8 - 1
Jawad Warraich relives the
painful memories of GIKI’s embarrassing loss to LUMS in the sports meet last
semester
Page 4
GIKI academia:
alas!
Platonic questions the
wis-dom of the institute’s aca-demic policies
Page 7
GIK school for
in-fants
Hasan Iqbal and Zain Kazmi
lament suffocation of indi-vidual freedom in face of administrative restrictions
Page 6
Bhatti’s Clinic
Our very own Prof Hameed A Bhatti advises students regarding various problems in life andacade-mia.
Page 5
Editorial
The woes of our academic system Stretching our resources
Page 2
Editor: Saad Anis
GIKI UNCOVERED
January 11, 2005
—February 6, 2005
Inside this
issue:
a Veritas publication
Issue III
GIKI: The GIKI administration has claimed that all restrictions im-posed on students are for their own betterment, as their safety and well being is the administra-tion’s responsibility. This state-ment was made by Director Ad-ministration Col (r) Ghalib Sultan in an interview.
“Sitting at the khokha (Campus Hotel) is a waste of time. They (the students) should be in their rooms studying,” he said. The director was speaking with refer-ence to a policy enforced by the administration three years ago whereby the khokha was ordered closed at midnight. Earlier, the khokha used to remain open until
the wee hours of the morning. Col Ghalib claimed that if culinary spots were allowed to remain open all night, they would cause “academic disorder”. “We need to nip the evil in the bud,” he said, calling the khokha remaining open until late night evil.
“If students don’t sleep at night and sit idle at the khokha, they don’t attend classes in the morning,” de-manded Col Ghalib “Consequently, their attendance falls short of the set requirement, and they are not allowed to sit in the final examina-tion. This (early closure of khokha) is for the students’ own good.”
Continued on Page 3
Khokha, curfew timings
‘Admin determined for student
betterment’
Restrictions curb immoral activity, claims director admin
By Hasan Iqbal
GIKI: It was recently discovered by GIKI Uncovered that the long-established practice of collecting bus fare on the GIKI bus without providing a receipt in return is a clear violation of the institute rules. These revelations were made by Incharge Transport Sec-tion Dr Fazal Khalid in an inter-view.
“Students must stop the practice of paying cash to the bus driver or any other official without re-ceiving a receipt, as it is a clear violation of the rules,” he said. Without a receipt, the students could not be sure of how much, if any, of their money really went to the administration. Frequent pas-sengers of the weekend GIKI
GIKI bus ticket collection
Fare-collection without receipt illegal: Incharge
transport section
Students urged to approach authorities with transport problems
buses to Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad would be aware of the bus officials’ practice of de-manding fare without providing receipt for it.
Another serious issue is shortage of transport vehicles for Islama-bad and Rawalpindi. The single bus allocated to each city is clearly inadequate, and results in around 50 students having to spend the entire journey standing. Calling this a violation of traffic safety laws, Dr Fazal Khalid said that it was the responsibility of the administration to provide necessary transport facilities to ensure comfortable travel for students. However, he blamed
Continued on Page 3
Survey on cheating
Majority of
gikians
cheat
By Hasan Iqbal and Uzair Shahid
GIKI: Cheating in examinations is as old as education itself. Wher-ever there has been some kind of an exam, man has tried to get around it the easy way, with ‘some’ help. In GIKI, cheating in academics is more or less
Continued on Page 3 By Fahd Faiyaz
Apparently, the faculties inten-tionally award lower grades to students, even though a rela-tive grading system is in place. Ample evidence of such a pol-icy exists. The average GPA of a GIKI undergraduate is roughly 2.6, while that of insti-tutes all over the country is well above 3.00. No student has ever graduated GIKI with a CGPA of 4.00, while the ma-jority of universities in Pakistan hand out perfect CGPAs indis-criminately.
The rationale behind such a grading policy could be perhaps to prevent c o m p l a c e n c y from setting in among the stu-d e n t s . Moreover, t h e administration m i g h t also argue that GIKI graduates have done exceptionally well in the job market, in spite of the stigma of low GPAs. They hence draw the conclusion that GPAs are not really important. What the proponents of such a line of argument do not realise is that there is a lot more com-petition in the market today than a decade ago when GIKI was formed. Gone are the days when it was one of a handful of institutes, whose graduates were vying for employment in a market in need of engineers. Since then, universities and IT institutes have cropped up in every nook and cranny of the country, bringing about a satu-ration of employment aspirants in the market, with a handful of jobs available. With rising un-employment, cutthroat compe-tition is the order of the day. Under such circumstances, most companies have no better criterion than the GPA to shortlist or even select candi-dates for jobs. GIKI is indeed a reputable name in the industry, but there is no certainty of a company overlooking the ob-jective statistic of GPA in all instances to hire employees based on the mere repute of their alma mater.
fake standards. Enough damage has been done; it is about time that the administration washed off her sins.
