Three Suggestions for Jamia to Consider

Podcast

Jamia has earned a unique place in academics and research not only because of regular in-class exercises but activities such as conferences, seminars, lectures, panel discussions, cultural programs etc. Each year, we come across several of these, but barring rare instances of appropriate media coverage, only we are the ones who know about it; only we are lucky to be left enthralled by some of the phenomenal speakers delivering on great thoughts and ideas at our place. It is time to let others know who is visiting Jamia. What discussions happen in our University. What intellectual acumen does the faculty and students demonstrate. What opinion does a personality has about our institution. Apart from being a step closer to the notion of universal knowledge sharing, this shall tremendously add up to our brand value.

How can we do this? By simply ‘podcasting’ our events.  In crude terms, podcast implies a digital media (audio/video/doc), viewable and downloadable on and from internet. It can serve as an effective tool of bringing light to varied facets of cultural and academic activities in our university, making it known, and thereby, adding to our collective market acceptability in the long run. I got this idea while searching something on oxford university website, wherein classified video files of lectures and seminars organized by various departments are put up on an allotted web portal (http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk), accessible to all. Those from IT department in our university must be having an idea of the capacity of our university website and the amount of content it can support. If it is not feasible to put up everything directly on it, we definitely have options like having a separate dedicated webpage for the same or subscribing to ‘youtube’ channel mode and linking the same on main website.

Prayer Room for Women

Muslims are required to pray five times a day. Many of you might have observed while sitting in the main library that as soon as adhan is said in the mosque, chairs shift and students get up to attend their daily prayers. But those students are only males. It is imperative on us to take a note and remind the administration that praying is equally mandatory for Muslim women. We cannot expect a female student or staff member to sit in the library or work whole day and skip prayers even if she wants to offer her prayer. Therefore, an arrangement for the same is required on an urgent basis so that in the process of being educated and availing intellectual nuggets, one section is not deprived of essential spiritual stimulus. A simple allotment of an average sized prayer room on each side of the campus will suffice.

Nutritious Food in the Canteen 

In a healthy body resides a healthy mind. A lot of us have food in our central canteen on daily basis. But, can we really say that the food offered in canteen is healthy and nutritious? Agreed, that food is inexpensive but it is not the reason by which we can accept any compromise with our health. All I suggest is a meticulous revamping of the menu that our canteen serves. Some new additions can be made like fruit salad, vegetable juice and a good filling thali. Oil based food can be reduced. Regular consumption of bread pakoras is bound to detriment the health of student. I am sure students will have no qualms in paying a few bucks more for a good quality food.

[Views expressed herein are the author’s own, and do not necessarily represent Jamia Journal’s editorial policy.]