Staff crunch plagues IIMC

Moderator's Note: Betraying total ignorance about the history of IIMC and itsestablishment as a model centre of Mass Communication education for Non-Alignedcountries, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry official has admitted thatIIMC has adopted some "American model" that permits exploitation of contractteachers. She says, IIMC does not need faculty with PhD qualifications.She should enlighten the media and the IIMC students about some of theJournalism & Mass Communication Schools in the United States of America whichhas inspired her where PhD faculty is deemed a liability. or is she referring tosome Latin American model?.If IIMC is going to have university status in some remote future, it is bound tohave UGC norms for recruitment in keeping with the "Vision" of Information &Broadcasting Ministry officials like Kacker.The issue is what are the current norms that are being followed if any.Is she implying that in her "American Model" there is no space for Ph.D.program. Isn't PhD designed to provide a strong foundation for a career inteaching and research?. Is she aware that the Ph.D. programs are inherently andrigorously interdisciplinary?Isn't a research oriented approach required in the face of manifest shallownessin the current state of affairs?Is normlessness, chaos and a state of decay an "American model"?Moderator
Staff crunch plagues IIMC: The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is facing a majorstaff crunch and has been functioning without a director for nearly three yearsnow।In an extremely stretched stop-gap arrangement, the Information andBroadcasting Ministry has got one of its Joint Secretaries to holdadditional charge as IIMC Director and the institute has hired a teamof mostly ex-students as Academic Assistants and Coordinators to helpshare the burden of an understaffed and overworked faculty.Under the I&B Ministry, the institute has managed to fill 10 of the 24faculty positions with a core staff of just five professors. While theministry has only recently kick-started the process of recruiting anew director, it seems to be in no hurry to fill up vacant facultyslots। IIMC is conducting interviews for only two or three positionsand it is learnt that the response to the interview calls scheduledfor this week has not been good। The IIMC Director's post has earlierbeen held by the likes of Media Advisor to Indira Gandhi ShardaPrasad, former Chairman of Editor's Guild M V Desai, UNESCOcommunication expert Lakshman Rao and others.Joint Secretary in the I&B Ministry Stuti Kacker—who is also holdingcharge as Director IIMC—said the process to fill vacant positions ison but the ministry wants a "lean" faculty on the lines of theAmerican model."A search cum selection committee is already on the job looking for aDirector and we are in the process of filling up other positions aswell. We are looking at the US model which has a lean core staff and agood back-up of visiting/guest faculty," said Kacker.IIMC with a list of some 150 on its guest faculty list hardly managesto get 15-20 of them regularly for its Delhi centre. The DhenkanalIIMC centre in Orissa has just one Assistant Professor in charge andis bereft even of the privilege of a regular guest faculty."The autonomy of IIMC has eroded over the years. As many as sixfaculty members put in their papers last year because they were oncontract and were not being regularized. Frustrated, they took uphigher and better paying positions elsewhere. The ministry alsoinsists that UGC norms be followed for recruitment but we don't feelthe need for a PhD for faculty members. The lean staff now left holdsregular classes besides 35-40 short-term courses and practicallylittle or no leave. Naturally, teaching quality is also affected insuch a situation," said a faculty member on condition of anonymity.meanwhile, the Research department, Content Creation Project andIndian Information Service department are as good as defunct while thepost of Professor, Hindi Journalism, has been discontinued.Students in the latest batch, just a month into the session, arealready worried."I have enrolled for Hindi journalism and it seems no one is veryinterested in the course. We just have a single faculty member. Let'shope things will get better in the coming months," said a student.IIMC, meanwhile, nurses ambitious plans for the 11th Five year planenvisaging a university status offering undergraduate courses,restructured courses and a faculty of 64.