Stretching our
resources
It is indeed heartening to ob-serve swift progress in the construction of two new hos-tels on campus. It seems that the administration has realised the plight of students stuffed in the parents’ lodge, server rooms and the medical center. Until now, the overflow of student body into these build-ings had thwarted their utilisa-tion for purposes intended. However, sources say that a greater intake of students is on the cards in the next aca-demic year in accompaniment with the inauguration of one of the wings of the new hostels. If these claims are true, the ad-ministration must think twice. Adequate living facilities are not the sole pre-requisite of an augmented batch. A greater number of students would require an improvement in numerous facilities, from labs to the ever-crowded cafeteria, to cater to their needs. Moreover, faculties are already understaffed, and bringing in more students without hiring more teachers will only aid the malady. FCSE and FEE do not have sufficient instructors to offer a respectable number of electives for its final year stu-dents. How increasing the size of the new class is even con-ceivable under such embar-rassing resource constraints, is beyond comprehension. In-creasing intake without drasti-cally expanding resources would be catastrophic.
GIKI was never meant to cater to the quantitative demands of the industry, but to provide fewer quality engineers to the market. Let that purpose not be forgotten for the sake of financial incentives.
The woes of our grading system
Resultantly on numerous occa-sions, GIKI graduates have suf-fered due low GPAs in job applica-tions, despite being more qualified for the job. A number of instances come to mind. Last year, Techlogix and TPS set a minimum GPA requirement of 3.00 for job applicants, due to which a majority of students lost out. A similar trend has been ob-served in case of i n
-ternships. Last year, Unilever, ICI, Shell, and Engro Chemicals set GPA requirements for internship aspirants. Perhaps even more importantly, this stringent grading policy adversely affects students’ chances for admission to prestig-ious graduate schools abroad. A foreign university scrutinising ad-mission applications would make no distinction between a graduate of GIKI and one of Preston Uni-versity Peshawar, and would logi-cally prefer the latter if he has a GPA of 3.5 over the former with one of 2.5. Despite being better than the other applicant, the GIKI graduate loses out through no fault of his own, prey to an unrea-sonable grading policy.
Such implied parsimony in grading is harming the students’ future. While blindly handing out high GPAs is unjustified, advertently lowering grades under the pretext of maintaining “standards” is equally unethical. The relative grading system is in vogue in edu-cational institutes all over the world, with a large percentage of students scoring high GPAs. If the students of GIKI are a low-scoring exception, it is either because they are not competent enough or the system is not being implemented properly. As the former is a con-clusion too unreasonable to draw for so large a body of students over so long a period of time, we an only arrive at the latter. The solution, simply, is to follow the system of relative marking, and grade on the curve rather than continue with the practice of with-holding grades for maintenance of
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The grade point
aver-age, or GPA, is of
con-siderable import in a
student’s academic life.
It is the measure of his
skill, and reflects the
extent to which he has suc-ceeded in mastering his area of expertise. While it may not be the ideal measure of academic ability, and many will argue that it is not, it is nonetheless the best one available, especially in cases requiring expeditious judgement.
Consequently, the GPA is the single most important standard of gauging individual academic ability the world over, for higher studies as well as the professional industry. A major-ity of companies, especially multinationals, shortlist job candidates based on GPA. In-ternship aspirants are picked out on basis of a similar consid-eration, while universities worldwide admit students for graduate school on a handful of criteria, of which GPA is one of the more significant. A high GPA is thus taken to be the mark of academic and profes-sional excellence. Conversely, a low GPA is indicative of medi-ocrity, and does not augur well for an individual’s future. Furthermore, the standard of assessment of GPA is universal. Given this emphasis on it, most universities are excessively magnanimous in granting GPAs. They exercise laxity in their grading policy for the conven-ience of their students, to the unfair extent of handing out exceptionally good GPAs even to poor students.
GIKI, on the other hand, lies at the other end of the spectrum. In accord with a tacitly sanc-tioned grading policy, all facul-ties of the institute observe stringency in grading. Some of the best students from all over Pakistan attend GIKI, and most match their potential with per-formance. Despite this, the average GPA awarded to a student here is lamentably low.
