"Men are not prisoners of fate,
but only prisoners of their own minds." ― Franklin Roosevelt
Some of the private pharmacy, medical
and engineering colleges in Telangana State are run by business people, arrack
contractors, real estate agents and financiers. Some of them do not have formal
education and a very few of them are degree holders. There are a very few with
high educational background who are passionate to establish educational
institutions. Most of the owners from these private colleges don’t know the
meaning of passion and excellence. They are eager to make money by setting up
educational institutions. As a result, many private engineering, pharmacy, and medical
colleges came up thus downgrading the quality of education. Here is an
interesting story of Professor Mani who worked as a professor in the MBA
department of a private engineering college in Hyderabad.
Mani was a passionate professor with a
big heart to make a difference in the lives of students. He often thought about
students and interacted with other educators in the campus to exchange
knowledge and intellectual ideas and insights. The college was run by family members
headed by Secretary with postgraduate qualification. The college was founded by secretary’s father
who was a visionary leader with values. The secretary did not know the true
value of the educational institution as it was set up by his father who rose
from ranks. Since the secretary got everything on the platter, he did not
realize the challenges involved in founding and establishing an educational
institution. Therefore, he took everything for granted. The secretary was noted for several unethical
practices and most of his policies were unfriendly to faculty and non-teaching
staff. After the death of secretary’s father, things went worse as there was
none to correct the secretary. The secretary became more autocratic with a
feudal mindset.
The image of the educational
institution was falling down due to the hostile attitude of the secretary. Additionally,
the secretary gradually removed the principals and senior professors appointed
by his late father to have more control on the college. And most of the senior
professors and faculty left after the death of the founder. The secretary
conducted several meetings regularly to find out the reasons about the
declining image of the institution and intake of the students. Mani was also in the meetings regularly. He gave
feedback to make policies that are faculty friendly with decent salaries and to
improve the image of the educational institution by encouraging research and
investing in infrastructure. Since Mani was a loyal professor to the
institution, he had great heart to contribute his best to revamp the
institution to take it to great heights.
The secretary did not appreciate the
views and inputs given by Mani. Instead of taking Mani’s views and suggestions
positively, he took them personally. One day, the secretary called Mani to his
office and expressed his displeasure. Mani was a honest and straight forward
professor with ethics and etiquette. He didn’t believe in flattery. The
following conversation took place between the secretary and Professor Mani.
Secretary: I didn’t appreciate the way
you expressed your views about the college in the recent meeting.
Professor: You conducted meeting to get ideas from all
sources to overhaul the educational institution. As everybody expressed, I also
expressed my views to convert our educational institution into excellence.
Secretary: You emphasized more on hiking the salaries of
faculty and building infrastructure. I did not like it when you mentioned about
the hike in salaries.
Professor: When you pay decent salaries, you get the
best faculty who can improve the output in the college and enhance employability
and employment. They can contribute quality research papers to add value to the
institution. Infrastructure is an imperative to enable the students to learn
well apart from enhancing the image of our institution.
Secretary: I am talking only about the
hike in salaries, not infrastructure. Additionally, you must learn how to
behave with me. You cannot behave the way you behave with your students.
Professor: Please don’t mix up issues. Our discussion is
about revamping the college, not about my behavior. Secondly, I always have a
heart to make our institution better, and to educate students effectively.
Please avoid talking about my behavior.
Secretary: If I want, I can remove you
from employment.
Professor: I am not concerned about my
employment as I am always marketable since I am a PhD holder. I am only
concerned about the declining image of our institution since I have been
serving in this institution for many years.
Secretary: You don’t have to be concerned about my
institution as I know how to develop it. If you give inputs in this way and
behave in this manner, I can remove you from employment.
Professor: If you remove me from
employment, there are a plenty of employment opportunities for me. Hence, I am
not worried about my employment.
Secretary: Don’t come to college from
tomorrow onwards.
Professor: It is a great relief to me.
You don’t know the value of a professor. You take faculty for granted. You
don’t realize the importance of a spanner until you lose it. When you miss me,
you will realize that you made a great mistake.
Secretary: I will hire another
professor by paying less salary.
Professor: Since you are the secretary for this college,
you can make your own decisions. But one thing you must note here: If I want to
become the secretary of an educational institution, I can become. But you
cannot become a professor in any college as PhD is a must to become a
professor.
The egoistic and sadistic secretary
was shocked with professor Mani’s response. The secretary fired professor from
employment. He had the habit of cheating faculty by not paying salary to the
leaving employees. He did not pay salary to Mani for the leaving month. Subsequently
Professor Mani started an educational institution with the help of his friends
and became a successful entrepreneur. But
the pity is that secretary tried to do PhD but he could never complete and
compete with Professor Mani. Finally, the image of the institution declined
with the exit of quality professors, and it was closed forever.
The conclusion is value people as
people. Respect people. Don’t take them for granted just because they are
serving loyally for many years.
"One of the secrets of a long and
fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to
bed." ― Bernard Baruch
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Excellent conversation between secretary and professor! Secretary is like a donkey and Professor is like a horse. Can a donkey become a horse? No. It is not possible.
ReplyDeleteInteresting story! It is time to clear colleges from culprits and criminals to build a healthy education system in India.
ReplyDelete