GS Hostel Affairs Review: Abbas Ali Bohra

The Institute General Body Meets (GBMs) are conducted twice every year with the intent to provide all students a convenient mechanism to provide feedback and addressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dress concern to the student representatives responsible for various amenities on campus.

The General Secretary Hostel Affairs GBM is scheduled from 7:45 PM on 30th March at the IRCC Auditorium (SOM).

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Manifesto Analysis

A point-by-point analysis of the manifesto can be found here.

General Policy

The Hostel Affairs council acts as the representative of the students for any topic that does not fall under the purview of Acads, Sports and Cult. This means that the ambit of the HA council is huge and varied and the present council tried to bring about a lot of meaningful change by being a link of communication between the administration and the students.

The council actively tried to include students into the discussion with open houses in the first semester and feedback forms floated throughout the year on a number of issues and having an in-general high visibility agenda.

One of the major issues for initiatives of the HA council to be completed is the near-total dependence on the administration for proposals to be accepted and implemented upon. Insight is aware of this issue and we have tried to be as subjective as possible with marking the initiatives (see below for the manifesto analysis). We request the reader to go through the progress of each initiative to be better aware of the efforts of this council.

The TumTum Tumult

The Mid-semester exams in the autumn semester were marred by the TumTum drivers going on a strike. The reason for the strike were numerous, and more detailed coverage of that can be found here. The HA council was a direct party to the discussions. As a result of the strike and the soured relations between the Drivers’ Union and the administration, most of the initiatives planned were put on hold until the situation stabilised. [pullquote]As a result of the strike and the soured relations between the Drivers’ Union and the administration, most of the initiatives planned were put on hold until the situation stabilised.[/pullquote]The present situation is that from the next semester, a committee comprising of student representatives will have near-total control over all workings of the TumTums.

Thus almost all the initiatives pertaining to TumTums planned this year should be completed in the next semester.

The Hospital

The council circulated a form early in the autumn semester asking for complaints and suggestions for the IITB Hospital. The overwhelmingly negative response compelled the Director to set up a committee to look into the matter. The committee incorporated all of the suggestions put forth by the HA council in their report. Work on these changes is underway and initiatives like outsourcing of medical care, digitisation of medical records should be completed by the next semester, depending on the pace at which the authorities take up these issues.[pullquote]The overwhelmingly negative feedback about the hospital compelled the Director to set up a committee to look into the matter.[/pullquote] Some of the proposals have prompted the committee to consider extending these changes to the faculty and non-teaching staff as well. The hospital guidebook, too, was released at the start of this semester.

Digitization of campus

The tenure also saw a push to get the Hostel framework digitised. Room allotment for freshmen was done through the Dynamic Room Portal for the first time and plans are underway to bring the entire Institute under this. The Guest Accommodation Booking System proposal has also been approved by ASC and the implementation of the system is dependent on them. To circumvent the inevitable delay, the council attempted to create an accurate database of the Institute accommodation based on room numbers and roll numbers through the room conditioning forms. The response was about 30 percent and the form will be re-circulated until the entire campus has been documented.

The proposal for an Application Tracking System was discarded because of MB’s decision to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The system will mean that all transactions/decisions/applications will become completely paperless and transparent.

Another initiative in the pipeline is to use NFC technology to make all item issuances through the IITB ID card. The app has been prepared and the implementation is in the final phase.

Institute Facilities

Initiatives like the uni-sex hair salon and the food court were put on the back-burner by the administration by deferring them to the Multi-Storey Complex to be built between H1 and H15. The expected time of completion of this complex is 2-3 years in the least. However, approval for the pizza joint to be built near Sunrise Dhaba has been given and talks are in the final stages with vendors.

Most of the initiatives regarding institute eateries and vending machines are subject to approval from the Eateries Committee.[pullquote]The Eateries Committee has been convened multiple times, but has seen no attendance from any stakeholders from the administration and the initiatives are stuck in the proposal stage.[/pullquote] This committee has been convened multiple times, but has seen no attendance from any stakeholders from the administration and thus these initiatives are stuck in the proposal stage.

Here’s the summary of the GSHA’s performance: