I hope you are all doing well given the conditions prevailing in the country and more specifically in the area you live in currently. I am pleased that we could bring the Spring 2020 semester to a close. The grades are nearly finalised now. I am sure you are all relieved that the weight of the past semester is off your shoulders. I also hope you learned at least a little about the true meaning of education, as different from marks and grades! IIIT Hyderabad is proud to be the only institution to close the coronavirus-interrupted semester on time for all its students among our peers.

I congratulate the graduating students of BTech, MTech, MS, PhD and other programs. You will certainly go on to make significant contributions to society and to the world. Hard times like these make us reflect on the truly valuable aspects of one’s life. I am confident you will face the next part of life with healthy doses of Competence, Creativity and Caring acquired during your stay at the institute. We would have liked to have a gala farewell function for the graduating students and a proper convocation. We will have to improvise in these conditions, maintaining the core message and values intact.

We got a few inquiries on adjusting the fees paid by students towards the mess and hostel. We have been looking at the complete picture ourselves too. Hostel and mess are integral components of academics at a high-quality educational institutions like IIITH. They add to the intensity and rigour of academics. The per-day mess charges includes (a) a variable part that is spent on groceries, vegetables, milk, etc., and (b) a fixed part spent on salaries of the mess staff as well as on a few infrastructural items. Our analysis shows that the fixed costs comes to about 35% of the total costs.

The institute is committed to support the mess staff in these troubled times. We have committed to pay them their full salary for April and May, totalling about Rs 14 lakhs per month. We will continue to support them appropriately. This expense has to be shared between the institute community including students, faculty, and staff as well as the institute. Each faculty member has committed to pay Rs 1000 per month and each staff member Rs 500 per month towards this, from April till further notice. We would like each student to support Rs 1500 in total towards this (not per month, but a one-time amount). With these contributions from the community, the institute will bear 40-45% of the expenses until end of July. The remaining part of your mess advance will be returned or adjusted against future payments.

Similar is the story for the hostel fee which includes fixed costs of maintenance, salaries of housekeeping and security, and other expenses. This comes approximately to 50% of the monthly rent charged, as per our calculations. We would like this to be paid by the students, with the remaining part of the rent to be refunded or adjusted. This results in a significant loss in the institute’s revenues that we are concerned about. Electricity and water charges are the variable part of hostel charges and will be adjusted against future dues.

This is the time for entire IIITH to stand together for the benefit of the extended institute community. I am pleased and humbled by the readiness shown by the faculty and staff to support the weakest sections of the larger community. I am super confident that the students will not be found wanting in this.

Stay safe and stay strong, wherever you are! We would like to have the campus bustle with all of you at the earliest.