The IIT Delhi administration organised an open house with the director of the institution at its campus on Thursday as a response to students protesting a recent suicide that took place on the campus.
Varad Sanjay Nerkar, an MTech student committed suicide last week. This is the fourth student suicide that the campus has seen this academic year. The students have been protesting against the administration, demanding the formation of an inquiry committee to investigate the suicide.
The student representatives conducted surveys to collect responses from over 2,000 students of the institution to form a comprehensive list of demands. According to a student, the administration will respond to the demands presented by the students by next week.
The administration has also not formed an inquiry committee into Nerkar's death yet, the student added.
A large number of students participated in the open house, which took place in IIT Delhi's Open Air Theatre (OAT).
“The OAT was completely filled with students. Students don't have classes or lab this week so many turned up to express their grievances,” the student, who didn’t want to be named, said.
The minor exams of the students have also been postponed from February 26th to Feb 29th.
Student demands
According to over 1,100 undergraduate students who participated in the survey, their biggest problem is grading. The students have asked for a formal grading system that will specify the range of percentages for each letter grade.
Around 540 post-graduate students answered the survey, with more than 60% of them outlining career opportunities as their biggest problem. They have demanded that internships should be offered and integrated along with the Office of Career Services.
PhD students have asked for mandatory open houses every three months to discuss their problems. They have also asked for a three-month window for all new PhD students to change their supervisor.
An RTI filed by the student representatives shows that IIT Delhi has the highest SGPA (6.75 to 7) criteria for the continuation of the stipend. The students have demanded that the SGPA criterion be reduced to 6 for stipend and for other reserved categories to be revised accordingly because the discontinuation becomes a huge burden on students due to Delhi’s high cost of living.
