Mysuru: Amidst lot of opposition from the Syndicate members, former Vice Chancellor of Gulbarga University, Prof. V.B. Countinho, was nominated to the Search Committee, to select a new Vice Chancellor for University of Mysore.
This decision was take at the special Syndicate meeting of the University of Mysore, held here this morning at Crawford Hall. The meeting was chaired by acting Vice Chancellor Prof.Dayanand Mane, who himself took serious exception to the name of Prof. Coutinho along with Registrar Evaluation Prof. J.Somashekar and four other principals of various colleges.
However, the Syndicate members nominated by the government, held firm and Prof. Coutinho was finally selected, with six voting against and seven in his favour, it is learnt.
The University of Mysore Syndicate had earlier selected former UGC Chairman Prof. Hair Gautam as its nominee to the Search Committee to select a new Vice Chancellor to the University. However, Prof. Hari Gautam, due to health issues was absent at the selection panel meeting held in Bengaluru on May 12. Hence, it was decided to hold the meeting in Delhi on May 22. But, the Governor had taken exception to this meeting and directed that it should be held in Karnataka itself.
In the light of this, Prof. Hari Gautam’s name was dropped and the special Syndicate meeting was held to name a new member. Prof. Coutinho’s name was proposed in this meeting which has once again led to a controversy.
According to the Karnataka Universities Act, when the members for the Search Committee are proposed, they should not have anything to do with that University. In this background, Prof. Coutinho, is the State’s Higher Education Council member and University Review Committee member too. These are directly related to the posts of the University. Hence, his name to the committee could create more problems, it is said.
The best thing is to have non-controversial persons of eminence from outside the State and with all India stature as members of the Search Committee as they are quite likely to resist political and other pressures from some shameless aspirants for the post of VC. Unfortunately, the Search Committee itself is as susceptible to political pressures as the aspirants ( mostly local guys) the VC’s job.
Members of search committee should have completed 62 years of age. These members are going to recommend a person who is younger to these members. Any in-service (VC, or principal or director or professor) person should not be made the member of search committee, because they can manipulate recommendation of VC. See what happened in the case of Bangalore University. Also, a member should not have been directly or indirectly associated with that particular University. But the important question is whether the search committee members have time to go through all the biodata of the candidates who have applied. As things stands today in our state, it is better to reserve the post of VC for every university and recommend only such candidates from the list. Why waste time????????