KOCHI: The stampede at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) amphitheatre on Saturday has exposed the university’s failure to expand its infrastructure facilities despite having a vast campus spread over 180 acres in South Kalamassery.
Since its inception in 1971, the university has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of the number of courses offered and the student intake. But the growth of infrastructure -- from auditoriums to playgrounds and classrooms to laboratories -- has been at a snail’s pace, faculty members and experts said. “Cusat has grown beyond its carrying capacity,” said one professor, who wished to remain anonymous.
For instance, some departments that started with around 15 or 20 students have raised the intake to 45 or 50. The number has considerably gone up for the School of Engineering (SoE). “Around 3,000 students are studying in the nine departments of the school that offers 10 undergraduate programmes, 11 post-graduate programmes and doctoral research in most of the engineering disciplines,” the faculty member said. But have facilities like hostels, recreational avenues and parking spaces increased? “Sadly, no,” said the professor.
According to another faculty member, the first facility that needs to be taken into consideration is the hostel. “Hostel facilities have not increased in tandem with the number of students coming in. Four to five students are packed into a single room. While that is the situation, there is the issue of ‘guests’ occupying rooms. As per rule, at a time, only four guests are allowed. However, the current situation is such that the number of guests overstaying their welcome period is considerably high,” he said. Under the circumstances, the parents of first-year students have to resort to begging and pleading for accommodation in the hostel.
“Former students have been making use of the hostel facilities illegally, and recently, a crackdown initiated by the warden saw overstayers being fined around `3,000. This helped control the situation a little. Even then, there is a lack of facility,” the faculty member said. Since sitting cooped up inside the cramped rooms makes the students restless, they are forced to venture out seeking avenues of entertainment.
“This leads students to loiter, which has led to skirmishes on many occasions,” added the faculty. The university’s move to lease out the football ground to the sports council has not worked towards the benefit of the students either. “Thus, the only place they could release their pent-up energy became out of bounds for them,” he said. The increase in vehicular traffic inside the campus has also become a bane.
Open campus not helping
Officials said the open campus has not made matters any easier. “Even as the campus is struggling to accommodate more than 9,000 students studying in the various departments and schools in the university, the presence of outsiders is becoming a big problem,” said a faculty member. Unlike in the past, the number of vehicles has increased inside the campus.
“Parking has become a problem as people from outside, who visit various offices like the bank, use up the roadsides on the campus,” he added.
Recently, the university syndicate came out with a plan that involved allowing only vehicles with stickers provided by the university on the campus, closing the main road inside the campus and constructing a compound wall to restrict the presence of outsiders. But those plans were halted due to massive protests from the local residents. “However, in view of the incident that took place on Saturday, the plan is expected to be revived and steps initiated to implement it very soon,” said a faculty member.