Anubhuti Vishnoi

September 07, 2007
Indian Express

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070906/48/6kfho.html

IIMC on the Brink

Interview for the post of Director, IIMC was conducted onAugust 24. IIMC had directors like Sharda Parsad, Media advisor to Mrs. Gandhi for a longtime, M V Desai, a known editor and chairman of Editors Guild for sometime, N LChawla, a close associate of Mrs. Gandhi. Lakshman Rao a renowned communicationexpert of UNESCO and others.Now IIMC is sliding so low under present political dispensation that theselection will be made by two bureaucrats i.e. Chairman of IIMC who happens tobe Secretary, Information & Broadcasting Ministry and Joint Secretary in thesame Ministry who is also Director of IIMC.The bureaucracy has destroyed the autonomy of IIMC to such an extent that nowall files related to IIMC are routed through various levels of the Ministry atlow level bureaucrats - not even officer of Joint Secretary rank. Earlier itused to be IIMC officials and Registrar who used to move the files for decisionmaking and it used to be decided by the Director, IIMC. now it is routedthrough various Information & Broadcasting Ministry channels making IIMC, agovernment department of insignificance.Take the case of Dr Anand Pradhan. I have seen some mails in this regard and theloss IIMC suffered because of his exit.We must look into to reasons for the same. Reasons are outrageous.Can you believe this? Dr Pradhan was being paid a consolidated salary of Rs15,000 for four years and not a single penny was increased despite the fact thatall other factually members were getting hike in DA etc. from time to time.Can you believe that Dr Sunetra Narayan is getting only Ss 22,000 for last fiveyears?Trainee journalists at Aaj Tak at entry point are offered a salary of over Rs18000 and with annual hike.Contract given to faculty members by IIMC does not have any provision of leave,Provident Fund, Gratuity and despite the fact that there is clause 0 under whichthe contract can be revised but petty bureaucrats in the Ministry refuse to dothat. This is despite the fact that Registrar, IIMC recommended revision of paypackage number of times.Who in the Ministry has power not to accept recommendations of IIMC if it hasany semblance of autonomy?Under what clause file notings are being made by some bureaucrats in theMinistry when they do no hold any position in the IIMC except for the fact thatthe Joint Secretary, Information & Broadcasting Ministry is Director. Otherbureaucrats do not have any locus standi in IIMC affairs.IAS Officers of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry have created such asituation that in the last couple of years several outstanding faculty memberslike Prof. Subhash Dhuliya, Dr Anand Pradhan, Ms Shaheena khan, Ms VartikaNanda, Dr Chandra Kant Singh, Dr Abhilasha Kumari and Ms Anubhuti Yadav had toresign especially because of outrageously exploitative contract offered to them.Can you believe that Prof. Dhuliya and Mr Swapan Brahmachari were drawing lesssalary at senior positions which they held on permanent basis as compared towhat they would have been drawing at junior positions on contract?Can you believe that Mr Bharhmachari resigned from post to Associate Professorand again became Assistant Professor because at higher position he was gettingless salary?.Some other faculty members have retired.Despite massive paucity of teaching staff, it is inexplicable as to whyinterviews are being conducted for only two faculty positions in the next week.why only two? Why all vacant positions are not being filled?Hindi Journalism department is without any faculty member and professor (HindiJournalism) post has been abolished.Indian Information Service Department has been virtually destroyed.English Journalism Department is being run by only one faculty member becauseanother faculty member has been asked to look after Hindi journalism course.Broadcast journalism course is also being run by only one faculty membersDevelopment journalism course is being run by only one faculty member who infact is Associate Professor (New Media).Publications Department is without any faculty and editor.Advertising and Public Relations department is being run by only one facultymember.Research department is without any faculty member.Evaluation Department has been abolished.Centre of New Media is only on paper.Content Creation Project has been discontinued.This year funds have been provided only to meet establishment expenses andsalary. No non-plan funds have been provided and as a result IIMC cannotorganise any other academic and professional activity.The myth of "International University" has been created despite the fact thatnowhere in the world any such status exists and IIMC is already an internationalinstitution having trained journalists from over 100 countries.All efforts to convert IIMC into a deemed university or affiliate it with JNU orany other university has bee scuttled by bureaucracy as they want to keep itunder their control to use it as their play ground.IIMC does not have status to award degrees while every other journalism shop inevery second street can award BJ and MJ degrees.Will the Secretary, Information & Broadcasting Ministry and Chairman, IIMC explain as to why these incomprehensible steps are being taken? swati