Distinguished Alumni awards presented to eight achievers

Mysore/Mysuru: Bemoaning neglect of Universities, Prof. K.S. Rangappa, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Mysore (UoM) and Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), wanted the alumni to run Varsities, a practice being widely followed in the Western world.

He was speaking as a guest of honour at the 3rd Global Alumni Meet organised by University of Mysore Alumni Association (UMAA) at Rani Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences in city yesterday.

Prof. Rangappa said today, the Varsities were not wanted by anybody including Government, political parties and politicians. Though UoM had been the sixth best Varsity in the country, still it was being neglected by the Government. Nearly 75 percent of posts in the UoM are vacant. Politicians put pressure on the VCs to appoint a fresh M.Sc graduate as lecturer without understanding whether the PG candidate can take classes or not.

He said it had become very difficult for the VCs to work independently due to interference of politicians and political parties in the last 15 years.

In Western world, Varsities were run by alumni and such a system was required here in the interest of development of Universities. A kind of suffocating atmosphere was prevailing in Varsities which was preventing the VCs from discharging their duty rightfully. All Research and Development activities have come to a standstill in the Varsity. Even salary was not paid on time to employees. Under these circumstances, it was hard to imagine how students from rural areas can afford to pay hefty fees to pursue higher education, he added.

Appreciating the functioning of UMAA, Prof. Rangappa said the Association was started in 1999 and it had grown in a big way in the last 21 years thanks to his patronage as the VC of this Varsity. UMAA  Past President K. Arkesh was actively involved in its growth. “I had the opportunity to meet Bahadur in USA while attending AKKA conference, and requested him to sponsor at least 50 Fellowships in the fields of Arts, Commerce and Science. However, it did not happen due to some reasons. However, I will pursue it with him,” he said.

Prof. J.A.K.Tareen, former Vice-Chancellor, Kashmir and Pondicherry Universities, who was the chief guest, said today’s youths were engrossed in mobile phones and not aware of importance of relationship. The old generation would think about others and the current generation would bother only about self. The youths would be always busy in their mobile phones and don’t interact with anyone except saying ‘Hi’ and ‘bye’. This was a dangerous trend and it would spoil relationship, he observed.

Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, UoM, presided. UoM Registrar Prof. R. Shivappa, UMAA President Dr. Vasanth Kumar Thimkapura and Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee Chairman and Vice-President of UMAA, N. Niranjan Nikam were present.

As part of the meet, Distinguished Alumni awards were presented to eight achievers from different fields. They are: Prof. C.P. Krishnakumar (Literature), Air Marshal K. Ramasundara (Engineering), Dr. T.M. Manjunath (Agriculture), Dr. B. Ramana Rao (Medicine), Prof. M.K. Surappa (Science),  Dr. Pushpa Kuttanna (Sports), Shivamurthy Keelara (NRI-Social Service) and Dr. M. Dharma Prasad (NRI-Entrepreneurship).