GS Academic Affairs UG: Manifesto Review

**Click on individual manifesto points to get a more descriptive understanding.

Events in red are those that haven’t been started or there has been no satisfactory development in this regard.
Events in blue are those that have been initiated but not completed, or there have been some developments in this regard.
Events in green are those that have been completed as described in the manifesto, or have seen satisfactory developments.

Academic Resources and Infrastructure

Better Study Facilities

[gsreview title=”24×7 study rooms equipped with WiFi and air-conditioned study rooms close to/in hostels” color=”blue”]The proposal has been approved by the office of the Dean IPS. The construction should start early into the next tenure.[/gsreview]

Food Outlets in the Academic Area

[gsreview title=”Food outlets and coffee machines near the library, LCH and study rooms to be be setup” color=”blue”]There have been talks on this matter with the GSHA and the Library Committee has approved the proposal. There exist security concerns with respect to vendors, so vending machines are to be installed.[/gsreview]

Enabling Better Resource Management

[gsreview title=”Develop an Academic Archive containing reference material of past course offerings” color=”red”]This was discussed over a few meetings but was not carried on further due to logistic issues. Course Rank, however, has been expanded and will be used by DAMP teams to put reviews rather than putting them up on the DAMP blogs. Some departments already follow this practice but it is yet to be compiled systematically.[/gsreview]

ASC Reformations

[gsreview title=”Launch SMS Notification Service for communicating online update of grades on ASC” color=”red”]This initiative was debated over and was found to not have much utility, unless in urgent cases such as waitlisting in summer courses, and hence was not carried forward.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Revise course descriptions and add information regarding eligibility, tagging options and prerequisites” color=”blue”]There has been partial progress on this front with the list of courses requested from ASC in order to forward it to the professors to get the syllabus and content related to it.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Extend list of prerequisites to include equivalent courses which can act as substitutes for existing ones” color=”red”]This has been left to department councils as they would be better suited to do this though there hasn’t been enough cooperation from them. Electrical Engineering is one of the only departments to have done this.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Ensure creation of centralized online fine portal for ease and convenience of students” color=”red”]The discussion on this subject is still going in library committee and will take some time before the portal is ready.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Online Approval System for dropping courses, registration rule exception and tagging approval to reduce needless paperwork, effort and thus speed up academic registration” color=”green”]The online approval system for tagging is in place but the administration wants to have the dropping of courses to be offline.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Ensure the online application for official transcripts and reissue of ID Card” color=”red”]Currently, the reissue of the ID Card requires the filing of an FIR and hence making this online hasn’t been possible. There is no official permission from the administration to have the transcript online but discussions are in progress to make the ASC marksheet work as the official transcript.[/gsreview]

Student Support

Mock Pre-registrations
[gsreview title=”Launch a Dummy Registration System wherein a tentative list of department-wise courses will be floated thus enabling the departments to identify and run popular courses” color=”red”]This move was expected to be a really important step towards finding what courses are preferred by students and where the interests of students lie. However, it couldn’t take off due to spam registrations and logistic difficulties.[/gsreview]

Summer School
[gsreview title=”Organize IIT-Bombay Non-Technical Summer School that includes mini-courses on web development, finance, marketing, analytics, consultancy and foreign languages” color=”green”]One of the most successful events of the tenure, it saw over 400+ registrations across batches.[/gsreview]

Sophomore Handbook
[gsreview title=”Prepare a comprehensive handbook for to-be sophomores, detailing information regarding Minor/Honor structure, tagging rules, popular courses and project opportunities” color=”blue”]Work is underway on this project and should be ready by the time the next batch of sophomores comes in.[/gsreview]

Online Grievance Portal
[gsreview title=”Facilitate immediate addressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dressing of problems on Query and Grievance Portal during course registration period by creating a live forum for the same” color=”green”]This initiative was a pretty welcomed one with quick replies to queries.[/gsreview]

Mid Semester Feedback
[gsreview title=”Reinitiate mid-semester feedback of courses” color=”red”]This was lobbied for with the administration but has not allowed formally due to logistics issues. One of the major glitches in this is that the data is made available to the professors only after 2-3 months, which makes no sense since the term has come to an end by then[/gsreview]

Social Initiative
[gsreview title=”Propose to provide institutional resources and administrative support to Group for Rural Activities” color=”blue”]A cabinet for social activities has been proposed and is in the final stages of approval from the Dean SA and would cover Abhyuday, NSS, Samwad, GRA but not Abhyasika.[/gsreview]

Policy Reforms

Variable Credit Courses
[gsreview title=”Propose to offer a separately graded 2 credit research project with 6 credit courses having such a possibility” color=”red”]The proposed scheme is beyond the purview of the GSAA.[/gsreview]

Tagging window for internship processes
[gsreview title=”Propose to open tagging window at the start of 5th semester to benefit students for internship process and minor allotment.” color=”red”]The move wasn’t deemed to be urgently required and hence wasn’t taken ahead.[/gsreview]

