NID director meets faculty, student protest continues

Ahmedabad: The protest by National Institute of Design (NID) students against the reshuffle of faculty members spilled into the third day on Wednesday, with many sitting outside the office of Ashok Mondal, the new director. Mondal had not met the students till late evening, sources said. He however, met faculty members who had been transferred and discussed the future course of action for their specific departments.After assuming charge last week, Mondal shifted no fewer than 20 faculty members across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Bengaluru campuses, including changing leads and co-leads of several key disciplines. Students started the protest on Monday after a meeting with Mondal in a public forum on issues including the removal of almost all women from key positions and the reshuffle right after assuming charge."The director promised to send a response to our email queries, which has not been received so far by the students. The change in the middle of the term may have detrimental effects on both, the students and faculty members. We learned that the director had one-on-one meetings with several key faculty members, possibly to discuss their new roles and responsibilities. We hope to get answers from the director soon," said a student on the condition of anonymity. Sources informed that the director is not in the favour of reversing the transfers, even as the dissent is likely to be escalated to the ministry.