To Protest Fee Hike, BITS Students Collect Coins in a Bowl for Administration

New Delhi: Thousands of students from three campuses of BITS have launched a "Change for a Change" protest against fee hike by the administration.

Students have resorted to collecting and dropping coins of Re 1, 2, 5 and 10 in boxes and bowls outside the administration's office every hour as a mark of protest.

Claiming that the fee hike is not a one-off and the increase puts extreme financial pressure on them, Suryansh Tiwari, a student, told CNN-News18: “This is not something that has happened all of a sudden. It has been building over the years and was fought by our seniors too."

Students claimed they have the support of some professors and assured that their protests are and will remain peaceful. "No one is boycotting any classes or exams, and everyone is both studying peacefully and protesting. Some of the professors are with us and some have not really come forward," he said.

However, the administration, he said, has not offered a solution yet. "We have spoken to both the director and the Vice-Chancellor, but a proper solution has not yet been offered by the administration."

Explaining the idea behind ‘Change for a Change’, Sidhartha Namburi posted in a BITS students' group on Facebook that a symbol was needed in such a time that would last beyond the immediate protest.

"The administration has stated that it has run out of ways to make money, and hence must resort to charging students everyone they run out of cash. If our only value in this education ecosystem is as annual cash cows who spit up 15 per cent more money every year to have them run us on their hamster wheel, then so it shall be,” he wrote.

“We will do what they expect us to. Give them money. Peacefully. We will collect every Re 1, 2, 5, 10 coin that we have and will deposit it in collection boxes and bowls outside their offices," he added.