Some days ago, a student from IITM committed suicide.
Some premise: IITians may be brighter than most others, but they have the same emotional intelligence as the general population. So they react in ways that they have seen the general population react. Each time however, the media makes a huge furor about the incident, and usually blames the profs and the system there for having driven the student to suicide. This was even shown in a movie that became a huge hit in India sometime ago.
This time, the student who committed suicide did it because his BTP got extended (without warning, apparently). The exact same reason that was shown in that movie... And the media made as usual questioned the system. The Dean from IIT apparently gave the following response : "3 out of 5000 students who are here commit suicide. That is not even statistically significant, so why are you blaming the system?!"
Dear Dean,
How would you like it if it was your child who was in question here? Would it be dismissed as statistically insignificant?
What does your statement reveal about how much you empathize with your students?
Did you think of how demoralizing such a statement is for other students and whether they would even consider coming to you if they had a genuine problem if they knew this was your attitude?
Some premise: IITians may be brighter than most others, but they have the same emotional intelligence as the general population. So they react in ways that they have seen the general population react. Each time however, the media makes a huge furor about the incident, and usually blames the profs and the system there for having driven the student to suicide. This was even shown in a movie that became a huge hit in India sometime ago.
This time, the student who committed suicide did it because his BTP got extended (without warning, apparently). The exact same reason that was shown in that movie... And the media made as usual questioned the system. The Dean from IIT apparently gave the following response : "3 out of 5000 students who are here commit suicide. That is not even statistically significant, so why are you blaming the system?!"
Dear Dean,
How would you like it if it was your child who was in question here? Would it be dismissed as statistically insignificant?
What does your statement reveal about how much you empathize with your students?
Did you think of how demoralizing such a statement is for other students and whether they would even consider coming to you if they had a genuine problem if they knew this was your attitude?
Did you pause for a moment to consider the possibility that you could strengthen access to couselling among students to make sure the suicide ratio is 0 / 5000? I have studied in another engineering college, and there were no suicides that I knew of, in my 4 years there. I was in IIT for just a little over 2 years, and I knew of more than 1 each semester. Surely, that means the numbers are more than it is elsewhere? Surely, that also means you need to put in more effort than everyone else to make sure these kids come out alive?
In my opinion, the dean must be fired.
