In a first among IITs, Kgp campus gets dean of well-being to take care of students' wellness

Time of India

3 days ago

Kolkata: Arun Chakraborty, professor of the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Sciences at IIT-Kharagpur, on Monday became the first dean of student well-being at the engineering college, stressing the initiatives launched for students' welfare.
TOI had reported that IIT-Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty had announced the appointment during the induction programme for the new BTech batch on July 26. This post was created to ensure any student's poor mental health, if any, did not go unaddressed, especially after four youths ended their lives on the campus in seven months. The last victim was fourth-year mechanical engineering student Ritam Mondal, who was found hanging in his hostel room at Rajendra Prasad Hall of Residence on July 18.
"This is possibly the first time in any IIT in the country that a person of a dean's status has been solely assigned to look after students' well-being. As our institute has a huge number of students, we feel it is necessary to have a designated dean of student well-being to give special emphasis on all the welfare activities of students," the director told TOI.
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Arun Chakraborty told TOI the new role was challenging but he looked forward to carrying it out.
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"This move was a necessity to focus on the youths' well-being and the smooth running of the initiatives taken for them. We do not want any more tragic incident on the campus. We will ensure every student can approach us at any point of the day and night. Problems will be addressed immediately. I have spoken to students and told them however small a problem they might face, I am available for them 24×7.
They should not panic.
We are there to support them as parents. They are like our children," he said.
IIT-Kharagpur has 21 hostels accommodating more than 16,000 students. The institute already has a dean of student affairs. But, director Chakraborty pointed out, that 'student affairs' and 'student well-being' were separate responsibilities. "It is practically not possible for the dean of student affairs to look into an individual's well-being.
"The dean of student well-being will be responsible for anything and everything leading to the well-being of students and it will be easier to identify students' issues and address them.
The job of the dean of student affairs will mainly be administrative work related to students, such as their attendance, accommodation, disciplinary matters," he added. Several IITs, including Madras, Bombay, Delhi and Kanpur, too, have a dean of student affairs each.
Among the measures taken to help out the Kharagpur students are AI-driven mental wellness initiative SETU, restructuring the counselling centre, introduction of 'campus mothers', forming students' task forces at hostel wings and conducting workshops on stress management. The institute had earlier assigned two associate deans to look after students' physical and mental health. An assistant warden at each hostel is also designated to look into students' welfare, particularly at hostels.
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