2002 – 2003
Mr. Arif Ulla Sherif, Registrar (Evaluation) Bangalore University, Fr. Ronnie Prabhu, Provincial, Karnataka Jesuit Province, former Principals of SJCC Fr.
Walter Andrade and Fr. Aveline D’Souza, Dr. T V Narasimha Rao former professor of Commerce at SJCC and the present Dean of M S Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies, Fathers, Sisters, members of the staff, parents, Alumni/ae, guests and my dear students.
As we celebrate the Annual day of our College, we raise our hearts and minds to God for all the beautiful things He has accomplished in and through our lives. We look back with gratitude to evaluate our activities and look ahead with confidence towards a brighter future, so as to build on the successes and failures of the past. We are very happy indeed to have with us, Mr. Arif Ulla Sherif, an able and efficient administrator. He has brought a lot of transparency and accountability to his office. Under his guidance the University Examination section is keeping pace with the changing times. A very warm welcome to you Sir. Fr. Ronnie Prabhu needs no introduction to the Josephites.
He is the real spirit behind the growth of this institution. Fr. Ronnie, welcome to your own College.
A warm and cordial welcome also to all of you dear parents, well wishers, and prize-winners. I am pleased to place before you the annual report 2002-2003.
THE STAFF:
Dr. Fr. Aveline D’Souza, SJ retired from service on attaining superannuation at the end April 2002. As principal he has given of his best to the Institution. We are grateful to him. Dr. T.V.Narasimha Rao, much appreciated and sought after by the present and the past students, after a dedicated and competent service for
26 years, took voluntary retirement in the month of November 2002. The Management, the Staff and the Students wish to place on record their appreciation and gratitude for all that Dr. Fr. Aveline D’Souza S.J and Dr. T V Narasimha Rao were and did for this institution.
We are happy to have Ms. Preethi I who has joined the commerce faculty.
Mr. Bernard (years of service) Mr. Abraham (years of service) Mr. John Sudhakar were deputed to St. Joseph’s Arts and Science College. We thank them for their dedicated service and wish them well in their new posting. In their places Mr. Alexander, Mr. Gopal and Mr. Benedict joined duty in the month of July. We welcome them and wish them a happy tenure in the college.
Jesuit education goes beyond academics to reach out to people, to understand their situation and to help them onto fresh growth. To form men and women for others is our concern. In this task our teachers play a great role. They give of their best in imparting quality education. It is their hard work, which makes the college vision a reality. They also strive to constantly update themselves. To keep abreast with the growing trends in higher education, our teaching staff attended several seminars and workshops, as an integral part of their ongoing formation and in-service training.
I am happy to announce to you that the Bangalore University has awarded the Ph.D. Degree to Mrs. Sajida Ahmed Dept of Hindi. Our congratulations to her.
Our non-teaching staff has been the backbone of this institution. They work quietly behind the scenes, doing regular routine work methodically, efficiently and joyfully. It is to them that we owe our appreciation for the smooth conduct of the college.
ACADEMIC LIFE:
The student strength is 635. The education policy of the management and our own convictions have led us to admit several students whose academic attainments may not be very high. We all know that poverty and lack of opportunity at times prevent deserving persons from reaching their full potential
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste it’s fragrance in the desert air”
Therefore, we make it a point to enable students from the deprived and the disadvantaged sections of society to study here. These are helped through scholarships coming from generous donors and freeships from the management.
About 30 % of our students are thus assisted. In this context, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to our donors.
I am proud to say that our students have lived up to our trust in them. The results were,
I B.Com – 81%
II B.Com – 94%
III B.Com – 92 %
10 of our students were placed among the top 100 in Bangalore University.
They have brought credit to the college. They are:
S.No Name University
Rank
1 Vishal B. Asrani 6
2 Pooja L. Sanghvi 7
3 Raju K.G 18
4 Almitra G. Rego 26
5 Stanley Samrat 42
6 Praveen Anadvijay 43
7 Vaibhav Kapur 45
8 Shamita Jayant Rao 52 9 Vijayalakshmi sivreurman 42
10 Aditya Madhok 55
I congratulate Prof. Mrs. B.C Vaz, the Dean and HOD, and the Faculty for the excellent results in B.Com.
The much-awaited Post-Graduate Department of Commerce was started with 30 students during the year. I am happy to announce that the first batch of M.Com students has brought in cent percent results in the first semester.
Congratulations and thanks to Dr. Philomin Raj, the coordinator of the M.Com programme.
HONOURS PROGRAMME:
To supplement the existing curriculum, to provide additional knowledge to students and to make commerce education multi-disciplinary, the following Honours Courses are offered: Tally, the electronic accounting system, in collaboration with Mr. Annamalai of J.L Computer Academy, Inter Personal Relationship by our student counselor Mathew Thomas, Security Analysis and Portfolio Management by Mr. Ramu Iyer, finance expert, Neuro Linguistic Programming by Mr. Rajaram, Dept. of English. International Trade and Finance by Mr. Srikantan. All these Honours courses were offered under the Dept. of Training and Development. Incidentally it was Dr. T.V. Narasimha Rao was the initial coordinator of this Department.
