Presidency welcomed back an old boy on Monday as a distinguished professor four decades since he left to join arch-rival Jadavpur University, first as a student and then a teacher.

Swapan Chakravorty, adored and revered by generations of students who studied English at JU, is now a Rabindranath Tagore Distinguished University Professor in literature and cultural studies at Presidency University.

Chakravorty sees little significance in the shift, but to those well-versed in the dynamics of the Presidency-JU rivalry a tinge of delight here and the sense of loss there would be hard to miss. “I don’t think institutions miss any individual, and it’s silly of an individual to miss the institute,” Chakravorty told Metro on the first day of his new assignment.

Malabika Sarkar, former JU professor and Presidency’s first vice-chancellor, said Chakravorty joining his alma mater was “a gain” for his alma mater rather than a loss for the institution he served for three decades. “At least he will be working in the same city and probably will take time off to attend seminars and conferences at JU.”

While his brief is to provide Presidency University academic leadership and help achieve its goal of becoming a centre of excellence, Chakravorty is pragmatic about what needs to be done. “Even to be recognised nationally, our infrastructure has to be far better,” he said.

Chakravorty recalled that it was with “astounding infrastructure” that American universities had attracted “the best and brightest teachers post World War-II”.

And could Presidency realistically aim to create similar infrastructure to woo the best and brightest? “Presidency has a 10-acre plot in Rajarhat, but what will it do with the land if it doesn’t have enough money? Ahead of the institute’s bicentenary, one of the immediate requirements is money,” Chakravorty said.

The former JU professor had been a member of the Presidency mentor group that submitted a report in 2012 expressing disappointment over the lack of clarity on financial assistance from the state government.

“We are disappointed to note that no follow-up action was taken on a proposal from the vice-chancellor, specifically sought by the principal secretary, higher education, in January 2012 for an allocation in the range of Rs 200 crore for Presidency University. This needs to be clarified,” the report had stated.

On Monday, Chakravorty pleaded for an “out-of-budget allocation”, be it from the state coffers, the Centre or a private source. “Visva-Bharati University was once granted by the Centre a corpus of Rs 100 crore to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. If a similar amount could be tapped from some quarters, it would mean a lot for this fledgling university. Then we can say, ‘Oh! Yes, there is a future for Presidency’,” he said.

Sajal Nag, until recently professor of history at Assam Central University, too stressed the need for better infrastructure hours after joining Presidency on lien as Distinguished University Professor in history and political science. “It is a privilege for me to be part of Presidency…I believe that with the right infrastructure we can do wonders,” he said.

Crumbling infrastructure has been Presidency’s hurdle in the quest for old glory. Baker Building, where once strode stalwarts such as Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha, wears a ceiling so fragile that teachers and students risk injury every day to teach and study there.

source:http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Subhankar Chowdhury / Tuesday – March 03rd, 2015