The colour code used in this review works like this:
- Green – completed already
- Orange– partially completed and/or will most likely be completed before end of tenure
- Red – not completed, or left to future Secretaries
- The issues dealt by SAC will be divided into two categories: Invoking constitutional amendments (Category A) and Not invoking constitutional amendments (Category B). SAC to choose a fixed no. of issues under category A in the beginning of its tenure and ensure a streamlined follow up in all the consecutive meetings. Category B to consist of rolling issues raised by the GSB or SAC councilors. The SAC shall work towards resolving these issues within the next SAC meeting of being raised.
Done. Re-writing the role of Garden Sec and Mess Sec and writing guidelines for a student body to be classified as an Institute body were taken up in Category A and completed before her tenure.
- An online archive will be created on the Students Portal: Documents like shall minutes of various meetings, committee reports, manifestos and the Institute Constitution will be uploaded and updated.
This was taken up and according to Pallavi, will be put up by the end of the semester.
- To take the issues from the GSB, apart from circulating Google forms, an online grievance cell will be created, preferably on the Students Portal. An issue can be raised by any member of GSB and can be up-voted by others. The issues with the highest up-votes will be taken up in the next SAC meeting if need be and the person raising it will be invited to the meeting along with 3 other representatives of his/her choice. The conclusion of the issue will be updated on the portal.
A grievance cell was created. It wasn’t used to the fullest extent possible, however. After the enthusiasm of the first few weeks, people stopped posting many complaints. The secretaries couldn’t keep checking back as often as required. A notification system needs to be done so that the secretaries are alerted whenever a complaint is posted. And these secretaries can have a team under them to check up and follow up on the complaints.
- Each secretary will have a tab on the Students’ Portal where he/she can describe about the initiatives taken and their progress. This will have search features by keywords. If any initiative could not be completed or is under progress, background work towards the initiative and the reasons for not taking it up shall be mentioned. This will ensure that initiatives do not keep on looping around and GSB is aware of the exact status of the initiatives.
Not done.
- The Fifth Estate will have a Secretary’s column which can be used by them to convey about any issue or relevant information to the GSB.
Not done. Instead of this, an Executive Wing page was set up on the Students’ Portal.
- Each committee shall be mentored by a Faculty Advisor, if needed.
Not done because the committees were apparently functioning smoothly.
- Data Analytics Committee (Existing): Any and every survey initiated by the SAC Councilors or Executive Wing members will be analysed by the committee and a report will be presented. The committee will take up pet projects in the beginning of its tenure and produce a detailed report towards the end.
The existing committee was continued, but it was not used. Analytics work can (and was, after the first month) done by the councillors themselves, says Pallavi.
- Gymkhana Auditing Committee (Proposed)
The committee will look into financial auditing of the Gymkhana money and present a report which will be circulated to the GSB to ensure transparency.
Not done because the administration was against the idea of auditing Gymkhana money. Instead, a Financial Accountability Committee has been proposed to audit the accounts of Shaastra and Saarang and the cultural clubs. The draft proposal is being done and will be finished soon.
- SAC Facebook page will be formed. Posters will be put up at important locations before each SAC meeting. A team of ~3 people will work under the Speaker – handling online publicity, writing MoMs, designing posters and managing the archives.
An FB page was created, but posters weren’t put up before meetings. The team of 3 people weren’t formed—there was only a Deputy Speaker.
- A mid-term feedback for each Secretary will be taken by the Data Analytics Committee from the team with which the Secretaries work. The final feedback report will be sent personally to each Secretary and not made public.
Not done.
- Voting accountability: The votes polled by the Councilors towards various decisions shall be documented in the MoM so that the electorate knows about the decision of its representative.
Done.
12. The tentative dates for SAC meetings will be finalized and informed in the beginning of each semester.
Not done at the beginning of each semester because it was difficult to fix the schedule so absolutely. But the dates were tentatively fixed for the last week of every month, and were changed if required.
ITEM NUMBER OF ITEMS PERCENTAGE
Completed 2 16.7%
Partially Completed 3 25%
Not Completed 7 58.3%
Non-Manifesto Achievements
The Institute constitution is in the nascent stages of being redrafted. The whole constitution is expected to take approximately two years to draft.
A survey was also conducted to find out how involved people are in institute and hostel elections. The results will be released by the end of the month.
Constitutional Changes
- The SAC passed a resolution for the removal of mess secretaries and the setting up of a HHS sec at the hostel level and the HAS at the institute level.
- The Institute Honour Code has been revised and passed by the Board of Students (BoS).
- The SAC passed an anti-tobacco policy that is waiting to be approved by the board of students.
- SAC passed a resolution for giving an attendance waiver to students who take part in competitions during the semester. It will hopefully be passed by the BoS by July.
Non-constitutional changes
- An online portal was made for online campaigning. This was done in record time when the FB page for online campaigning was taken down due to a lot of people from outside IIT accessing it and commenting on posts. (The credit mainly goes to WebOps for this though).
- LAN ban was banned.
- SAC passed resolutions for the institution of Technical Affairs Secretary post and for punitive measures to be taken against the RAS but these weren’t passed by the BoS.
