Mumbai: Faculty members at IIT-Bombay came out in large numbers on Monday for a peace march across the campus, rallying in support of their colleague Prof Suryanarayana Doolla amid scrutiny following the death of a student on Sept 18.Banners carried during the march read “Justice for Doolla”, “In solidarity with Doolla” and “No Evidence, Why Consequence?”Faculty members expressed concern over “false and misleading” reports that had damaged Doolla’s reputation even before the investigation had established the facts. A senior faculty member said the issue was not merely about defending a colleague and that their intervention raised a “larger institutional question, whether academic integrity, student welfare and due process can be protected simultaneously”.Many students on the campus, too, came out in Doolla’s support, holding placards during an open house and even on social media.Hours earlier, IIT-Bombay Faculty Forum issued a statement backing the professor and clarifying that he had not been suspended from the institute. It said he continued to remain a faculty member and had only been “temporarily relieved” of his responsibilities as dean (administrative affairs) to facilitate an independent and unbiased investigation. This was the second statement it issued in two days.A professor from the institute, Suryakant Waghmore, however, did not endorse the forum’s statement. He said on social media that not all faculty members identify with the group and that its statements were building pressure on the investigation committee.The forum described Doolla as a senior faculty member with several academic and teaching honours, including two awards based entirely on student feedback. It also referred to his tenure as dean (student affairs), during which, it said, he had helped establish several student-welfare initiatives.“We know that as faculty, every student is an individual, not categorised by any caste or class. There are close to 14,000 students on campus. We don’t know anyone’s background,” said a senior faculty member.Support for a due process-led inquiry also came from Faculty Association of IIT-Madras. In a statement, it offered condolences to the student’s family and said the death of any student was a loss to the larger academic community, underscoring that student well-being must remain a central institutional priority. The association urged restraint till completion of the inquiry. It said no individual should be held responsible publicly or in the media before due process had run its course, cautioning that premature conclusions, media trials and speculation, including on social media, could cause lasting harm and serve neither justice nor the memory of the student.The association also asked that the inquiry go beyond fixing individual responsibility. It called for an examination of whether institutional procedures dealing with academic malpractice provide students adequate support, counselling and safeguards during moments of acute stress.Faculty members said the two statements bring into focus the difficult balance IIT-Bombay now faces: responding to grief and questions from students while ensuring fairness to those whose actions are under scrutiny. “The investigation may have to do more than establish what happened on Sept 18. It could also require a closer look at how institutions respond when students face acute academic distress, whether existing safeguards are adequate and how accountability can be pursued without arriving at conclusions before the facts are established,” said a senior faculty member.IIT-Bombay Faculty Forum is an elected body whose elections are due. Its statement was signed by its president, Prof Rajkumar Pant. The IIT-Madras Faculty Association statement was issued by its president, Prof Ethayaraja Mani.
