August 12th, Tuesday, 5:15 to 7:15 pm
|3115 | Bring a pen | Ph: 8742023898
Page 3: A Review of the Changes
Around Campus This Semester
Page 2: BITSians Round the Globe
Celebrated 2nd Ever BITSians’ Day
THE FINE PRINT
ENGLISH
PRESS
CLUB
PRESENTS
hunting. To make matters worse many concerned
individuals (or rather, pairs of individuals) were
dismayed to see Shiv-G barricaded off after a
certain curfew hour in the night. (More about that
later anyway).
SEMESTER I
ISSUE I
PILANI
AUGUST 2014
Then there are the so-called affirmations that tell
you that you are back in BITS, even before the
aftermath of the long break drifts away - the
intense clamour for interesting juniors, late night
departmental wars in MB over a rare member of
the fairer sex, DC, Pappuji. Which reminds me,
welcome aboard freshers! Surely you have had your
fair share of the abovementioned already.
THE NEW HOSTEL BLOCK
FOUR continuous days of aloo in the mess coupled
with never ending beads of perspiration is probably
not the most ideal welcome one would have
imagined they would receive after two and a half
months of lethargy and good food/PS/college-
reckon 'has sprouted out of nowhere during the
vacations'. This one is located in front of Ashok
Bhawan and is ready to be occupied. The Bhawan
has 203 single rooms and is supposedly meant for
higher degree students. The hostel is comprised of
three blocks, and the rooms in each block have air
insulated walls to help cope up with the extremes. A
laundry room seems to have made its debut in this
hostel, but washing machines and the likes haven't
yet found their way here. Cots with storage boxes
and fancy computer tables with sliding keyboard
panels are part of the furniture in the new hostel
block. Touche.
RENOVATION OF RAM BHAWAN
While Pilani still remains the hamlet it has always
been and while a few routines of the campus die
hard, change has suddenly, conspicuously seemed
to have crept into the walls of BITS Pilani. Project
Parivartan has been in the buzz for quite sometime
now (for more information, refer our previous
issues on facebook.com/thefineprintonline). The most
obvious evidence to this is the yellow-and-whitepainted Sir C. V. Raman Bhawan that some still
Meanwhile, work on Ram Bhawan is going on with
gusto, with the Convenor of Project Parivartan, Dr.
R. K. Mittal promising its completion by October.
Buddh and Meera Bhawans are next in line for a
massive haul over. The new Ram Bhawan may
sport a few surprises of its own, such as a notable
badminton court in the QT and possibly WiFi
connectivity.
Many rumors about strong winds of change here at Pilani have been doing
the rounds all summer. The grapevine is heavy with speculation, dread and protest.
The Fine Print speaks to the Chief Warden, President and General Secretary to set
the record straight and get an idea of what might come to be. Most whispers we have
heard over the vacation do seem to have been founded on truths. But while some
policy changes are going to be effective almost immediately, some are definitely on
the back burner for a long time.
TAKING TIME OFF
Prof. C. B. Das, the Chief Warden, says that the institute is making an effort to
equalize the number of working days at Pilani, Hyderabad and Goa so as to
smoothen cross-campus programs such as common Telepresence lectures. The
shortening of fests’ duration to three-and-a-half days as well as the proposed
scrapping of SU-declared holidays are to this end. He says that the faculty feels that
the fests reduce the academic involvement of the students.
Outgoing General Secretary Vaibhav Singh feels that these measures are not
required, as the other two campuses probably declare local holidays that Pilani
doesn’t. President Aditya Bhatt says that the institute must look into other solutions,
such as the recording of video lectures. Both leaders point out that such steps will
negatively affect the quality of our fests.
(...continued on page 3)
(...continued on page 3)
It has been a very pressing issue for the BITSian populace for
quite some time now. It has even been used as a campaigning tactic and
has had its share of vehement deliberation on the social media as well.
Taking note of this recent uproar against persistent fee hikes, Vice
Chancellor B. N. Jain finally addressed students across the three
campuses on 7th August 2014, shedding light on the matter from the
institute perspective.
The sombre event started off with the Vice Chancellor stating the exact
percentage increase in fees since 2010- 12% for the first two years and
14% in the year gone by. The rest of the session was spent going over
the reasons for the nearly two-fold hike in fees. The primary cause was
attributed to the increasing inflation with an annual inflation rate of
nearly 9-10% for the past 5 years. The fee hike of 12-14% can be
divided into an inflationary increase of 9-10% and the rest 3-4% for
improvement measures, he explains. On the same note, he also assures
students that although the fee hike is a definite annual measure, the
percentage increase will go down in case of a reduced inflation rate in the
future.
(...continued on page 3)