In continuation to my last post. I wrote the following on newsgroups inside IITK:

I think its important that’s why I writing it. I am anyways going to post it
on my blog as well.

Note : I haven’t read what all people have been saying on this thread.
(apart from 3-4 posts from some people I know)

I was discussing with it with some friends, and came to some good
conclusions…..

0) So, the first problem is that students here do not know what they want
from this place. They do not know what they want from life. They do not
have right information. Students when come here don’t know nothing about
nothing. So, we should have a questionnaire/review system. A system which
will ask students to answer some questions. People wouldn’t evaluate it,
but this questionnaire will make students think. Student will think want
they want from themselves. Students will think whats right and whats wrong.
We can have this questionnaire thing every semester. This will not only
make them think, they will tend to ask questions about possibilities they
have.
0.1) First supporting point to the fact that student don’t think of their
future and they don’t think logically is that lot of students are going to
financial jobs, without even knowing what finance is. I can surely say 90%
of people are going to finance without even thinking what their future is
gonna be, and without knowing what exactly they shall be doing (If you are
one of those who is going for a finance job, and think I am wrong, please
don’t reply. I don’t time to explain you why you are wrong.)

1) Student interaction : I find that people coming out for different
festivals are more or less same. You will find same guy working in Megabuck
and Techkriti. These big festival are big, but they are not attracting many
students (IITK students) as participants. We need something else so that
people will come out. We need a way so that people from different years
could come and talk at *same* stage, rather than with senior-junior ego.
1.1) I strongly propose that we should have a good place where people could
come and hang out. CC Canteen isn’t an enough place. We need a place where
I could sit for long time, where I could “hang out”. CC canteen isn’t a
place where you sit for long time. And anyways the kind of food we get here
isn’t good enough. CR sucks. I don’t remember even a single visit to CR
when I didn’t shout at the workers. This “good” place will serve in many
ways. A big problem with IITK life is that there is no happening place
around us. We need a happening place in or around IITK. These “happening”
places help you in lot of ways. All your tensions from acads/parents can be
removed. And you stand on a stage where there is no senior and there is no
junior. These places will trigger interaction. Someone suggested dance
place, but I don’t think thats possible. So, a normal food court sort of
place with probably good music would be a good idea. A place where students
will get good food, and also a good place to sit. A place where they will
come to have fun. Do you know of any place where you go to have fun apart
from your room where you sit in front of your computer. And also, remember
the kind of sucky and *unnutritious* food you get in mess. Seriously, why
do we need mess when it can not serve nutritious food. One main reason why
I am not doing a PhD from IITK is that I know my life will be sucky for
next 3-4 years. I will have to spend my time inside a small area with no
place where I could go to enjoy myself.
1.2) Why don’t we have a proper air conditioned SAC Rasoi. Make it a common place to hang out. Let it be a little bit extra expensive, but make it proper. Every now and then we have domino guys coming, why don’t we have a proper Rasoi in SAC instead. We have such a huge place about rasoi as well, we can utilize it to the best.

1.3) Mixed hall system in which 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students live together
is a good option. They get interact with each other. You may say that 1st
year can anyways interact with 2nd year, but its not good enough. 2nd year
students are *stupid*. They know nothing. I remember my first year when I
used to ask my seniors (2nd year mainly) what I should do to go for MS. I
remember their replies, it was all bullcrap. 3rd still knows something. I
wonder if all four year students could stay together. Can we

2) Happy Hours : CSE started a cool thing. We have a regular weekly meeting of faculty and students. Faculty and students interact informally about different issues. We talk about personal stuffs as well. We should have such happy hours thing in every department. This way faculty-student interaction will increase (which right now is very less). Not only that faculty knows a broader and better picture of the IIT world. They can talk better about what students can do. They have the right knowledge. Students can clarify their queries. Also students wouldn’t feel alien.

3) BTech Hons and BTech Minor : I got to know that IITB has this system now. You have a set of options. You can do BTech Hons, which is a bit harder than normal BTech, and you can do BTech which is 4-5 course less than normal BTech. You can decide to switch between them whenever you want. You can also do some courses in other department and get BTech Minor in that field. This way, you don’t have to spend time on wasteful difficult courses, and can spend some quality time on courses that you want to do. And if you find that you don’t want to be in technical field anymore, you can always opt for just BTech, and get a degree and then can join MBA/finance job whatever you want. This way the load can be decreased for those who are not able to /don’t want to take extra pressure.
3.1) Also, stop calling BTech as four year degree. Its a Btech/MTech, thats it. When you get your degree shouldn’t be important.

But for eff’s sake, do/suggest something “constructive”. Rather than just asking for decreasing academic pressure. Yes, stupid courses and stupid instructors are there, but why are we not able to ignore that? Parent?, to hell with them if they are not able to think constructive.

rohitj
PS: Last year, my views were different. I wouldn’t say they were wrong, but weren’t very broad enough I guess. So, if you find my views switched, my apologies.