MUMBAI: A student pulled up for cheating or a serious examination violation should perhaps undergo an immediate session with a counsellor before being allowed to return to the hostel, particularly during examination periods, IIT-Bombay board of governors member and alumnus Sharad Saraf has suggested.The institute may also ask such students to stay with a roommate rather than remain alone.Saraf told TOI on Thursday that he plans to place these suggestions before the board in the wake of the death by suicide of the second-year IIT-B student Sahil Wakode.Another suggestion is organising orientation sessions for parents, sensitising them to the intense academic environment and communicating with the IIT authorities if and when their children face setbacks.These suggestions come amid questions over whether student-support mechanisms need to become more proactive, especially during disciplinary incidents.Wakode was allegedly found with a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination.According to accounts that have emerged, his phone was taken away, he was taken to the head of department and asked to submit a written apology before returning to his room. He died by suicide shortly afterwards.Asked whether Wakode should first have been sent to a counsellor, Saraf said this was something institutes could consider incorporating into their procedures.“There was hardly any time,” he said, pointing out that examinations were underway. “We are on a learning curve now. A lot of learning is going on.”Saraf said the challenge was identifying vulnerable students among the roughly 14,000 on the campus. But a student pulled up for an examination violation could simultaneously be dealing with the fear of punishment, embarrassment and anxiety over the family’s reaction.In Wakode’s case, Saraf said, he had been assured that he would not be suspended, could continue taking his examinations and that his academic career would not be jeopardised. If several students had faced similar action, most appeared to have accepted the reassurance and continued with their exams, he said.When asked why every death by suicide was a case of family against the institute, Saraf said the IIT had set communication and support protocols in place.He cautioned that families searching for answers while grieving could also become vulnerable to competing narratives and “intervention by outside groups” before all the facts had been established.
