Increasingly, we are being approached to take financial contributions from alumni similar to what other IITs and the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund have done. In fact, we had mentioned the IITBHF ourselves as a model at the outset six months ago.
In our opinion, two issues must be addressed before ITBHU.org collects funds on behalf of alumni:
- ITBHU.org's maturity as a sustaining, broad-based organization able to perform the fiduciary responsibilities for years to come.
- The Indian government's Bharat Shiksha Kosh that may prevent alumni endowments from being designated for specific causes at the alma mater.
We are also seeing some enthusiastic/impatient alumni who would rather register an alumni association and raise money with one project in mind than bear with our organization building. We are convinced that this approach, though well-intentioned, is counter productive. The IIT Bombay alumni efforts, for example, took years of organizing informally before they set up a board, advisors, officers, etc. who could raise, manage and channel the funds for effective utilization. Impatient on only one aspect of this is short-sighted.
On the second count, the following Rediff article raises serious concerns whether we should endeavor to raise money eventually, if at all:
IITs: Indian Institutes in Trouble
Quoting from the Rediff article:
"The recent formation of the Bharat Shiksha Kosh initiated by Murli Manohar Joshi, Union minister for human resources development.
"With its registration in January this year, all funding to educational institutions by individuals or corporates will now have to be routed through the BSK.
"What's more, the BSK is not too happy about the fact that alumni donors designate their endowments to causes of their choice, and wants a say in this."
We invite your comments on both these issues.
GOI is out of its mind. BHK will totally backfire, with dwindling alumni contributions. We all know that with BHK, the money would eventually end up in the pockets of babus and netas. Who would want to waste their money in layering the wallets of corrupt politicians ??
Posted by: alumunus on May 29, 2003 07:07 AMI have read several articles on BSK and i feel situation will get worse due to involvement of government.IIT's have done well in getting big bucks from alumni because they had autonomy and alumni were free to contribute as they wanted.If BSK comes as one more layer between Institutes and alumni then it will comlicate the matter.
If some alumni wanted to have their say in how their money is going to be used, I don't see anything bad in it as long as it doen't change the course structure.I don't think any alumni will go till that extent.If some company put big money then they will prefer to get something in return but for alumni, I doubt it.
Whatever be the case if goverment decides to control the flow then its going to create some problem sooner or later.Why the hell they need to get involved in this?? I don't mean that govmnt doen't do any thing well, but here i don't feel they are adding anything by putting this control.Anyway, its my personal opinion and i will be glad to hear some argument in support of BSK by my fellow ITians.
Cheers,
Rohit
Posted by: Rohit Ranjan CSE 2000 on May 30, 2003 02:19 PMI do not have much idea about BSK but what I feel is that, if there is a problem then there is a solution too. I would like to suggest an approach.
0. Let's start collecting money. Let's not stop because of this bureaucracy. If nothing materialises, the money can always be returned. This will also help us in convincing the bureaucracy that we are ready to help but we don't want to go through BSK. They might come under pressure and we might have our way.
1. We will try to find a way to avoid BSK.
2. We may want to talk to the people high up in the GOI and apprise them of the problems. I belive we have our alumni in the GOI who may help us. Besides, we can tell them directly the complication if they are involved. They might not like it and may pose future problems but we have to tell them.
3. I think we can always donate in kind (although I am not sure). So parallel to convincing the GOI, we may keep on supplying computers, LCD projectors, etc. as needed by the department. No cash will be involved and so there would not be any problems.
4. Let's brainstorm on this issue. We will surely find a way. After all we are among the finest brains in the country (I hope I am not exaggerating).
5. Let's keep in mind that at all costs we have to find a solution. Instead of thinking about the problems, let's think about the solutions.
Hi,
Kudos to people who are involved in this...I visit to this site regularly to check the latest happenings.
I have a suggestion...we can do something to make the connection of Alumni and institute a bit simpler. Till now it is managed by our profs...what we can do is to have a active Alumni committee under Gymkhana and have a independent Secy. for this committee. This committee will have fulltime commitments towards alumni and they would be responsible for following tasks
maintaining and updating the Alumni database
making contacts with them it can start as sending them a monthly/quarterly/half-yearly or yearly newsletter about insti(preferably on the itbhu letterheads under the signature of our director/dean or Gymkhana chairman. We can start it with Alumni who are in influential positions to drive maximum benefits out of it(although it sounds like discrimination but this will help in keeping the costs of the whole exercise in check).
facilitating the alumni meets and events.
working as a missing link between alumni and insti.
facilitating the alumni donations to the insti.
Having such student managed committee will have following benefits
1) The students managed committee is better as the profs are most of the time hampered by limited mobility and time.
2) It will help in momentum building for the insti as we can utilize the vibrancy and enthu of current students.
3) Alumni associations run by the alumni often run out of steam as they are highly dependent on the bunch of enthu people who are involved in that and take pains of organizing and connecting people. To have a base in Insti will give it a sustainable outlook and streamline the processes
Santosh Pathak
Civil, 960327
I would like to give a suggestion that the look of this site can be made more good, if u could have some picture on the home page of the site. If u need, i can send u some good photograph of our institute.
Posted by: amit kumar on June 14, 2004 01:09 PMhello administrator
I want to work with u,If you find some work for me please inform me.I will feel good to work for my institute.
amit
hi
am searching for my frend by the name of Shivam Rajdev
batch 1998, Chemical Branch, IT BHU
can u pls give me his contact details
thanx
# 09899 702004
Please check the Alumni yahoogroup listing and send an email to the CHE98 yahoogroup.
Thanks
Animesh
I totally agree that the biggest reason why most of the alumni doesn't want to contribute or hesitate in contributing is because they see the funds are not getting utilized properly and instead in most of the cases going to BHU authorities rather than going to IT development directly. I talked to my collegues who are very enthusiastic about donating for the institute but the very first question is where will that fund be used and how ? We should first sort out this important matter before asking for donations from alumni. If I personally want to contribute, then I want to see the funds go directly to the cause and not lost in the administration.
Due to these specific reasons, there are many alumni groups who are now buying the equipments directly and donating to the department instead of donating the money. If you donate the equipments, then it goes to the department directly.
Hi Vipin (and all),
We at ITBHU.org want to make sure the money goes straight to projects, that's why we have the donation module http://www.itbhu.org/donate/ where money is to be donated on a project-to-project basis and we make sure that it goes to the proper recepient. We are soon going to start asking for donations for the wireless internet project and will need the support of all the alumni.
Thanks
Animesh
Google to support R&D in Indian varsities
http://netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=74878&cat=India&head=Google+to+support+R%26D+centre+in+Bangalore