Via reddit user Crantankerous, a thread on what's going on at JNU.

Q1: What is going on in JNU right now?

A: JNU has a student body of about 8000 students, the majority of whom stay on campus.

Till recently, JNU has had low hostel fees, which has allowed students from all walks of life, particularly marginalised, minority, and impoverished communities, to attend.

In addition, JNU has normally had a very liberal atmosphere - there are no enforced curfew timings, the entire campus is accessible, etc.

Recently, the Inter-Hostel Administration (IHA) decided to pass the new draft hostel manual. Normally, IHA meetings require the presence of the Students Union, and the Hostel Presidents - but this meeting was held without any student representation.

The IHA said that JNUSU had not yet been notified because of a court case (completely false - the courts had in fact told JNU to hurry up and release the election results); and the Presidents had simply either not been called or not been elected yet.

The draft manual has regressive rules - "appropriate dress" for students in the hostels, curfew timings, etc. The biggest issue, however, was the nature of the hostel fee hike.

Earlier fees were as follows:

Room Rent - 10/20pm (double/single room) Mess Bill - 2000-3000pm Utility and workers' salaries - 0. This was paid from JNU's budget. Total amount: 2500-3000pm.

Under the new rules: Room Rent - 600/300pm (single/double room) Mess Bill - 2000-3000pm Utility and workers' salaries - to be included. one estimate pegs this at between 2000 and 3000pm. So what was earlier a monthly bill of 3k is now between 5-6k.

As per JNU's 2017-18 Annual Report, about 40% of JNU's students come from families with a monthly income of less than 10k. The fee hike means these students' futures are jeopardised.

That earlier ability of students of all castes and classes being able to attend college together is at stake, and so we're protesting.

Q2: So what exactly are students protesting against?

1. The fee hike, which puts at least 40% of students' continued academic study at jeopardy

2. The regressive elements of the manual, such as curfew timings and "appropriate dress"

3.

The new manual removes reservations for SC/ST/OBC students

4. The refusal by the administration and the Vice Chancellor, Mamidala Jagdish Kumar, to allow student representatives to attend meetings on decisions that directly affect them, despite repeated directions from the Ministry and the courts to do so.

5. The curtailment of campus spaces - Areas that were earlier open 24hrs have been shut, access to reading rooms restricted, etc. 6. A long list of other issues.

Q3: But I saw that a roll-back of the fees happened, so why are people still protesting?

This is a lie.

On Wednesday morning, an Executive Council meeting was supposed to happen on campus.

Students had gathered to protest the meeting, as did teachers who sought to convince their colleagues to vote against the proposed agenda.

Instead, what happened was that the vice chancellor secretly rescheduled the meeting to an undisclosed location, sent cars to pick up EC members without telling them where the meeting was , and locked the gates to prevent vehicles from exiting until after the meeting.

At 12:10, a notice came out saying the meeting would be held at 12:30PM at a location 45 minutes away from JNU.

Here, the decision was made to continue with the fee hike, but reduce the hiked amount (only the hiked amount, not the base amount) by 50% for BPL (NOT EWS NOR SC/ST) students. So there has been no substantial, meaningful roll-back.

So, protests are continuing.

Q4: Why is only JNU Protesting? Why is JNU constantly in the news?

JNU is not the only university protesting. BITS-Pilani had a fee-hike protest over the summer. IIT students have been protesting the fee hike in MTech degrees.

TISS has had protests, IIT-BHU has had protests, there are at least 15 different fee-hike or other- protests happening in universities around the country right now.

Q5: Why should JNU get special treatment?

Ask yourself the more important question: Why shouldn't other universities get more fair treatment?

Higher education is being treated like a private good, rather than a public good, and students have been paying more fees for less services across the country.

If you're in a university that you feel you're paying far too much for to get far too little out of, you should ask yourself: Why am I okay with this?

And consider joining in voicing your own dissatisfaction for what's happening in your own individual campus. We are 8000 students on campus, but there are hundreds of thousands who are suffering from this same problem across the country.

Q6: Why not just take out a loan?

1. Because education loans are not that easy to get, even when they don't require collateral due to structural issues - financial inclusion, denial of loans, lack of access, etc.

2. because encouraging an education system to shift from a tax-funded to a loan-funded system is a recipe for fiscal and economic disaster. The US is a textbook case for the result of an escalating student-loan-based education system.

3. Because we reject the idea that higher education is a private good that only benefits the individual. like primary and secondary education, it is a public good that the government should be actively investing in.

CC:

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CC: @amitbehere