to find out why has happily extended its deadline to infinity!?)
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If CDMC is busy doing this report then who's going to be dealing with urgent campus related issues when we want them to???
CDMC will not stop working its current responsibilities. The Report will be made simultaneously. We will also have a deadline sometime before the end of 2007 and that will make sure this gets done.
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How can such a small committee make such a comprehensive report?
Well we really need your help people. First, we are planning to take two co-opts at the beginning of the second trimester. Also, we will call on our honourary members to help us gather data, come up with ideas and goad us to stick to our deadlines. We would be really glad if you could offer your help in any respect. You can write to us at cdmc.nls@gmail.com or have a chat with a CDMC member whenever you catch hold of them. We need all the volunteers we can get!
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Priya - on behalf of Team CDMC :-)