"No student is a lost cause" ❤️

Think Tank | The Staff Student Study Circle

23rd July 2025

[Report by Ms. Lekhaa M. S]

[Event Managers for the day: Ms. Aarthi and Ms. Vishnupriya]

[Official Blogger: Rakshaya G]

[Official Photographer: Samitha V]

Dr. Rufus started the session with a quick welcome address and an introduction to the topic of the day, “Bringing Back Academics to Academia.”

The debate began with Prof. Sujitha delivering a talk about dance as therapy. She is a classical dancer. She is not formally trained, but she reminisced fond memories of dance. She claimed that everyone who moves is a dancer. Dance happens when the mind and body are in harmony.

When everything is in harmony, it feels therapeutic. The discipline required for art and the techniques you learn distract you from the pain or cause of your depression. She also said that dance is a distraction, that the whole process or getting ready for the performance is a distraction. “One day we will dance in celebration. Until then, we will dance for a cure.”

Next, Prof. Angeline talked about how to bring academics back into academia. She touched upon the choice based credit system, stating that most departments don’t have any choices in their part 3 subjects (major and allied).

One problem that she pointed out was that students do not put too much thought into choosing their part 4 class (GC, ID, GE). She said that the student representatives in the Board of Studies should organize their thoughts formally and provide proper reasoning behind their suggestions. Further, she spoke of needs analysis, to cater to students’ needs better.

Through this analysis, her classes offer something skill-based and makes the content more relatable to students, she added.

Then, the Dean of Humanities propagated the idea of staff-student discussions so that the staff understand the students’ demands and needs. He also spoke of innovation within the University boundaries, relating to the number of credits allotted to each paper and the number of elective papers offered.

He reminisced about his days at MCC, where commitment came because of the fact that they chose their papers. He also said that if more elective papers are introduced, staff need to be willing to compromise and take on more responsibility to teach these papers.

Dr. Jojan quickly mentioned an idea of exchanging between teachers and smart classrooms, to take some load off the teachers.

Mr. Sivakesi said that smart classrooms are not used well, and that only Powerpoint presentations are shown, rather than websites or simulations.

Dr. Nirmal said that the overall affection to learning from students has reduced, stating that students only want to qualify and pass their papers rather than master the subject.

Dr. Samuel Rufus asked students what learning meant to them, and then talked about how the attention span has reduced, making five hours of class too hard for this generation of learners. He said that students should be taken out of the classroom and the learner should be taken back to learning.

Prof. Adarsh said that while there are no alternates for reading, new modes of teaching could be introduced.

Dr. Jojan suggested ideas like a reading club, film club, and a reading day. He also mentioned how students could learn easily, using sites like Coursera.

Ms. Srija then presented a talk about MUN. She stated the benefits of such an endeavor before moving onto the technical details of the proceedings of an MUN.

Mr. Sanjo presented a talk on ways to bring distracted pupils back to the benches. He started by talking about the Midday meals, which raised enrollment rates. This was because schools focused on the students’ demands.

He said that the system should find out what is stopping students from coming to class and tend to the root cause. He also stated that teachers should have some empathy and allow some grace time for students to reach class.

Further, he said that students should know the purpose of their classes, and that teachers should know what students expect from each course. He also said that technology should be treated as a tool rather than an enemy. The classroom should be transformed into an active learning space, with interaction and dialogue.

He also said that students should encourage their peers to come to class. “No student is a lost cause,” he concluded, saying that staff should listen to students and not judge.

Ms. Keren then spoke about whether this generation of students and teachers were really lost. Her main points of discussion were the generation gap, training for professors, clubs for professors and students for entertainment and informal chats, mutual respect and bonding, and interactive classes. She also said that students should make an effort to approach the teachers.

Dr. Jojan concluded the discussion by saying that teachers should know the background of the students, because how students are treated will stay with them far longer than what they have been taught.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Ms. Daphnie.