Those were the days…

Chennai: Eminent alumni of the once prestigious Presidency College in the city have raised concern over the deterioration of quality in the college. Former director general of police (DGP) and ex-chairman of Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) R. Natraj, recalling his days at Presidency College, said once Presidency students were referred as the ‘Princes of Presidency’ but now there was no doubt that there is a slide in quality.

“Presidency is a college where the likes of Sir C.V. Raman studied. Every year, it used to produce men of letters who created a niche for themselves in diverse fields, many IAS and IPS officers,” he elaborated.Speaking about the fall in quality, Mr Natraj says it started after politics entered the campus after anti-Hindi agitation in 1965.

“Some say the slide could be because of influx of students from other districts as the anonymity gave them the freedom to do anything they wanted. Another major issue was the lack of good quality faculty in the college. As government teachers get transferred on a routine basis, faculty in this college too go,” Mr Natraj, who studied B.Sc (Physics) in the 1973 batch, said.

He also raised concern about regular, full-time principals not being appointed to the college.“We had good faculty like Thirugnanasambandam, Shanmugam and Mohan, now we don’t have such persons of eminence,” he regretted.

Reminiscing about her days in Presidency College, school education secretary D. Sabitha, who did M.Com (1981-82 batch) said more commerce students used to join the college as it was the best in those days with good quality faculty.

“I am the third generation student from my family in the college and I still remember my faculty, Prof Muthuswamy, who taught me in the M.Com class. They were excellent faculty,” she recalled.