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
New mess policy adopted
Fare-collection
without receipt
illegal
Continued from Page 1
students for not approaching the authorities with this prob-lem. “I have never had a single complaint from any student related to overcrowding in buses,” he said “If they have a problem, they must step up. We have transport available to facilitate extra students, but it has apparently never been needed.” Sources in the Transport Section claimed that they had on numerous occasions, asked students left standing in buses to alight and use alternative transport ar-rangements provided by them, but the students had refused.
Sources also said that plans were underway to acquire
new buses, and a tender had been recently floated. The final decision was yet to be taken, they said. The authorities have also taken into consideration the hiring of extra buses, but cite passenger fluctuation as the main hindrance to this measure.
Editor’s Note: Since our correspon-dent approached Dr Fazal Khalid, there has been a marked improve-ment in the provision of receipts to students while collecting fare on the GIKI bus.
GCC tapeball
t o u r n a m e n t
starts
GIKI: The 16th Intra-GIKI Tape-ball Tournament, commenced from February 1. A total of 14 teams are participating in the competition. Group matches will be followed by knockouts . 11-A are the favourites for the com-petition. Staff Report
‘Admin
determined
for student
betterment’
Continued from Page 1
Furthermore, the director said that the decision had been taken in view of increased nocturnal security risks. According to him, wild boars and snakes abound on campus at night, and students would be safer indoors. Citing the example of a couple recently caught in the woods, he said that closure of the khokha would bring about a decrease in ‘immoral activity’ on campus. “If the khokha is open all night, girls would also get opportunity to roam around at odd hours, and what not can happen at night!”
GIKI: The new policy adopted by the Mess Office, with the consent of hostel supervisors, is quite complicated in function. It prohibits students from hav-ing meals or eatables on mess slips. According to the new rule, students cannot even have breakfast on the mess slip if they are signed out of the mess. Earlier, the students could have breakfast on the mess slip even if they were messed out. On inquiry, mess officials re-vealed that this policy had been implemented in view of efficient financial management of the mess. They said that if a student is messed out and takes a meal in the mess without signing in, he/she is charged for two whole days’ meals - for the day he/she takes the meal and for
the next day as well. This is because students taking meals on any day without signing in are counted while ordering ingredients for the next day. If they do not take any meal on the next day, they are not charged further.
However, upon investigation, the practice in hostels was found to be quite different. Students of different hostels claimed that in the event of a student taking a meal in mess without signing in, he/she is charged for every subsequent day until he/she again signs out the mess register, despite being already messed out. A student, on condition of anonymity, claimed that while being messed out, he had an odd
meal in the mess, and was charged for every ensuing day without being informed. It was only when a mess waiter, as a favour, explained the situation to him, that he signed out again. Extra messing is another enigma in the mess bill. A mess supervisor stated that extra messing includes breakfast, guests’ meals, milk and other beverages. It also includes charges for individual repairs in rooms, he said.
Common area damages, such as those in the mess and common room, are incorporated as breakages in the mess bill, sources said. A 10 per cent surcharge is added to the ar-rear, while there is no sur-charge during summer vaca-tions.
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
3
By Syed Zeeshan
Majority of
gikians cheat
Continued from Page 1
rampant, from copying assign-ments to cheating in quizzes, midterms, finals and even in-ternship exams. That it hap-pens is an open secret. Re-cently, a survey was conducted on cheating in order to gain an insight into this perplexing issue.
Interestingly, a large percentage of students admitted to cheat-ing in one test or another. The bold among them defined cheating as their style of taking exams.
Eighty per cent of the students polled said that they resorted to cheating when they felt threatened in studies or found themselves on the verge of academic probation.
Some students with exemplary academic records said that they would do anything to climb the GPA ladder, deeming cheating an important tool for this pur-pose. Shockingly, everyone interviewed in the survey said that more than 90 per cent of their acquaintances cheat rou-tinely. “98 per cent of students cheat”, remarked one inter-viewee wryly “while the other two per cent lie.”
Most of those polled argued that cheating was so common that those not cheating paid the price for their honesty with low grades. Thus they found cheating necessary to maintain respectable grades. Ninety-five percent said that they were not proud of cheating, but had to do it as a matter of survival. The rest thought that cheating is justified if the instructor is incompetent.