The Institute Of Chartered Accountants of India has recognized our College as the center for Professional Education part- 1 (PE 1). Mr. Augustin Amaladas is the Coordinator of the programme. We are planning to offer PE II course from the coming academic year. This will strengthen our drive to make commerce education multi-disciplinary.
All this would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of our teachers. To all of them, once again, a million thanks.
STUDENTS COUNCIL:
The year has witnessed many changes and one among them has been a structural change in the students Council. In consultation with the entire faculty, a decision was taken to change the pattern of representation of students on the Council. The Council now consists of three bodies namely, Academic, Cultural, and Sports Council. Each of the Councils has two students from every class. These representatives in turn elect the coordinator from among them.
This ensured greater student representation, more participative leadership, and an opportunity for students to elect representatives from among their own classmates whom they know better.
To help the students to understand, accept and own the new concept, a one-day orientation was organized for all the council members. Fr. Pradeep Sequeira S.J., our Rector, animated the group. At a later stage a two-day workshop on leadership was conducted. Fr. Freddie D’Silva S.J. was the resource person.
The major objectives of the Academic Council is to foster creativity and encourage intellectual pursuits, to create awareness about the emerging trends in the areas of commerce and economics, and to enrich the quality of academic life by bridging the gap between theory and practice. In keeping with the objectives they organized “Zeal 2002”, an inter class management fest.
“Chanakya” an intercollegiate management fest, with the theme Business stalwarts rule the world; was conducted with true Josephite tradition.
Harikrishna of III A was the Coordinator of the Academic Council.
The Cultural Council is to discover and develop talents, nurture creativity and enhance good campus ethos. The Council organized “Dawn”, an inter class fest and “Dhwani”- inter collegiate Indian cultural fest. Aravind Leo Pereira of III A was the Coordinator of the Cultural Council.
The Sports Council aims at developing perseverance, sportsmanship and team spirit, in order to provide an environment for the physical, mental and emotional fitness of the students, by promoting healthy competition through intra and inter-collegiate sports activities. Under the guidance of Mr. Mathan, the physical director, the Sports Council organized the “SPIEL 2002” a much awaited and appreciated inter collegiate Sports festival in a professional manner. Ayyappa of III A was the Coordinator of the Sports Council.
In addition to the three Councils we also have a Women’s Cell. The Women’s Cell conducted an eventful week ‘Stri-2002’ for the college in general and for the women students in particular. Eminent feminists such as Mrs. Donna Fernades and Dr. Padmini Prasad addressed the students to create awareness on gender sensitivity. The members of the Cell visited the NGOs such as Vanita Sahayavani, Makkala Sahayavani and Vimochana.
This was the first year of the new pattern of the Students Council I am glad to report that all the three Councils and the Women’s Cell functioned well under the able guidance of Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Ravi, who were in charge of the Academic Council, Dr. Philomin Raj and Mr. Suresh, in charge of the Cultural Council and Mr. Madan and Ms. Preethi in charge of the Sports Council, and Dr. Mrs. Lily David who is the Governor and also coordinated the activities of the Women’s Cell. To all of them my heart-felt thanks.
Under the wise expert guidance of Mr. Rajaram our students, have brought out two issues of, “Young Mind”, the College New Letter. Congratulations.
SPORTS AND GAMES:
The college has opened a new multi-purpose hall for indoor activities. It has multi gym, table tennis, chess and carom facilities.
Our college took part in various sports activities in the Inter-Collegiate Tournaments such as Basketball, Cricket, Football, Badminton, Tennis, Table Tennis, Softball and Throw ball. In all these our students have done well.
“When the Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He will not ask if you won or lost; but how you played the game”
Sri Ram Kumar of II B.Com represented Bangalore University and State in Men’s Basketball, Sushanth Bihani of III B.Com captained Bangalore University Tennis Team and member of the State Team for the National Games. Saquib Ilyas of III B captained Bangalore University Team and was the member of the State Badminton Team. M.C Karthik of IA was the member of the state Taekwon-do-team for the National Games. He was selected to represent the country. Steve Lazarus of IIA was a member of the Karnataka under 25-cricket team.
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATIONS:
Students’ initiatives are a special feature of the college. The Hindi Parishad and Kannada Sangha conducted inter class cultural and literary competitions.
‘Sneha Milan’ Hindi inter-collegiate literacy and cultural festival and
‘Santhasa’ Kannada inter-collegiate literacy and cultural festival were held under the banner of ‘Dhwani 2002’. The Cultural Council took keen interest in blending three language associations to bring out the aesthetic value and essential unity in diversity of Indian Culture. The campus was colourful with decorative items from Madhyam an NGO. Dhwani 2002 brought together more than 30 colleges.
