With the aim to revitalize the NLS student experience and University life, the National Law School of India University is excited to announce the inception of its colleges from Academic Year 2023-24!
Background
NLSIU has traditionally organised campus life along the axes of batches and programmes (for instance, sports and cultural activities during University Week) or Residence Halls (for instance, art activities in specific Residence Halls). In addition, selection of University teams for competitive co-curricular activities such as moot court competitions, debates, quizzes and negotiation/ mediation competitions is done on a one-shot University-wide basis.
Universities across the world have instituted internal collegiate systems – permanent, cross-sectional societies that provide the cohesiveness and camaraderie of a small college in a larger university environment. As the student body of our University expands, it is essential to provide a vibrant social life for all students on campus, in addition to their academic commitments. This experience has been core in shaping the culture of the NLS community, during students’ time at the University and after as alumni. With the annual changes in sections within an academic batch, mixed batch elective classes and changes in residence halls, students are not automatically slotted into any consistent social group that forms the basis of campus life.
The College shall form the stable social unit at the University for events, dinners and other activities that get the students together at an appropriate frequency and foster the spirit of belonging and camaraderie. It is important that students from various programmes and batches come together in these College activities.
Key Principles
The key principles behind the college system are:
1. Building Community: Students will belong to the same College throughout their journey at the University, and even beyond as alumni. The College becomes the student’s permanent social identity while other social groups, like residences and class sections, change. Colleges will become the pivot of all campus life activities. Activities of all student clubs and societies will be intramural between Colleges.
2. Continuous Improvement: Colleges through friendly competition with each other on all aspects of campus life, will create an environment of continuous improvement and collective striving.
3. Reflecting Student Body Diversity: Students will be randomly allotted to a College. Each College will represent diversity across all parameters of student demographics, such as gender, program, year, and other parameters of regional diversity (to the extent possible). Each College will effectively be a University microcosm.
4. Social Stability: A permanent student unit with genuine diversity creates a support structure for the students across multiple axes. A sense of belonging creates social stability.
What is a College?
With more than 1100 students in AY 2023-24, the University has established four Colleges, each with 275 students. Upon election of the Heads of College, the name, motto and mascot is decided by the students. Residential as well as non-residential students will be allotted to a College on a random basis aligned to the principle of diversity. Each of the four colleges is identified by its colour:
- Andromeda – Blue
- Aquila – Green
- Orion – Black
- Phoenix – Red
Objectives of the Collegiate System
Participation: The Collegiate system will endeavour to foster participation by each of its members in one or more campus activities. This may include training for these activities within the College. The objective is for all students to explore activities that best fit their interests, and as a secondary step, to strive for advancement in their chosen activities.
Social stability: In addition to the activities, the College must provide a stable social group for each member. Each College shall host a college dinner once a term to get all the members together, update them on the performance of the College and give awards for outstanding performance. The dinner will be organised by the Heads of College with the support of the Student Welfare Team.
Support: The Heads of College must establish means and mechanisms to identify student distress and implement necessary interventions with the Student Welfare Team’s help. The Heads of College will also devise a mechanism that encourages students to reach out to the Student Welfare Team for help in a safe way.
College Leadership
1. College Mentor: The College Mentor will be a faculty member who will mentor the College for an academic year and provide guidance to the Heads of College. The College Mentors will not be part of the College permanently but assigned each AY to provide a faculty – College interface.
2. Heads of College: Each College shall elect two Heads of College by direct vote of the members. The term for a Head of College will be 1 (one) year. The Heads of College must reflect the diversity of the College’s student body. Each College will necessarily have two Heads to achieve the following combination:
- One Member will be from the BA LLB (Hons) programme, and the other Member will be from a programme other than BA LLB (Hons);
- One of the positions shall be reserved for students who are women or belong to a gender minority, and the other position may be filled by any student.
- The Heads of College will be responsible for delivering the objectives of the collegiate system, and will work closely with the Student Welfare Team, SBA Co-Presidents and SBA Committees in doing so.
- The Heads of College along with the SBA Co-Presidents, Student Council and Coordination Council will work towards integrating the Colleges and election of Heads within the SBA Constitution.
Note: Colleges will not impact the academic or residential aspects of University life, which continue to be organised as per programme, year of study and section. The SBA Co-Presidents and Student Council shall be elected as per the SBA Constitution. The SBA Committees too will be selected in accordance with the process under the SBA Constitution, with an organic link through Colleges as detailed below.
SBA Committees and Colleges
Members for the SBA Committees will be selected from each College to ensure due representation at the University level. Any member of the college can apply for one or more SBA Committees. Selection will be based on the SBA Committee Selection Guidelines, in accordance with the process set out in the SBA Constitution.
Selections implemented by the Heads of College and SWOs assisted by the outgoing SBA Committee Convenors and SBA Co-Presidents. From AY 2024-25, a term limit may be introduced for SBA Committee members if deemed necessary to allow for wider participation. The SBA Committees, along with the Heads of College, will ensure that the College is represented in all intramural and University activities, organise the Term College Dinner and fulfill the objectives of the collegiate system.
University Championship
To incentivise participation and excellence and provide a coherent framework to campus life, the Colleges will compete for the University Championship over the course of the Academic Year. Every event through the Academic Year will have points that will add to the Leaderboard for the University Championship. SBA Committees will organise the events with participation from all Colleges, across three broad categories:
1. Intramural: Teams will participate under the respective College banner and will compete in the designated events as College teams. Each College will select and send one team to an intramural competition.
2. Open Events: For Open Events co-organised by the University, students will participate in an individual capacity and can form teams with members from other Colleges. There will be no restriction on the number of participants from any College. Points will be added to the Leaderboard for the top ranked teams (split points in case of joint teams winning).
3. Inter-University Competitions: University teams will be selected based on performance in intramural or open events, based on the activity. These teams will be eligible to participate in Inter-University Competitions and represent the University. In case the team wins at the Inter-University level, all members of the winning team will contribute to the Leaderboard points of their respective college.
The College at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the Academic Year will be declared the University Champion for that Academic Year and will hold the rolling trophy. The University shall maintain digital Boards of Honour for the University Championships.