St Aloysius College adds another Feather to its Cap! Bags 3rd Place in ‘Swachh Campus Ranking ’18
Mangaluru: Established in 1880, St Aloysius College, Mangaluru prides itself in its history of 138 years. Thousands of students who have passed through the portals of this institution have rendered outstanding service to humankind not only in India but across the globe. Despite its status as a minority institution, the college has imparted high-quality education to all sections of society regardless of caste, colour or creed. The motto of the college, “Lucet et Ardet” which means “shine to enkindle” has inspired countless students to become men and women for and with others, thus bring light and joy into the lives of people.
Inculcating social awareness and enhancing social concern is one of the main thrusts of the college, and the Jesuit Priests who run this Institution are extremely proud of their alumni/ae who have turned into agents of radical social change. The context they live in today is marked by profound changes, acute conflicts and new possibilities. The world is in need of building a future of solidarity with all sections of the society, and therefore they have to fine-tune higher education to the needs of the society. Creativity, critical thinking and conscience are the imperatives for bridging the ever-widening gap between communities and cultures- therefore the management is inviting all to join them in their endeavour by being an integral part of forming men and women for and with others.
Colleges generally strive hard to teach students how to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems practically and communicate clearly. But St Aloysius College will ask for something more from its students by educating and forming them to become men and women of faith, wisdom and service to their communities. This is the “Value Addition” of Jesuit Higher Education. The distinctive achievements of the college in recent years are: the college has been accredited by NAAC. In each of the three cycles of accreditation, the college attained one of the highest grades awarded by NAAC. In the third cycle of NAAC in 2015, the college was awarded “A” Grade with a CGPA of 3.62.
The NIRF ranking 2018 awarded by the MHRD has ranked the college at 94 among Indian colleges which is an outstanding achievement; The College has been declared a “College with Potential for Excellence” by the University Grants Commission since 2009; The “Star College” status conferred by the DBT, Government of India has been upgraded to “Star Status” in 2016; The University Grants Commission has awarded “DDU Kaushal Kendra” to the college for offering B. Vocational programs in 2015. Only a handful of institutions have been given this distinction; Karnataka State Government, which had sanctioned “BTFS Finishing School” earlier, has now selected (2017) the college under the scheme of “BiSEP” [Biotechnology Skill Enhancement Program]; The College has uploaded the data of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)-2016-17, MHRD, Statistics Division, Government of India. And now St Aloysius College has received the Third Place in “Swachh Campus Ranking 2018” Scheme from the Government of India.
Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Mangalore Press Club, Rev Dr Praveen Martis SJ, Principal of St Aloysius College said, “It is a matter of pride that St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangaluru is ranked third in the country as having best-maintained campus under “Swachh Campus” scheme of the Government of India. The ranks were announced by Mr Prakash Javdekar, Minister for Human Resources Development on 1-10-2018 in New Delhi and certificates were distributed. St Aloysius College stands first in Karnataka State”.
Also speaking Dr. A.M. Narahari, Registrar of the College said in Kannada, “The rankings are assessed on the basis of stringent guidelines laid down by MHRD. The parameters include cleanliness maintained in the campus, green initiatives, environmental protection measures, having sufficient toilets for the students and their maintenance, maintenance of the canteen, hostels, clean drinking water, green audit, energy conservation, waste management system, re-processing of waste, etc. The UGC committee through a surprise visit to the college made an assessment recently. This programme was further to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which is one of the most significant and vigorously pursued campaigns of the Indian Government in the past few years”. The same details were shared in English by Dr Alwyn D’Sa, Director, College Administration Block.
Also speaking during the press meet, Ms Shwetha Rasquinha, Co-ordinator, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan said, “St Aloysius College has also been selected by MHRD under “Unnat Bharath” scheme”, and the announcement was made on 2 October. Under the scheme, five villages around Mangaluru have been allocated to the college. They include Someshwar, Kandavara, Mulur, Pilatabettu and Kavalpadur. The scheme envisaged by MHRD will be implemented through the Centre for Social Concern of the college. We will be using the skills of our students in training the youth/people in these areas, also including Mother and Child Health Care; conducting various awareness programmes; Promote higher education among them; donate financial aid from the funds raised by the students in college; and we have already donated a Sanitary Napkin Dispensing Machine in colleges in these areas”. Ms Chandrakala, PRO of St Aloysius College delivered the vote of thanks.
While St Aloysius College had bagged the Third Place in this Swachh Scheme, the First place was bagged by MCMDAV College for Women, Chandigarh-Punjab, while PSG College of Arts & Science, Tamil Nadu bagged the second place. Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, Tamil Nadu and G D C Memorial College, Haryana, secured the fourth and fifth places respectively. Among the nearly 35,000 colleges in India, Approximately, 4,000 higher education institutes had sent nominations through online invitation by filling and submitting all their details as per the format provided. As per the criteria, the top 200 institutes were shortlisted. The officials from the AICTE and UGC inspected the premises of all the shortlisted institutes and these institutes were awarded. The exercise is aimed at generating the peer pressure among students in the areas of cleanliness.