The walls of GIKI
1. “Parton-in-Chief”
GIKI Uncovered, Issue I
2. Inter-GIKI Tapeball Cricket
GCC publicity
3 CDES induction conitues
CDES induction A4
6. “Hearties congratulations to the above-listed candidates”
CDES induction results
4. "Gentlemen, and people of the other kind! Good evening."
Overheard at a debate
5. "Hitler killed blacks because they are athletic, and used to win the Olympics every year."
8 - 1
Outclassed and outplayed; but humbled? Defi-nitely not!
The first of Ramadan was the
auspicious date when sporting
ties between GIKI and LUMS
were revived after an unfortunate pause. The efforts put in by the Student Affairs Office and the GIKI Sports Society (GSS) to resolve this issue are commendable. How-ever, this article is concerned with the actual fixture, instead of the prelude to it. The fixture started with promising signs for GIKI, as we quickly took the lead in Bad-minton by winning the first of five games. However, the home side had correctly anticipated our strategy and had pitted a mediocre player against our best, thus nullifying whatever advantage we had in the contest. Consequently, in the rest of the matches, their players completely outplayed us. The home side won Bad-minton 3-2. It was now 1-0 for LUMS in the overall fixture. We squandered a good start to a side better prepared. This would prove to be the theme for the entire fixture, where we would start well in almost every sport but would then be beaten by a side holding its nerve longer.
Tennis and football were being held almost simultaneously. By the time the football match started, GIKI had lost the first of three tennis matches in a very closely fought doubles’ match. It was at this junc-ture in the fixjunc-ture - 1-0 in LUMS’s favour and tennis going 1-0 for them - that the football match started. The match can be summed up in the following quote by a GIKI supporter at LUMS: “Every LUMS player played well, except for the goal keeper because he hardly got to play at all; and from our side, our right back (Bilal Riaz) and goalkeeper (Hassan Abbas) played well because they were the only players who got to play at all”.
Despite relentless attacks, LUMS was kept at bay by a combination of some out-standing keeping and defending, and poor finishing. The first half was somewhat closely competed, but signs of fatigue began to appear in our players well before the second half started. Fewer balls were chased back by the strikers, and the mid-field eventually gave up on returning to defend with the ball; when they did, they were completely outpaced by the luminite wingers. The story of the second half was one of complete domination by LUMS over an exhausted GIKI side. Nonetheless, the defence somehow held on. The score line was still 0-0 and was to remain so until the last 10 minutes of the match when LUMS scored, thanks to poor marking by GIKI in allowing the striker an open shot on goal.
This goal, coupled with the news that GIKI had levelled tennis 1-1, served as a boost of energy and the GIKI strike force looked alive for the first time in the match. Balls were chased with more vigour and crowd cheers got louder. There was a sense of coordination in the team, but all this failed to prevent LUMS from mounting a string of attacks at the GIKI goal, one that produced a defensive blunder and resulted in an
own-goal. Chins dropped, shoulders drooped; and it was there and then that the fixture was lost.
A demoralised and disheartened GIKI side conceded a third goal to an impossible looking strike from LUMS, and the support-ers started to pray for the time to run out, for the agony to be done with. Now this scribe does not know much about football, but he does know that if football could have been learned merely by watching the English Premier League and talking endlessly about it, then England with its football fa-naticism would have dominated world foot-ball, or produced at least one player of the calibre of Pele or Diego Maradona. I am also aware that making strategies at the khokha with teacups as players is all fine and dandy, but to follow up those strate-gies, one needs to have players with ability, not to mention the stamina, to last the entire game. Skill is something innate; ability is skill acquired with hard work, something found lacking in our side. Moreover, “knowledge of the game” and “ability to motivate on the field” are not primary cri-teria for selection in a team. It was due to this complete disregard of merit, which led to the selection of a side whose opening lineup left many a jaws wide open with surprise on match day.
We soon got the news of our loss in tennis as well; LUMS now led the fixture 3-0. Bas-ketball was the last event of the day. We started well again in conformity with the general trend, but ungraciously lost heart
along the way. The score line thus stood at 4-0 at the end of a day which most would have liked to forget.
The second day started with new hope and a promise of revival. The first two events were cricket and squash. In cricket, the GIKI team batted first, but their in-nings was marred by some dubious and highly controversial decisions in favour of the home side. Jehangir played a fine knock before becoming the victim of a very controversial leg-before decision. Other than that, the captain top-scored with 29 runs in a somewhat tamed innings, and got out before he could mount an all out attack. At this critical juncture of the game, some irresponsible batting resulted in GIKI’s failure to capitalise on whatever start the top order had pro-vided.