‘Enact 2002’- a three-day theatre festival was organized by the language association in collaboration with the Cultural Council. Eight colleges staged fourteen plays of high standard. It was a huge success. The theatre festival unique to the college has a great formative value for the students with the talent for performing arts. Giriraj B.M of II B wrote and directed the plays in Kannada and Hindi. Nitya PC of III B directed the English Play.
AICUF:
All India Catholic University Federation (AICUF) organized a number of meaningful programmes. Two of these are specially worth mentioning: one day seminar on ‘Challenges of youth today’ and an exhibition on Pro-life, in collaboration with ‘Respect for life’. The students took an active part in planning and organizing these programmes. Collaboration and networking is one of the important dimensions of AICUF. The members of AICUF joined hands with Bangalore Initiative for Peace in a rally to protest against the atrocities on Fishermen. Mr. Suresh Kumar and Mrs. Preethi I lent their support to the members of AICUF to make its activities successful.
NSS:
The NSS unit continued to work towards its motto ‘Educating youth to serve’
by organizing some well planned programmes. The volunteers visited orphanages, organized blood donation camp and participated in civil defence Training programme. The culmination was a ten-day exposure programme conducted with great enthusiasm at Vabasandra, Anekal Taluk. Mr. Ravi Richard the coordintator of NSS was the motivating force behind all the NSS activities.
In keeping with the college’s mission and to give our students an opportunity to reach out to the disadvantaged section of our neighbourhood, we had the
Republic Day celebration with the children of the neighbourhood. The children from Vabasandra, where our NSS volunteers had their work camp also took an active part in the celebration.
During the last summer vacation the college had organized a month long computer literacy programme for the neighbourhood children. Our system administrator Mr. Kumareshan deserves our appreciation.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION:
The College pays special attention to the ethical and personal well being of its students. Out of our own experience we found that subject teachers are the best resource persons to facilitate character formation with sound personal and social values. Our student counsellor Mr. Mathew Thomas was much sought after not only by the students but also by the parents. The catholic students were offered Retreats and regular Theology classes for their religious growth. We are happy to say that the regular use by our students of the non-denominational prayer room is an encouraging sign. Over and above this the college prayer group prays together in the prayer room once a week.
EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP:
In the fast changing educational scenario it is important that academic work is supplemented by collaborating with industry and specialized resource persons.
In this regard our alumni/ae association is a source of strength for our institution. Apart from the scholarships and prizes they award, they continually assist in our search for excellence. I specially thank the executive committee members for all the assistance. We continue to count on your generosity.
The PTA took keen interest in organizing a one day workshop on “growing with responsibility” for our first year B.Com students. The same resource person Mr. Saul Pereira, an expert in Transactional Analysis, addressed the
parents on the theme “Parenting”. I express my thanks to Dr. Mrs. Sherley Hereford, the Secretary and the members of the executive committee of PTA for collaborating with us to organize meaningful programmes for the students and parents.
Our Memorandum of Understanding with NIIT has entered the 3rd year. In spite of the difficult times the IT sector is passing through, the NIIT has been very supportive in assisting us with their expertise.
No college can run its co –curricular activities without corporate sponsorships. I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to BPL, Britannia Industries, NIIT, Hindustan Lever Ltd, MSIL and other individual donors who have made our task easier.
We have been helped to place our students in job market. We are proud to say that last year, by the end of May 2002, we had 100% placement. This year too several companies such as Hewlet Paccard, Arthur Anderson, Earnest and Young, Thomson Finance, and a number of Call Centers have come to recruit our students. HP has already confirmed placement for 45 of students. Our placement coordinator Mr. Augustine Amaldas has put in a lot of effort in streamlining the placement cell on a firm footing. He deserves our appreciation and thanks.
CONCLUSION:
Relevance and Excellence are the two most significant watchword today. “Be relevant or perish” says an adage. Keeping in mind the rapid changes occurring in the field of higher education due to globalization privatization and computerization we constantly strive to restructure our existing courses, begin new courses, improve our evaluation system, encourage qualitative improvement of faculty and establish a vital link between the classroom and
society through research orientation and industry institution interaction. At the same time we try never to loose sight of our primary mission of being at the service of the deprived and the disadvantaged section of the society.
It is with the same desire for greater relevance and excellence we are preparing to ask the Government of Karnataka to grant us Autonomy so that we could sincerely strive to impart quality education and send out quality students to society. It is our hope that the Government too has the same perspective and will consider our request.
Let me conclude by congratulating our prize-winners. These students have made us proud. I thank the Almighty God for his providence. Our greatful appreciation to Fr. Provincial and Fr. Rector for their guidance and encouragement. And finally I thank our Faculty and Staff who have made the college what it is today. We count on them for the continued progress of the institution.
March 8, 2003 Fr. Daniel Fernandes S.J.
Bangalore Principal.
