After eight years of being a prominent centre of foreign language courses, the Daulat Ram College of the Delhi University has now withdrawn the course due to lack of infrastructure. The acting principal of the college, Dr Daya Aggarwal, said that the infrastructure of the college was crumbling and there was no longer any place left to hold classes for add-on courses like foreign languages. Unhappy with this decision, the chairperson of the college, Suneeta Sudarshan, has called for an emergent general body meeting to discuss the issue on Monday.
“The university had come and inspected the college and had said clearly that the building is in a compromising state and needs immediate attention. However, when the matter was taken to the management, they refused to sanction redevelopment and construction required. We now don’t have any place to conduct classes for add-on subjects. Thus, there is no other option but to scrap it for some time,” said Aggarwal.
Teachers too are facing problems as the situation of classrooms is so dismal that many times they conduct classes in gardens. A professor from the Political Science Department said, “Either students stand in classes or we have to go to open area and then teach. A while back a student just got saved in the library as the building was crumbling.”
The decision for removing the foreign language courses was taken by the Staff Council Forum on May 29. Aggarwal further alleged that the management of the college seems to be least bothered about deteriorating infrastructure. The general body meeting on the matter will be held on Monday morning.