A group of senior Ph.D. students at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) organized a protest on November 23rd against a sudden order by the administration asking them to move from single occupancy arrangements to a different hostel.
Why did the students protest?
The administration allegedly made the decision in 2016 to shift Ph.D. students from single occupancy rooms to shared spaces beyond their five years of Ph.D. due to a hostel crunch brought on by the demolition of various unstable hostel buildings and to disincentivize an extension of Ph.D. programs beyond 5 years.
A mail sent by the administration reads, "As per the orders of the competent authority, all 2018 Ph.D. students (joined in July 2018/ December 2018) are required to shift to double occupancy in Hostel 4/Tansa/Hostel 12 (for boys)/Hostel 10 (old wing) (for girls).”
Students have been asked to move to their new hostels by December, with every hostel having different dates - ranging from December 10 to the end of the month. In a statement released by the affected Ph.D. students, they have asked the management for an open house for transparency of communication and to reinstate the 6-year single occupancy accommodation for students of the July 2018 and December 2018 batch.
#We Want Open House
After a lack of positive communication by the college, the students organized a silent protest with banners that said "#Institute of #Incapacity" and "#We Want Open House". The students felt slighted by the sudden implementation of a rule that they had not been informed of when they joined the institution and had not been communicated during the tenure of their hostel stay. A student who is hampered due to this decision said that the last year of their program is crucial to their research.
The student added that they work till late at night and give interviews which cannot be done in the presence of a roommate. The student said, "We are the COVID batch. We have already lost more than a year to COVID without access to labs and field research. We need this extra time to make up for it."
