Funds crunch hits AU

Updated on: Monday, January 11, 2010

While the funds crunch continues to bother Andhra University administration, people in the campus recall the occasion in the past when the university took an over draft amount from a nationalized bank after reportedly pledging a couple of buildings in the campus.

While AU, one of the oldest educational institutions in the country, is facing funds crunch Acharya Nagarjuna University, which has been carved out of this university a few decades ago is reportedly rolling in money as its funds are around Rs. 300 crores.

Before coming to a conclusion that AU administration is not good at securing funds or spending them, one has to consider the huge establishment and the expenses the mother university has to incur every year. There are more than 600 faculty members and a large number of non-teaching staff here and a large number of pensioners the university has to take care because it is very old. It is another matter that the large faculty is disproportionately distributed as departments have excess faculty and some are short of required number of teachers.

In addition the university has five campus colleges, each having a Principal and an establishment to run the college. Plus there are many Deans and other academic officials. Most of the students staying in the hostels forces the administration to spend a lot of money one them.

In the past AU was having funds but over a period of time the money has been spent on new constructions. Some old buildings needed to be replaced and new buildings have to be provided to meet the increasing demand for space as well as to accommodate the new academic branches that have come up.

In comparison ANU has less staff, lesser number of buildings and other facilities and overall it has less maintenance and expenditure cost. The successive Vice-Chancellors of that university have been able to secure funds and donors for buildings.

Meanwhile the AU teachers continue to wait for the State Government to implement the new pay scales.

International conference ends

A five-day international conference on statistics, probability, operations research, computer science and allied areas, was organised by the Statistics Department of AU.

Rajesh C. John of Cochin University and C.L. Usha of Al Ameer College of Engineering and IT, Visakhapatnam received the best student research paper awards in theory and applied sections respectively.

Director of NSTL V. Bhujanga Rao was chief guest of the valedictory function. Principal of AU College of Science and Technology P. Rajendra Prasad presided.

Conference co-chairs C. Uma Shankar of Rayalaseema University, Prof. P. Srinivasa Rao and Prof. K. Venkata Subbaiah of AU, and others were present.

NSS camp

NSS volunteers of Dr. L. Bullayya College during a special camp cleaned the cremation ground at Maddilapalem, conducted an awareness campaign on nutritious food and took up other programmes. Programme Officers Kiran Kumari, Rajasekhara Reddy and Balaji organised the programme.

NSS Youth Festival

Dr. V.S. Krishna Government Degree College, Visakhapatnam won two events-elocution and patriotic poem- in the AU inter-collegiate NSS Youth Festival organised at the TSR and TBR Degree and PG College here recently. The following colleges won other events: Debate-St. Josephs' College for Women, Visakhapatnam; essay writing-Chaitanya E.S. Degree College, Srikakulam; quiz-S.Ch.V.P.H.R. Govt. Degree College, West Godavari; poster painting-SPACES Degree College, East Godavari; rangoli-A.K. Degree College, EG; mimicry-V.S.L. Degree College, EG; mono action-Padmasri Dr. B.V.R.I.C.E. College, WG; solo singing-D.R.L.M. Degree College, Srikakulam; classical dance-Govt. Junior College, Srikakulam; instrumental music-Govt. Junior College, EG; folk dance-Govt. Degree College, Srikakulam.

Vice-Chancellor of AU B. Satyanarayana gave away the prizes.

Disha 2010

Magnus School of Business organised Disha 2010, for the final year degree students. Students from 70 colleges in seven coastal districts, from Srikakulam to Guntur, participated. Mayor P. Janardhana Rao inaugurated and Director of the school K. Sudhakar Rao, campus head K.V.S. Prakasa Rao and corporate head R. Vinay Kumar Reddy and others were present. Competitions were held during Disha to test the innovative skills of students and their awareness about future studies.

National workshop

Noble Institute of Science and Technology and Institute of Business Management jointly organised a four-day national workshop on entrepreneurship development. Nearly 300 students from 20 colleges attended.

Managing director (technical) of Andhra Sugars and former Union Minster of State for Commerce Bolla Bulli Ramaiah inaugurated. Institute chairman B. Ananda Rao presided. The technical sessions were conducted by former professor of IIT, Kharagpur B.N. Singh, a professor from IIM Tribid Chakravarthy and others. Director Vivek Inder Kochhar conducted the sessions.

Participated in China conference

HoD of Computer Science and Engineering of Sanketika Vidya Parishad Engineering College here A. Siva Prasad was among the four computer science experts from AP to participate in BIT's third world congress of Gene 2009 at Foshan in China recently. Dr. Siva Prasad spoke in data mining in proteomics at the conference, Principal M.R. Panigrahi informed.

V-C felicitates Sharatchandra

Prof. Satyanarayana felicitated noted singer T. Sharatchandra, who conducted a four-day programme on Ghantasala. He lauded the singer for propagating Ghantasala and keeping alive the singer in the minds of youth also. Registrar P.V.G.D. Prasada Rao was also present.

Workshop at AITAM

A two-day workshop on ‘Entrepreneurship awareness' concluded recently at AITAM (Aditya Institute of Technology and Management), Tekkali. Addressing the students, the Project Director of DRDA Baburao Naidu urged the participants to enhance their self-confidence and grab the opportunities with both hands. The Branch Manager of Andhra Bank, Tekkali, A.R. Samuel advised the students to learn the strategies of business by understanding the available resources and needs of the society. The CEO of SETSRI S. Mohana Rao, the Director of IGIAT P.K. Sri Vastava and Principal of ASCAM D. Vishnu Murthy also spoke. The Director of AITAM V.V. Nageswara Rao signed a MoU with IGIAT on the occasion.

Funds crunch hits AU

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