Doesnt IIT-M brook dissent?

COIMBATORE: A section of the faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras) is beginning to speak up for the students who are at loggerheads with the administration for imposing ‘unreasonable’ restrictions on the campus, particularly hostels.However, angered with the ‘why not’ attitude among the teaching ranks, a senior administrator at the institute has dubbed this section of faculty ‘absolutely liberal morons’.Upset as such branding, a professor has shot off a mail to the administrator saying: “For a Dean to pillory in this fashion a legitimate concern raised by a colleague, a HoD to boot, is just unconscionable… And for a Dean to call some of his own colleagues ‘absolutely liberal morons’ is embarrassing and defies belief.” Accusing the “thin-skinned” Deans Committee of taking umbrage at any contrary opinion, he wondered if the campus does not brook dissent any longer and believed in autocracy.A former warden of the Sarayu and Sharavathi Hostels has argued against campus restrictions as 50% of the students were over 21 years of age. Recalling her experience, she said “I simply addressed all hostel students (telling them) I have no business in your private affairs. But it is important to be safe and take responsibility for whatever actions — all of you are above 18. If you feel that the rules are ridiculous or restrictive then fight it through your Students Affairs Committee.” She pointed out that with the students’ strength on the campus likely to go up to 10,000, it would be practically impossible for a warden to keep tabs on them. The former warden suggested that the hostel could be separated from the institute. Another section of “shocked” faculty refuses to buy the “students are adults” theory, blaming the ongoing controversy on a generation gap and hippy culture.“This is a generation of kids born to parents who think that touching an elder’s feet is meaningless,” a professor charged. Claiming that the students are pampered in the name of their being “elite”, he said “the emphasis must be that student life must be outside the hostel.”Internal e-mail exchanges showed that a professor had allegedly gone to the extent of saying, “Some of these students can even be harmful to faculty involved.”