The Fine Print Issue 4, April 2014 | Page 2

PRESIDENT REVIEW ditya Bhatt, President of the BITS Student Union 2013-2014, has the constant expression of a man of action, answering phone call after phone call while trying to fulfill all his duties. One look at his manifesto, however, and you will realize how far he is from actually fulfilling some of the points mentioned therein. On being asked about this, he promptly says that, with two weeks left for the semester to end, the forgotten manifesto points will be realized and taken to completion ‘soon’. We take a look at the hits and misses of his tenure. Meal cancellation Pre-fest meet Career Mentorship Cell Aditya did try taking this up with the institute, but the latter was pretty adamant on not having it, least of all this year. The institute thinks that the stability the fragile mess system has managed to achieve should not be disturbed. True, but Aditya should have known that this was a major hurdle even when the manifesto point was being framed. A session happened in the SAC amphitheater around a month before APOGEE. Oobleck and the robotics exhibition were suggested during this meeting. The goal was to hold not only a “post mortem” session, but also to have a pre-fest session along similar lines where all students are invited. Although it did happen before APOGEE, it was not adequately publicized and the turn-out from the general populace was poor. It ended up being a meeting of cocoordinators, which would have happened anyway. The ‘BITSAA Career Center’ team has been set up, but hasn’t started functioning. Aditya says that all the work required from his part has been done and that it can start functioning only after the same amount of work is put in from the other campuses as well. Online Presence and BITS App The website has been made; the team has been set up. All that is missing is a server for the site to go online; missing for quite a while now. This was a major point in Aditya Bhatt’s manifesto, partly because there were other points, like advertising club/ department events and voting for RAF movies which depended on it. The server has been down for almost eight months now, and you will hardly get anything but a ‘coming soon’ from the president if you inquire about the same. RO purifiers The tenders have been allotted and the purifiers are on their way. RO purifiers are expensive, and have now been snuck into the SWD budget. The initial idea was to have a centralized purification plant, but that was scrapped. SR and MB Redis NCC wing Yes, they are finally here. The MB Redi is Vaibhav Singh’s achievement, the SR one is Aditya’s. The delay of nearly two semesters seems to have finally paid off, for the SR Redi is cheap and offers decently good pleasures for the gastronomically adventurous. The NCC wing inside the campus simply could not be set up. The sole reason is the lack of a ground. He says it cannot happen for another couple of years for the same reason. Sounds like the kind of thing you would look into before putting it in your manifesto. When asked about the most challenging hurdle Aditya Bhatt had to face during his ongoing tenure, he said it was APOGEE – a fest which had been running in losses north of 5 lakhs every year and very lowly participation. and The SU team led by him managed to get 870 outstation participants along with profits in both Oasis and APOGEE. Aditya organized a boycott against the rising ANC prices and was phenomenal in bringing them down, much to the delight of all BITSians. He also screened India’s T 20 World Cup matches for all to see. Though some of his promises may not have come true, Aditya Bhatt seems to have tried quite hard to please the students in matters which concern their daily lives.