Relaxed CPI Criteria
[gsreview title=”Propose to relax eligibility criteria for holding PORs by allowing students with one FR and an appropriately decided CPI cut-off” color=”red”]The point was discussed before the SAC meeting but the Dean refused to change the current stance with the reason that academics are the topmost priority for students at IIT.[/gsreview]

DAMP Coordinators to be included in DUGC
[gsreview title=”Proposal put up in UGPC meeting with aid from ISMP Coordinators” color=”blue”]This has been thoroughly discussed and would be recommended to DUGCs/ or taken up in HOD meeting.[/gsreview]

UG First Year

Teaching Assistants
[gsreview title=”Propose compulsory TA training for freshman courses focusing on pedagogy and student engagement” color=”red”]Some of the professors already do this. It wasn’t considered to be urgent enough to be followed up at that time.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Compile a contacts list of TAs and Teaching Volunteers for freshman and sophomore year courses” color=”red”]Not done.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Allot TA contact hours for concept and doubt clarification” color=”red”]In general regular TAs do chalk out extra time when asked upon by students to clear upon their doubts. Hence the need to impose this rule as a compulsion upon them was deemed unnecessary.[/gsreview]

Resume Aids
[gsreview title=”Create Resume Generator app to ease resume making process for sophomores” color=”blue”]This is currently approaching its final stages of development and should be ready soon.[/gsreview]

Language Classes
[gsreview title=”Early identification of academically weak students by ISMP mentors for special tutorial sessions and English proficiency workshops” color=”green”]British council workshops have been conducted for students weak in English, with hindi classes for students weak in English and comfortable with Hindi.[/gsreview]

Research Promotion

Management and Allocation of Projects for Students (MAPS)
[gsreview title=”Integrate Re-Search, Industrial Learning Program and Student Profile for listing available projects with comprehensive project description and categorization based on requisite skills.
Create a Project Proposal Interface where students can put forth their project ideas LabCAST: Publish introductory videos of various research labs” color=”blue”]This initiative is currently under progress[/gsreview]

eAlmanac – Online Institute Academic Calendar
[gsreview title=”Launch an online institute-wide events calendar including details of seminars, talks, institute symposiums and workshops;
Provide information about scholarships and student exchange programmes with important deadlines appearing on the calendar;
Equip with selective subscription feature and develop an Android extension of the same to facilitate notification of subscribed events” color=”red”]This wasn’t taken ahead because of several difficulties, the major one being that most of the workshops/lectures being organized involve outsiders, and the events get fixed only few days before the event happens. In such a scenario, it isn’t feasible to implement the mentioned system to its fullest efficiency.[/gsreview]

Social Impact Courses
[gsreview title=”Increase the accessibility of social development projects and enable CTARA project registration on ASC” color=”red”]Not much work has been done compared to the previously available content.[/gsreview]

Technopreneurship
[gsreview title=”Promote technopreneurship by collaborating with SINE and providing support to technical projects” color=”green”]Was conducted in association with Student Alumni Meet, ITSP and Technovation this year.[/gsreview]

Department Research Committee (DRC)
[gsreview title=”Initiate a DRC by nominating students depending upon the department’s requirement who will work in coordination with EnPOWER” color=”red”]This move wasn’t deemed necessary since the MAPS portal – which would have been the biggest responsibility – wasn’t in place. The Dean SA recommended that the introduction of positions of Department Research Coordinators under Department Council, could possibly be brought up in HOD meetings in future if the need is felt.[/gsreview]

Department Student Faculty Interaction
[gsreview title=”Organize a Department Open Day along with Department Traditional Day wherein freshmen can visit labs to learn about the research carried out and interact with department professors and seniors” color=”green”]Done.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Promote release of Department Newsletter outlining research and achievements of students and faculty” color=”red”]Dean RnD had a research and media cell set up but it did not pick up very well.[/gsreview]

Career Cell

Placement 101
[gsreview title=”A series of seminars and workshops for pre-final year students to spread knowledge of viable job profiles and skills like English Speaking, Group Discussions and Interview expertise conducted by alumni and experts in relevant fields in collaboration with PT Cell and SARC” color=”green”]Successful sessions were conducted with career cell videos and an excellent website as well.Summary of sessions put up was put up and the FB group, along with the online resource folder was extremely useful for people applying abroad.[/gsreview]

LetsApp
[gsreview title=”Enhance the Apping Database with details regarding GRE scores, Letters of Recommendation, Work Experience and Research Papers from pre-final year students” color=”green”]Done.[/gsreview]

Placementpedia
[gsreview title=”Ensure a consolidated central database of resource materials relevant to various job profiles and companies which can be accessed by everyone, including links to useful websites, relevant books and list of relevant courses ” color=”blue”]Placement feedback has been taken, info has been compiled and will be put up on website soon.[/gsreview]

Lecturers’ Committee
[gsreview title=”Follow up on the series of guest lectures by eminent speakers to further round off the personalities of graduating students and provide a platform for students and faculty to interact and engage in meaningful debate with the best minds in the contemporary fields of interest ” color=”red”]As such no committee was formed due to not much interest from the professionals/ alumni/ speakers.[/gsreview]