By Jasim Mohammad,
The new Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah has completed one year in the office. He joined the AMU on 18th May 2012 and his track record of one year speak itself. When Zameer Uddin Shah joined the AMU, it was in trouble. Law and order situation in the campus was at low and the University was passing through bad times.
First of all after joining the University the Vice-Chancellor Zameeruddin Shah began efforts to put it back on rails. He imposed strict discipline on the campus and in the days to come he took strict actions against those who violated rules or broke the discipline. This actions has sent a strong message to all in the campus and one can see the state of discipline among the students as well as faculty today.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Zameer Uddin Shah
Dinning Hall of the residential halls were the area which affected a lot to students. The health and energy of students were dependant on the quality of food. Zameeruddin Shah paid his attention to kitchen and decided to provide good quality food to the young generation. He embarked upon the modernizing the kitchen and began process of contracting the modern technological meat factories for the supply of meat to dinning halls. He provided Bain Marie Roti Makar and stopped manual bread making and also took decision for the steam cookers. It seems that Zameeruddin Shah used his military experience of mess in the AMU.
Overall Zameer Uddin Shah made efforts to regain Minority Status of AMU. He went on to modernize the syllabi according to need of industry. A new faculty of International Studies has been decided to establish. The proposed faculty will encompass International Relations, Geo-Strategy, Security, key Foreign Languages and high quality research work. The basic courses will be BA (Hons.), MA, PG Diploma(s) and M.Phil./PhD programmes. The faculty of International Studies will have eight major departments of studies including the Department of Foreign Languages specially focusing on the teaching of Chinese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.
Present Vice-Chancellor also succeeded in getting sanction of 213 crore rupees for the AMU centres at murshidabad (West Bengal) and Mallapuram (Kerala). He intend starting school level education at the two centres. Initially teaching for Class IX will be commenced with an intake of 90 students at both the centres. Further, a B.Ed. Course will also be introduced at these centres with an intake of 60 students. Efforts are being made to upgrade AMU centres to full fledged minority universities.
Foremost among the reforms, is that Zameer Uddin Shah tried to re-establish culture, and traditions of Aligarh once again. There was a demand for restoration of tradition of “Introduction” so that seniors could teach “Tahzeeb” to freshers. He intend having “orientation get-togethers” to encourage camaraderie amongst students under strict control of teachers and wardens.
Academically Lt. General Zameeruddin Shah began streamlining the academic activities on the campus. His first priority was upgradation of facilities in the J.N. Medical College that had earned a bad name in poor sanitation and patient care. He tried to bring a positive change in the overall image of the J.N. Medical College and with the increase in the annual grant of the College. He look forward to upgrading it to the status of AIIMS.
The University has decided to upgrade all the University maintained School to the level of Senior Secondary School and Class XI teaching will be started in these schools from the forthcoming session. The MHRD has also approved the upgradation of ABK Union High School to Kendriya Vidyalaya standards and the necessary grant has also been released for it.
Zameer Uddin Shah plan to establish a Central Museum in the University for advanced research and studies in Musicology and conserving the artifacts scattered in different locations. All the materials of archaeological importance scattered in the University including the Archaeological section, will be provided better space and importance and will be preserved will a professional approach. Researchers working in the University and also those from outside institutions will hugely benefit with the proposed change. The Central Museum will open from 8 am to 5 pm on all working days. The Department of Musicology and History will jointly work towards professional conservation of the artifacts and developing a state-of-the-art Central Museum.
The Advance Diploma in Environmental Engineering (ADEE) course has also been re-launched from the session 2013-14 at the University Polytechnic while the Centre of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research has been upgraded to a full-fledged Department of Cardiology. A DM (Cardiology) course will also be started in this department.
Zameer Uddin Shah did not confined himself to the betterment of the students and extended his concerns to the faculty. He addressed problems of Faculty members. He is committed to conducting selection committee meetings for filling all vacant positions in due course of time. Three dozen teaching positions lying vacant in JN Medical College and Dental College have been filled through marathon selection committees held over the past few days. 28 selection committees have been held in Medical and Dental College in the last four days.
Further presently the Vice-Chancellor is available to ordinary students and that has increased their trust and confidence level. He is giving students time to meet regularly. Students air their views after Friday prayers and there is time reserved for them to meet him in the office between 3-4 pm, where University dress is compulsory according to AMU culture.
He did not spared the sports too. Sports facilities were on his top priority. These facilities are not being fully utilized. Basket Ball and Volleyball courts have been constructed in every hall of residence. An Indoor Badminton Court had been inaugurated and we hope to have an Olympic size open air swimming pool of international standard in the University for boys. The present swimming pool will be made exclusively for girls.
He plan to establish a Hockey Academy in the University to prepare students for national and international level games and bring back to the University its glory and pride in hockey. He had discussed the proposition with the Olympian and former Indian Hockey Captain Mr. Zafar Iqbal. The Hockey Astro Turf of international standard had been constructed in the University and now national and international level matches could be organized in AMU.
Old boys of the AMU have always played a vital role in the development of the University. Zamer Uddin Shah, urged AMU alumni to come forward to help their alma mater as it was the time to pay back. No institution can make progress in infrastructure development without the help and assistance from its alumni. AMU alumni world-wide have passion and love for their alma mater and will be generous in grants for development of AMU.
A visit to the campus reveal that presently the campus is academically on move and the AMU is heading towards academic excellence. This is the time when every section of the University and saner elements of the society should come forward to cooperate with the Vice-Chancellor in retrieving the Aligarian culture and pushing AMU on top. END
(Jasim Mohammad is the editor of The Aligarh Movement monthly magazine and can be reached atjasimmd@gmail.com)