Outsourcing gives students the jitters

Students of Bangalore University (BU), who were protesting against the outsourcing of hostel and kitchen services, have met vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev and submitted a letter in which they promised not to indulge in any illegal activities.  

The students, who staged a week-long protest accusing the warden of trying to muzzle them, also requested the vice-chancellor to cancel the plan to outsource the management of university hostels.

“Their afterthought came in the wake of the syndicate decision to appoint an outside agency to manage the hostels and kitchen services. They know that they cannot misuse the facilities if the hostel management is outsourced, and they will need to accept the system,” said an official in the university who did not want to be named.

Meanwhile, RM Ranganath, registrar, BU, said that the university had already floated tenders to bring in professional hostel managers to manage its hostels.

“There is no going back from the syndicate decision. We have invited tenders looking for professional managers in all the 12 university hostels including the two in Kolar post-graduate centre. We will implement the decision once the tenders are approved. We are not waiting for the next academic year,” he said.