Do Bachelors in Journalism at Kalindi College The College of Mayawati
There was a poorly maintained park at the main entrance of this college functioning in a school building - and a pond close by made a muddy slush of things for students. Thanks to the efforts of the authorities, the requisite permissions and, more importantly, funds were gathered for two buildings for the institute. And the park has flowered into a beautiful herbal garden today.
"Teachers and students used to wade through muddy waters to reach the college gate in the late '70s and '80s, says Giriraj Kishore, the gardener of the college working here since 1978.
Kalindi now extends to a complex spread over more than eight acres. It also boasts of a seminar hall, a huge playground, two-storey library and cafeteria.
On the academic front, too, the college has scaled up. It offers 15 undergraduate programmes to 2000 students taught by 116 teachers who have produced university rank holders - though in only two disciplines: life sciences and journalism.
Paromita Sarkar secured third rank in her BA (journalism) exam and Swati Tanwar, first rank in BSc applied life sciences in 2009.
Sana Khan, an alumna of 2008 (English honours), recently cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) and says it would be exciting to join her alma mater as a teacher. "Given a chance, I would choose Kalindi over any other college," she says.
What needs improvement, however, is the journalism department where there is no regular faculty and the college relies only on visiting teachers. "It's a self-financed programme and we haven't received the requisite permission from the University Grants Commission to hire more teachers," say the college authorities.
Famous for: Its alumni - Mayawati, UP Chief Minister and Krishna Tirath, a member of parliament. This is also one of the five colleges in Delhi University which offers a BA programme in journalism.
Programmes: BA honours in economics, English, Hindi, history, journalism, political science (English /Hindi medium) and Sanskrit. BSc (Hons) in maths, physics, computer science, BA Programme, BCom (hons), BCom, BSc in physical sciences, life sciences. The college also runs an add-on course in video production.
Infrastructure: The campus has a science block, an administrative block, a cyber centre and a spacious library which has 70,000 books and subscribes to 70 magazines as diverse as Sanskrit Manju to Data Quest. The Canara Bank runs a branch in the premises.
Found on campus: Academically, Kalindi is not behind other colleges. Its only disadvantage is its off-campus location, says Prerna Jain, president of the college union, 2009-10, and an MS (communication) student at Presidency College, Bangalore
Fact File
Established in 1967, the college is located in east Patel Nagar and is under the purview of the Delhi government
Wish List
"There is not even a single permanent faculty member in the journalism programme. All of them are visiting teachers," says a second-year student of journalism.
Author: Vimal Chander Joshi (HT Horizons)
Date: 22nd January, 2011
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