However, as the GIKI team took to the field to bowl, it became painfully clear to all that while the football team had perhaps suffered from over-planning; the GIKI cricket team had fallen prey to a lack of strategy. Nowhere during the entire innings was there any sign of an attack. The players were just going through the motions. The GIKI team overall seemed to lack the energy that was required to make a match of it at that point. Cricket had been neglected, and a rather timid surrender was the best that could have been expected with the level of effort put into it. The only hardball practice that the players had had prior to the fixture was in the form of nets, which was clearly insufficient.
Somewhere along the cricket match, we received news of the shock defeat in squash. In a short while, an eagerly fought table tennis competition was also lost, and the score line stood at 7 – 0.
A whitewash loomed on the not-so-distant horizon. It was at this moment of utter despair that the hockey team ‑ which had faced blatant external meddling, whose shirt number assigning procedure was questioned, whose players were ridi-culed for “hitting their own feet with hockeys” ‑ came good and won the hockey match from a goal by Zeeshan Hasan on an assist by Hassan Illyas. Finally, the curse was broken; GIKI had earned its first sport. It was now 7 – 1.
Of winning the Volleyball ball match, the last event, there was never much hope. We were soon quashed by a three sets to zero score line, and it was all finally over. The final score line of the fixture was:
LUMS GIKI 8 1
We squandered a good start
to a side better prepared.
This would prove to be the
theme for the entire fixture,
where we would start well in
almost every sport but
would then be beaten by a
side holding its nerve longer.
By Jawad Warraich
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
Dear Prof Bhatti,
I have a teacher who discriminates among his students on basis of class, ethnicity, sex and family background. His grading favours girls, and students who establish a rapport with him. I don’t want to flatter him to get a grade, yet will suffer if I do not. Please advise.
Ethically Concerned
Your concern is misplaced due to your mis-perception. The great and prestigious univer-sities do not select faculty that lacks moral integrity and intellectual probity. Students irrespective of their background are treated like children by their teachers without any discrimination. Students who doubt their teachers should instead spend their valuable time on their study. Students who lag behind in academics usually develop anti-teacher perceptions. They suffer like careless chicks who do not rush to come under the wings of their mother-hen after she squeaks for safety at the sight of a swooping killer-bird.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
I am a student of the freshman batch, and confused about the prestige of societies in GIKI. Which society, in your view, is the best and which one should never have been conceived?
Wannabe Socialite
I would recommend you to join societies like Project Topi or some other public welfare society so as to alleviate the pains and suffer-ings of the underprivileged and also to edu-cate the children of poor employees of GIKI. No society is useless. All societies are en-gaged in some constructive endeavours.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
I have a cat, Whiskers. I love my cat, but sometimes I want to hurt it. Why do I have these urges? Please help.
Cat Lover
You are suffering from love-hate relationship tendency. Psychologically speaking it is called masochistic sadistic behaviour showing an IQ
of 20. Students reflecting such a mark of IQ are normally found in Montessori and KG classes of an average village school. If you still persist in your intentions then consult any qualified psychologist.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
This might sound strange, but of late, I sleep at one place and wake up at an-other. People tell me that I walk in my sleep and even have conversations, but I have no recollection. How can I over-come this psychological abnormality?
Confused Wanderer
It is not a serious or dangerous problem. Any good psychologist can cure you of this aberration.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
I am very friendly with the girls of my batch. Because of this, all the boys call me names. Why do they harass me when my intentions are sincere?
Guard Dog
Your sincere intentions are utterly mis-aligned; please realign them along with the sincere intentions and high hopes of your sincere parents. You will see the sincere results.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
Before coming to GIKI, I was regarded as a prodigy by peers and teachers. However, I have been a consistent pro-bationer here. I have tried everything; studying, not studying, cheating, not cheating. Nothing seems to help. Be-cause of this, I have often thought of killing myself, but am too afraid of the pain. Please make the pain go away.
Suicidal Probationer
You might have been an excellent survivor in streams and brooks of your home town but GIKI is the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean whose depths you unfortunately could not foresee. There is no need of losing heart; just continue slow paddling your dingy along
the coast so as to reach your destination safely though belatedly.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
The social environment in GIKI is changing, especially the increasing female population and thus inci-dences of girls getting caught with boys indulging in immoral acts. Un-der such circumstances, how is a young, decent student, who is here in GIKI to study, supposed to react?
