For IIT professors who make institute shine: Top-up salaries, fellowships

As reported earlier by Newsline, a building housing a full-fledged alumni centre was announced during the Alumni Day celebrations on Sunday. Priority areas have already been identified for the centre, which will channelise all the resources that past students can offer through individual and corporate funding: Student, faculty, staff and hostel development funds.

“We are planning to construct a ‘Wall of Fame’ either within the centre or around it, in which each contributing alumnus will be recognised with a name plaque on a brick,” said Professor D B Phatak, convenor of the golden jubilee celebrations. Also, to recognise the efforts of its faculty members, IIT-B will institute chairs for professors and fellowships for assistant and associate professors who “register outstanding performance”. “The board has already approved it. We hope to have 100 such chairs and fellowships whereby top-up salaries will be given for a three-year duration,” said Phatak.

Similarly, faculty members who switch over to newer areas of study/research or develop new study areas will be awarded the “leadership fellowship” as an incentive. Also, travel fellowships to facilitate their participation in international conferences will be included in a “faculty development fund”. “The basic objective is to regularise and institutionalise all our plans and have dedicated funding for them,” added Phatak.

Significantly, to promote entrepreneurship among professors and students, the “entrepreneurship development fund” launched by the class of 1981 has raised Rs 25 lakh as seed capital, to be administered by the Society for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SINE) at IIT-B.

These programmes are besides the “legacy project” by the class of 1982 which will give a sign-on bonus to newly-hired faculty. Accordingly, the money raised so far (Rs 4 crore) was handed over to IIT-B Director Ashok Misra on Sunday.

Then, the “staff development fund” plans to give incentives to the staff through “performance-oriented, transparent recognition system”. “We want to start 100 annual awards (Rs 10,000, Rs 20,000 and so on) based on a system of work evaluation of every staff-member, both administrative and technical support staff,” said Phatak. This may include review by the staff themselves, peer and manager evaluations, followed by an interview.

Besides, to ensure that its support staff is up-to-date with new technologies and procedures, IIT-B will also have regular skill upgradation of administrative and technical staff. Motivation programmes are also on the anvil. Further, performance-linked rewards, education or skill upgradation of the mess workers will be funded through the “hostel development fund”.

“While we want to start the procedural work for the alumni centre from January 2008 onwards, actual construction hopefully should start by 2009,” said Milind Gokhale, CEO of IITBAA.

The Alumni Association Benevolent Fund was also launched on Sunday. “The fund has been created to tide over emergencies and is for the benefit of persons associated with IIT-B at present or in the past and their families,” said Ajit Ranade, IITBAA chairman.