HYDERABAD: A day after Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) suspended the academic activities on its Hyderabad campus sine die, its director Shalini Bharadwaj shot another letter justifying the action in view of a ‘malicious campaign’ doing rounds on Tuesday.
Explaining why the administration has agreed for a change in hostel tariff which asked for students make an upfront payment for 6 months or 12 months instead of smaller installments, she said students still owe Rs 6.5 lakh to the last year’s service provider. TISS through its student aid has managed to clear only Rs 5.23 lakh dues of the total Rs 11.78 lakh.
The director in her letter said that despite discussions with students on hostel tariff since July 9, the students were still not willing to call off the strike even on July 15.
The letter further states that “The protesting students created extremely difficult for the faculty, and others. In order to prevent the condition from deteriorating further, the administration was left with no choice but to declare closure of academic activities indefinitely.”
Students, meanwhile, have moved their protest from the campus that they vacated on Monday to the hostels. Currently, four of them are on a hunger strike.