Goody-Two-Shoes
After doing your graduation you are very likely to rush to one of the Western university campuses which are a thou-sand times more flirtatious and seductive and at times lewd and lecherous. How you would concentrate on your studies in such campuses? I have been to many universities of Pakistan and can vouchsafe that the rate of character lapses in GIKI is lowest in Pakistan. Boys have equal responsibility of upholding piety, chastity and decency of character on campus.
Dear Prof Bhatti,
I am being hounded by a girl. She follows me around campus, calls me on my mobile at odd hours of the night and sends me emails and mes-sages that I dare not mention here. I have told her that I am here to study and utilise my parents’ hard-earned money, but she claims to love me and has even threatened to approach my parents. What should a decent girl like me do in such a situation?
Victimised
The story seems to be a concocted one and has a sleazy purpose behind it. GIKI campus is appreciated even beyond the borders of Pakistan for the piety, chas-tity, modesty and dignity of girls and righteousness and chivalry of its boys. Both belong to families who are imbued with Islamic traditions and values. Even making a story like this tantamounts to slander. If it is true then the victimised should see any psychologist for devictimi-sation and also for refitting her hinged mind.
Prof Bhatti’s Psycho-clinic
We all have problems that we are reluctant to discuss even with close friends and relatives. Relationships, academics and countless other issues perplex us daily and are a cause of great anxiety. We bring to you, an expert’s advice on problems of the GIKI student body. Prof Hameed A Bhatti will suggest solutions to all your nagging psychological dilemmas. So please send in your problems to [email protected],
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
6
The essence of university education lies in the notion that it polishes an individual’s capability of realising his/her responsibilities and priorities in life ahead. It provides a platform for a transition from teenage to adulthood, and creates an environment wherein one can form one’s own decisions. This provides the atmosphere for a perfect breeding ground for the individual.
The assertions made above are directly related to the environment that ought to be provided by an institute of excellent academic repute for an all on-campus stu-dent body. Apart from being afforded the finest academic education in their field of study, students at GIKI ought to be pro-vided with opportunities to make decisions on their own and, more importantly, use the freedom of choice and action to their own benefit. This would enable the purpose of the institute to go beyond provision of mere academic courses, and extend to playing a role in students’ personality devel-opment.
Consequently, the very purpose of a uni-versity is partially defeated when the extent to which the students can exercise their freedom of thought and choice is re-stricted. When rules and regulations in-fringing upon individual freedom are prom-ulgated by the authorities, a hindrance is posed to the individual’s capability of devel-oping a distinction between good and bad. The dilemma is that these strictly imposed regulations compel students to comply out of fear of the punishment, and so under-mine the purpose of the entire exercise. The students fail to realise for themselves
the importance of a specific activity. The reason for their involvement therein sadly degrades from a desire to acquire any good that the activity may serve, to a lan-guid effort to escape what otherwise may result in administrational reprimand. Con-sequently, it fails to make the individual realise his priorities and soaks out the essence of the activity itself.
An example of this deprivation of choice is the early closure of the campus hotel, popularly referred to as the “khokha”. The administration has issued orders to shut down the khokha at midnight, arguing that keeping it open after that would cause students to waste time at night instead of ‘sleeping on time’, and thus prevent them from attending morning classes. The khokha used to be a popular eatery in the later hours of the night. Now, students cannot eat anywhere on campus after midnight. According to rules, kettles, ovens, and microwaves are not allowed in hostels; so making one’s own food in hostels is not possible.
A couple of questions arise at this point. Firstly, does the midnight closure of the khokha actually cause an improvement in attendance? Students at GIKI have differ-ent timetables; not everyone has a class at eight o’clock in the morning. Therefore, closing these places to “ensure” that all students are tucked safely in bed by mid-night really doesn’t make sense. More-over, this step has not brought about the drastic increase of attendance in morning classes that was expected by the paternal
administration. It must realise that it can-not prescribe, even indirectly, the time at which students should sleep or the classes that they should attend. For all we know, students who previously sat in common rooms after midnight now probably stay awake in their rooms or visit a friend instead of sleeping. Will the administration now impose “lights out” and “curfew” rules to curb these activities to ensure attendance? Where does it all stop? Where do we draw the line between administrative interference and individual freedom on issues as petty as these? Secondly, is ensuring that all students attend classes the administration’s respon-sibility? Shouldn’t attending classes be a choice resting with the student rather than be forced upon him/her by the ad-ministration? University students are not children; they are adults and should be given privileges that adults have. Freedom of choice should rest with students in matters such as these, so that they learn its exercise and consequences. Skipping classes does not tantamount to breaking a rule. If one chooses to skip class and risk suffering academically, that is one’s choice. In any case, attending classes just for the sake of attendance does not serve the real purpose of education.
