The Scholars' Avenue

It’s been a good couple of issues for The Scholars’ Avenue with our new focus on issues concerning the nation at large being well received. Encouraging people to think outside the boundaries of our campus walls is our objective and every mail we receive only encourages us more. It never is too late to know more about what’s happening in the country. With that in mind, we’ve focused on the nuclear deal in this issue.

As we head into the fag end of the semester, it seems appropriate to reflect on the changes engulfing this campus. It’s been three months of ups, downs and tricky side turns; of disaffection, dissent and disbelief. The bar brawl incident of last semester brought us and the administration to the edge of a slippery slope; one that we tumbled down this semester, the only ones hurt being student freedom, our faith in authority and the tradition of Illumination. The loss in faith and trust between the two bodies brooked no good for this campus and that is exactly what happened.

“The idiocies of a few outweigh the rationalities of many.”

- Vaibhhav Sinha
4^th year UG

Imposed to control alcohol consumption on campus, the sizeable number of people being caught in an inebriated state has only cemented the administration’s belief that the 11 p.m. rule is necessary; a stand forcefully expressed in the recent open session. Those implicated in the bar brawl got away lightly, ostensibly because of intervention by the VP, and the entire student community was subjected to the fallout of their actions. The Deputy Director did express his belief that it is a minority that causes such problems and that they should be restrained by the majority, but the authorities’ prevailing attitude showcases complete duplicity. And the talk of improving student interaction and the promise of more open sessions doesn’t wave it away when genuine hassles are explained away as arising due to the transient nature of the current situation.

To be fair, our parents aren’t very forgiving and blame the administration outright (see the Deputy Director interview in this issue) for our transgressions. Consequently, they implement measures so constraining so as to preclude any chances of such incidents occurring again. Allegorically, they baby-proof the campus thinking people can’t do much wrong in such a campus. However, baby-proofing doesnt mean that its subjects never get hurt, something that seems to have been forgotten. Making mistakes is a part of growing up and it’s best to make them now rather than later. It’s how we grow up. In this light, to what lengths should our representatives go to save us from the consequences of our actions? Should such a safety net be present at all? More importantly, should our parents blame us for our actions or is it the administration that deserves the blame?

Maybe it is time for us to stand up for ourselves and the decisions we make. Maybe it is time to throw away the safety net and take life as the dangerous little tightrope walking game it is. Maybe it is time for us to grow up. A rule is a rule is a rule. If we have the courage to break one, we must also have the courage to face the consequences and not look for a safety net. Recent shocking events have brought us to the edge of a similar slippery slope. At this juncture, it is all too easy to identify a solution in the form of more constraining rules. “Sir(s), let’s step back. Please.”