J P K Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 Male escorts for night strolls on campus and a whistle to hoot - that's what women students of IIT-Madras can expect now. IIT-M administrators, who have mapped 'unsafe' zones, have proposed that women should not move around after 11pm without escorts, who will mostly be male student volunteers. What if the escort turns out to be a molester? Well, the student will have to carry a whistle which she has to blow in case of an emergency. The proposals, which have come after a series of animated discussions between the faculty and the students since last month on their morality and safety, have triggered reactio8ns that range from guffaws to frowns. "It's laughable," said a student. Another wasn't so amused. "The administration should make the so-called dangerous zones safe, not force girls to go with escorts. This is not a kindergarten," said PhD student. It's not just a large section of students who are opposed to the idea - the faculty, too, are divided. In a closed communication of emails, some teachers said it amounted to treating students like kids. Replying to one such mail, a senior faculty member labelled those advocating greater freedom for students as 'liberal morons'. IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthi confirmed that all the proposals are under consideration to deal with the changing characteristics of the campus. "The student population has doubled in the last few years. We are discussing measures to prevent possible sexual harassment of women students. We are also planning to restrict the use of internet in hostels as students tend to remain awake all night and wake up late. We cannot copy western models," he said. Women students have been advised not to go alone to these places: The road between Gajendra Circle and the Biotechnology block, Gajendra Circle to Sarayu Extension, 5th Cross Road, Lake View Road, Oat Road and Delhi Avenue. A senior teacher, defending the new norms, said there were more proposals to protect students on campus. "The management will conduct street defence classes for students. We will also install more CCTV cameras and biometric access to some places to prevent theft, alcohol consumption and entry of outsiders in the hostels," he said. Teachers who oppose the new proposals said the management should increase patrolling to address the security issues. "If the administration does not trust the sexual maturity and morality of students, it should hold open house discussions to thrash out issues. Leading international universities like Yale, Harvard and Brown organise similar programmes to ensure a healthy and democratic relationship among residential student communities," one of them said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Male-escorts-and-whistles-IIT-Ms-new-safety-plan/articleshow/12709201.cms :WTF:
Crookbond Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 We are also planning to restrict the use of internet in hostels as students tend to remain awake all night and wake up late. We cannot copy western models :facepalm:
EnterTheVoid Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 Why not have security escorting them instead of male student volunteers?
Crookbond Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 ^ Quoting the article We cannot copy western models :P
EnterTheVoid Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 I can't understand their reactions. Being treated like kids, WTF? Every University here has security escorts that will drop you off at your house (if it is within a certain distance) after 10 PM ; I abused those to some extent, used to hitch a free ride home
akshayxyz Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 I can see registration desk of 'male student volunteers' flooding with applications. :giggle:
straighttalk Posted April 19, 2012 Posted April 19, 2012 I can see registration desk of 'male student volunteers' flooding with applications. :giggle: iit girls : :P i guess there will be flood of escorts for only a few btw when i read the word escort...i tht gigolo :P
Tiger80 Posted April 19, 2012 Posted April 19, 2012 Why not have security escorting them instead of male student volunteers? What's wrong in male student volunteer?
1983-2011 Posted April 22, 2012 Posted April 22, 2012 After taking steps to protect female students on campus from eve teasing and molestation, IIT-M faculty is exploring means to secure their emotional safety as well. They aim to do by providing female students with ÃÃ…ream escorts male student volunteers who will sleep next to the girls whenever they decide to take a siesta, and see to it that they do not get any bad dreams. Director Bhaskar Ramamurthy, who conceived this idea after he fell asleep while watching the Hollywood move, Inception, is now frantically working on delivering his brain-child, with professors from the Department of Bio-Physics and Physiology pitching in as midwives to aid his labour. Å¢t IIT-M, we give utmost priority to the safety of women. While male escorts deployed after 8PM will shield them from physical harm, we felt there was still a gaping hole as far as their emotional well-being was concerned. A lot of women experience unpleasant dreams and fall prey to negative emotions in IITÃÔ hyper competitive environment. So we propose to deploy, what I term ÃÃ…ream escorts? who will prevent their reveries from regressing into nightmares, said Professor Ramamurthy. Ã…Â¥uring the pilot phase, dream escorts will operate only at night. If things go well, we can ask them to block all negative thoughts in girls minds during daytime as well. This way, women will not have to worry about anything at all and life itself will resemble a sweet, albeit unexciting, dream? he added. When asked what a girl would do if the dream escort tried to act funny within the dream, the director said Å´imple. The girl just has to whistle and another escort, who will be on standby, will enter the dream and fight the errant dream escort. And if the dream interceptor gets funny with her physically, well, we have the male escort who will be monitoring the sleeping couple to prevent any hanky panky. Thus the system will have multiple checks and balances to ensure a completely stress free and sanitized environment for women. The student council has heartily embraced the proposal since it is a superior alternative to sending pokes on Facebook or pinging through the LAN, and opens new vistas for socializing between the sexes. Students from the Computer Science Department are also working with faculty to safe-guard the girls during dreams within dreams, or Nth stage dreams where N > 1, as they term it in campus lingo. Ramesh Ramanathan, a third year Computer Science student, has already devised a scheduling algorithm to dispatch academic toppers into higher stage dreams where they can get to spend more quality time with the female students because of the time compounding effect. Å®erit should determine who gets to spend more time co-dreaming with members of the fairer sex, and my algorithm achieves that. As N tends to infinity, the Nth order dream state asymptotically converges towards Nirvana. So the stakes are very high indeed, raved Ramesh. Meanwhile, given the impending ubiquity of physical and dream escorts in their lives, female students have been advised to also carry totems along with whistles to keep themselves grounded in reality.
Crookbond Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article3333151.ece We'll consult you before imposing norms: IIT-M to students Addressing students at the meeting, the director of IIT-Madras, Bhaskar Ramamurthy, said the idea of introducing stricter norms was only a proposal and was conceived in the interest of the safety of students. The only decisions made recently by the administration, he said, were to reschedule Shaastra and Saarang (technical and cultural fests) and to introduce the mandatory 85 per cent attendance rule. Both of them were made after extensive consultation with students and faculty members, he said. Good steps?
Needforspeed Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 Wish I was in college now...U can actually walk around with girls at night without having to find any excuses. The kids these days have all the fun..
velu Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 iit girls : :P i guess there will be flood of escorts for only a few btw when i read the word escort...i tht gigolo :P +123 For a moment even i thought its all about gigolos :facepalm:
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