GIKI is not a school, but an institute where students are adults. Instead of im-posing unnecessary restrictions to get students to attend classes, the administra-tion should refocus its attenadministra-tion on im-proving academic standards.
The GIK institute for infants
By Hasan Iqbal and Zain KazmiLost in the errors of the races.
The fire worshipper girl took me
for a one-time ride to the land of a yellow and red sun. We saw the festivals, crowded streets,
wax-covered plastic conversations, and people swinging in rhyme.
We ate our sandwiches under an oak tree which had a huge population
of crows.
She said it is a pattern for us to walk in trian-gles.
Seclusion, solitude, wilderness and pain, bordered the web.
Storm of silence and the immense genera-tion of anxiety.
The veins in my arms have come out of the skin making them look horrible and sick. But nobody sees it.
Lots of people strolling around in the pen-tagonal valley
which is a universe within
The Literary Corner
Solitude and love between the colours
strangers of the hillsrunning through each other with their shad-ows
forming connections lines of communication all horribly delicate.
One great thing you can experience the hour of greatest contempt
the hour in which even your happiness grows loathsome
and your reason and your virtue also
GIKI academia: alas!
The prestige of a university can
be assessed based on numerous
standards. Among these, the
most important one is
academia
. GIKI is one of the most expensive insti-tutes of the country, and students here pay a substantial amount of money in the hope of acquiring good education. How-ever, the quality of education handed out is substandard at best.In GIKI, teaching assistants (TAs) play a pivotal role in students’ education and evaluation. While the ma-jority of them do a fine job, a few are known for their lack of knowledge, poor method of teaching and partial attitude to-wards students. On a num-ber of occasions, they have been rude and indifferent to their responsibilities. For these few, the tenure here is a paid holiday, to be utilised in preparation for their GMAT/GRE ex-ams and graduate applica-tions, conveniently over-looking courses and labs under their supervision. Many of them cannot be found in their offices dur-ing office hours. There are faculties, such as FCSE, which have formal evalua-tion of their TAs at the end of every semester; thus the fine performance of their TAs. This strategy is recommended for all faculties, with special con-sideration given to critique by students.
Another issue that stands
out is GIKI’s stringent rechecking policy, which defies all logic. The given table com-pares rechecking policies of leading insti-tutes of Pakistan. As is evident, GIKI stands out as unreasonably harsh in this regard.
Apart from institutional policies, grading policies set by instructors for individual courses are often incongruous and serve to victimise a number of students. In Spring 2003, a professor of FES adopted the policy of considering three quizzes out of five, making it a point to include those in which the student had scored naught or had missed, notwithstanding the validity of the reason for the student’s absence. Moreover, each absence was penalised by the deduction of half a mark. All this, de-spite the fact that even the PEC allows
respite to students in the form of a 75 per cent mandatory attendance. While the instructors at GIKI may be free to form their own attendance policies, they must cater to similar relief measures to accom-modate emergencies.
In Spring 2004, an instructor of FEE made a policy whereby only the submission of an assignment and not its substance would carry weight, under the excuse that he or his TA did not have time to check them. That gave an ideal opportunity to our noble Gikians to freely indulge in copying assign-ments. Almost the entire class submitted all assignments. However, when the pre-finals were put up, the teacher assigned marks according to whim, and increased the weightage of assignments from five to ten per cent. When the student who had been marked low on assignments approached the instructor and reminded him of his submit-only policy, he told them that they had not even submitted their assignments, causing an angry outburst.
