The Scholars' Avenue

In our previous issue we had published an interview with the incumbent Vice President, Gymkhana, Mr. Shubham Matah. The student body, Communique raised some objections to some of the comments made by the VP in that interview. The following is the disputed part of the interview followed by Communique’s response.

TSA: Another of your proposals was to form an “Alternate Careers Group” under the TSG. How did that turn out?

VP: The idea remained the same but the methodology changed. Communiqué governors met me in July. They knew about this proposal. They mentioned that they had already conducted one workshop on Actuarial Science and on IAS and they were willing to take up FRM and CFA as well this year.

TSA: Communiqué is an already existing student body. These IAS and Actuaries workshops took place last year also. But CFA and FRM workshops didn’t happen, this year or the last.

VP: Yes, they have not conducted it this year also. I entrusted the responsibility to them and I am sure there must have been some problem if it hasn’t been conducted so far.

Communique had plans of spreading awareness about exams such as FRM and CFA. The VP however emphasized that Communique’s primary focus was to help students improve their communication skills. Due to insufficient budget, Communique has conducted workshops aimed at communication (mock GD, spin-a-yarn, business communication, team building, mock PI session, CV writing and technical paper presentation)  and has been unable to bring in professionals from varied fields for lectures on alternative career options

TSA: One of your proposals was to introduce changes to improve placements. Were you able to follow through with this?

VP: Well, I had planned to conduct mock tests and mock GD/PI sessions to help students during placements but we couldn’t get the funding for this. Finally, I got in touch with Communiqué again. And we did conduct such a workshop but the turnout was very poor. So we only conducted this at a very miniscule level with budget constraints.

In July, the VP had informed us that the TnP cell had plans of conducting mock GD/PI sessions for those facing placements the ensuing December. Hence Communique did not conduct the usual mock GD for 3rd, final and superfinal year students this year. However, we conducted a mock GD/PI session for first years exclusively which saw a turn out of around 350 students. The VP did not contact us again for conducting mock GD/PI sessions for final year students. Communique, by its own initiative, conducted a mock PI session post end semesters and just before the placement season.