Campus Celebrations: How much is too much?

 A student union Chair once met me seeking permission to celebrate Halloween. Of course he didn't know what exactly it is all about, but he knew that certain colleges are celebrating it. He wasn't sure how the celebration will look like but he knew it involves frightening and wearing masks. Event-driven student experiences have become a common feature of the college campuses in Kerala today. College working days are now packed with events and activities in varied forms and manifestations. From world cup fan shows to Halloween, it is growing. As the possibilities expand, there soon will be one reason or another to run an event or to organize an activity with validity variously established. When the multiplicity of such events threaten to slowly edge the formal curriculum out, introspection becomes need of the hour. As a person who champions an action/activity driven learning environment, it is both taxing and rewarding to comment critically on the rise of celebration-centred campuses. I am aware that learning needn't be sharply defined to exclude the activities with extension and outreach characters or celebratory feel. It can accommodate the varieties of activities which can lend exposures and experiences which life calls for. But the intensity, extent and rise in numbers warrant serious attention. Especially when the student community, dancing and celebrating, begins to feel that a fine arts day or college day is a festival for mass dances and carnival like parades. Or for that matter any occasion like an association inauguration can do with elements of celebrations which do not seem to agree with its character. If the serious objectives of HEIs are taken lightly and if the academic community too rush to join the party for, often, party sake, we will soon be held accountable for letting the situations slide. Considering the massive challenges confronting the Higher Education scenario in the country, this cant be allowed to happen. 

Higher Education has been facing a number of challenges of late and it has been confronting those with a resolve to overcome and push ahead with an agenda of growth and accountability. With the increasing demands which have come its way, the HEIs know it is taxing to yield to the rising demands for revelry. Lion's share of these campus celebrations involve huge sums of money and are basically about dancing to the tunes of the market the students have helped build. We need the campuses to be live and active. But we certainly don't want it to be obsessed with students gyrating to the deafening drums and incessantly involved in cutting butterflies on card boards and floating paper boats from trees, not to mention the extravagantly uni-formed students showing their united colours of assent off.

When celebrations which are singularly focused on mirth and music and attires dominate the student hours in the campuses, when those celebrations tip the balance and remove the division between learning and sheer fun-making, it makes a debate of the character of such celebrations essential. Here how much is too much is an easy question to answer. There's no denying that such celebrations where the students come together in same colours, feed on same sadhya, swing to same drums, burn similar money can, if nothing else, bolster inclusiveness, cultural diversity and integration among the student communities. But any sharp observer will realize the way this has overgrown the need. From an add-on, a supplement, it is growing to push the core concerns to margins slowly. Onam celebration has grown from the simple pookkalam of the past to a huge market feeding act catering to the massive food and dress melas of thousands of institutions. From a celebration which didn't cost any learning hour, it has grown into one which claims days more, counting the preparations and pre-days activities and competitions. Whether it is the red-white Christmas or the dhoti-saree Onam, the investments in dress and food fast outpace the learning takeaways. Many of the competitions which form part of the fests are not really reflective of the character of these festivals too. The same old music chair has different iterations whether it is Onam or Christmas or Keralappiravi.

This is further troublesome when we consider the fact that there are agencies who do much of the planning and thinking behind these celebrations. They supply the material, make decisions and lessen the burden of the student community to think, decide and act on their own. Where does it leave the students? There is such a lot to be learned when the student community sits together and plans something serious, genuine on their own. From the idea to its execution, there are many takeaways in teamwork, organisational skills, decision making, leadership, time management and people skills etc. But with precooked, outsourced packages which are home-delivered, the event is managed by the external agency, with only the celebration part to be done by the students. It looks like often the fund collection is the only core act the students are genuinely involved in. 

With expanding rationale for celebrations, like world cup fan fest or local cultural fest, there is more time spent on cutting glitter paper, painting balloons and hanging tea cups upside down. This is not to deny that often it looks good, but end of the day, what is the takeaway from these? The other day I saw the road in a college decked up gorgeously all the way from the main gate to the auditorium with illumination and colour clothes, spending  handsome amount for a college day which basically happens during day time. It resembled a rich man's house decorated for marriage. They say the students wanted it look good on Insta. This is worrisome when the learning part is dis-proportionally ignored and made light off. Dancing to the Bengali's rhythm for well paid (Rs. 10,000 for 2 hours drum beat and 1,000-1500 for dress per person, it is estimated), does it pay off? 

This celebratory nature seems to be slowly seeping into relatively serious events like seminars and invited talks too. It is not just the celebratory air when a seminar/ conference like event happens. It also translates to the key talk being pushed to the corner. The inaugurator is made to feel that her keynote is a light prelude to the cultural events and biriyani to follow. A good part of the available audience will be busy with preparations for that while the rest, forced to fill the room, will be lethargically listening, eagerly waiting for the post keynote key events. Gradually the core causes for the existence of an HEI are feeling the heat and we are left wondering what exactly constitutes the core. It is important to assess the learning takeaways from these events. Many such celebrations these days are spilling to the roads, with the student crowd in open cars, screaming bikes and carnivalesque noise levels making the public look up and wonder at the state of affairs. When every one seems to be worried about the drug-abuse campuses are prone to, what is the potential of these celebrations in catalysing the same?

Isn't it as much the responsibility of the academia to rein in as it is to let go? It is to be welcomed if we all agree that the new age is putting so much fun into learning. Learning turning fun is always a good change. But if the level of learning and the seriousness with which learning is taken is allowed to be made fun of, if more hours are spent on cutting stars on glitter paper and increasingly less on learning and when the decline is well evident in their knowledge levels and competencies, are we to stem the rot or swim along? When the graph of celebrations spike, is the case the same with learning trajectories? They say that the basic literacy and numeracy levels of a good share of our students are woefully low. With assessments being what it is, the HEIs need to ensure that the events have clearly intended learning objectives and outcomes, that these celebrations need limits and learning its seriousness. There can also be fun for fun sake for sure. But not always. But within limits. With undergraduate enrollments in decline and competition for students intensifying among HEIs, how many campuses will choose to be oases of quality and how many will opt to go with the flow, satisfying the student sentiments and seize the day? Should we fully give in to the blind rush of the student community for Instagram worthy pics or should we constructively interfere to ensure that these reveling has limits and can be run proactively?

That is the moot question.

Babu. P. K., Ph D