Another incident in 2003, in a course
of-fered by FME, further marred the credibility of instructors. The course instructor an-nounced from the outset that he would allow up to 15 absences in his course. In the 15th week, the attendance status was demanded by higher officials. They short-listed all students with over 12 absences, and forbade them from sitting in the final. The list comprised 17 students, including some whose graduation was at stake. Upon negotiations, the instruc-tor decided to relax the limit to 13 absences. Consequently, 12 out of the 17 students were given the green signal, but the remaining five were not allowed to sit in the final. The grading policy of FEE labs is another issue that needs the administration’s attention. It is an open se-cret that in a recent course, the professor graded the lab in correspondence with the course grade. In his view, a student getting a respectable grade in the course should also have the same in the lab, an assertion with no logical feet to stand on. One is well aware of the multitude of students who do well in theory but falter in practice, and vice versa. If a student had a B- in the lab and an A in the course, the professor changed his/her lab grade from B- to A. Similarly, stu-dents faring well in the lab but not the course had their grades lowered for the sake of a distorted coherence. Last year, the effective grad-ing policy of the Computer Architecture lab was that any group whose SAP (Simple As Possible com-puter) worked was given an A straight away, while those whose SAP was not completely functional had a 15-20-minute viva. The vivas solely decided their grades, and not the least significance was given to circuitry and hardware on which they had toiled for an entire semester. In fact, the lab TA did not even consider the implemented SAPs worthy of notice. Thus, only around 15 per cent of the students - those whose SAP was perfectly operational - were graded on the 42-hour lab, while the rest were judged on the basis of a mere viva.
The institute must wake up and take notice of such inconsistency in policies implemented by instructors at their caprice, and strive to de-velop a uniform and fair system of evaluation. The standards of education at GIKI are falling sharply, and will soon leave us at the ebb unless remedied soon.
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
By Platonic
7
Sr # Name of University Final ShownRecheck-ing Fee Final Rechecking Pattern
1 LUMS Yes Nil
Students are given a time limit to go through final of previous quarter and dis-cuss with professors. 2 UET Lahore No Rs 300
Recounted, final searched for unmarked questions.
3 NED University No Rs 400
Final recounted by external professor 4 Sir Syed University Karachi No Rs 50
Final shown to student, recounted in front of him
5 FAST Lahore Yes Rs 200
Student submits objection in writing, and professor discusses problem. 6 Punjab University No
Rs 1000 Final shown to student and rechecked in front of him
7 GIKI No Rs 2000
Not shown to student, only marks recounted for Rs 500 and final re-checked by same profes-sor for Rs 2000
GIKI UNCOVERED — January 11 - February 6, 2005
8
GIKI: Human nature is strange. The things which are
hardest to do are usually ones which make us feel
best. Charity is one such thing. Nothing compares to
seeing a poor child smile when you hand him even a
small piece of candy. But while that smile may well be
worth it, it is difficult to give up what one cherishes,
for someone else. This is one of the many reasons that
we find charity hard.
In the same way, we all feel for the poor in Topi.
However, very few, if any, of us would hand over our
expensive jackets and sweaters to a child shivering on
the street. Indeed! Charity is difficult.
Nonetheless, if we could help those people while still
not having to give up anything ourselves, wouldn’t it be
easy? And it would be even easier if we were saving
ourselves from wastefulness at the same time.
Project Topi is a student organisation established by
Batch seven. Its primary purpose is to provide
educa-tion to the poor and underprivileged children of Topi.
Members go to Topi to teach basic mathematics,
Eng-lish and science to school-going children. The joy that
the children express on seeing them there cannot be
explained in words. Project Topi is a non-profit
organi-sation and generates funds from student donations and
various sponsors.
But how can you help Project Topi? The apparent
so-lution is to join them in going and teaching the
chil-dren, but now you can help while in your room
study-ing. Project Topi has started a paper drive. All used
papers, notes, registers etc are welcome. We must
remember that even a small amount of paper
repre-sents a large number of trees, which took decades to
grow and are swiftly decreasing in number. The paper
will be recycled and the proceeds will go to educating
children.
It is not difficult, and doesn’t require giving up
any-thing. It is a simple and easy way to gain the virtue of
charity. It may be just an old register to us, but the
amount of joy it will bring to children on the other
side of the fence will be immense. It will provide them
with education, a chance they would never have had
otherwise. So lets all pitch in, because these kids aren’t
looking for a hand out, but just need a hand up.
Advertorial
Project Topi: the virtue of charity
Crossword
DOWN
ACROSS
2. Job fair in GIKI 1. Latest technology in GIKI 11. Most popular studying
3. Books and dates 6. Barbecue spot technique
4. Largest GIKI all Pak event 8. Mohaa, Need for Speed, all nighters 12. GIKI terminology for 5. What Batch 13 is gearing up for 9. Assignments at GIKI “extreme”
7. Biggest luxury in GIKI rooms is your very own __ 10. What FCSE is famous for 13. GIKI terminology for “good”