SAMBALPUR: Nearly a year after introducing a mandatory uniform policy for undergraduate students, the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla is all set to roll back the code, three days after second-year students launched a protest over the issue along with several long-pending demands.
Official sources said the Academic Council, at a meeting chaired by vice-chancellor Prof Dipak Kumar Sahoo on Friday, approved a proposal to withdraw the mandatory dress code. Once the decision is formally notified, students will no longer be required to wear the prescribed uniform, provided they adhere to a formal dress code and maintain decorum on the campus.
Confirming the decision, vice-chancellor Prof Sahoo said, “The uniform has been made optional for all students, including first-year students. However, they are expected to wear formal attire and maintain the decorum of the institute.”
The university had witnessed widespread protests on Tuesday, with second-year students demanding withdrawal of the compulsory uniform policy and raising several hostel-related issues. The agitators suspended their protest after holding discussions with the vice-chancellor, who assured them that the matter would be placed before the Academic Council.
VSSUT had introduced the uniform policy in August last year, citing student safety, security and equality. However, a section of students opposed the move, arguing that the prescribed blue full-sleeve polyester uniform was uncomfortable in Sambalpur’s humid climate and impractical for students engaged in fieldwork and laboratory-based courses.
In a parallel development, the university had convened a meeting of parents of second-year students at the e-Learning Centre on Thursday morning to discuss the ongoing unrest. The meeting, scheduled to be attended by the vice-chancellor, dean of Students’ Welfare and other deans, had to be called off after only a handful of parents turned up. The Academic Council met later in the day.