Berchmanitewww.sbcollege.ac.in July - November 2020

& a Happy New Year

“He is coming”“Who ?”“He”

“He Who” “The One who has come and is to come in the name of the Lord”. Advent is the season of intense expectation for the One who comes. Advenire in Latin means to come. It is present eternal.means to come. It is present eternal. The noun Advent is the arrival, the unceasing

coming of the Son of man, the One who generates new hope. Human history is the story of hope.

We are only species that can envision a future and hope for it. If the Homosapiens lose hope, our species will soon be extinct. No hope no life. We shall

overcome the present stalemate created by Covid-19 with fervent hope.We hope in and for the One who has overcome the fear of death and decay by the power of life.power of life. We trust in the One who says: “Behold, I make everything new”. “We

wait for the new heaven and new earth when justice dwells”.Christmas is not the end of Advent, but the birth and beginning of new age of light for our world. May the light of Christmas, the birth of Christ, dispel all the darkness of despair, all negative thoughts from our hearts. In the very midst of the gloom and anxiety of the epidemic let us celebrate

the power of light and life in “faith, hope and love”.

Rev DRev Dr K M George

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

We are happy to place before you the second edition of the Berch-manite – the newsletter of IQAC of St Berchmans College. Thank you for the warm reception you have given to the maiden edition of the revised newsletter. We tried our level best to keep in mind your valuable suggestions while working on the second edition.

Even though the year 2020 has been a challenging one, we could complete a considerable amount of work –including those related to the submission of AQAR 2018-19. The preparation of AQAR 2019-20 is on the anvil. In order to finish the work in time we need input from all of you.

AnAn official visit is expected in the year 2021 in connection with the extension of autonomy. Keeping in mind the same we have al-ready constituted different committees and started the preliminary works.

‘Last year's words belong to last year's languageAnd next year's words await another voice’

(T S Eliot)

All of us are waiting eagerly for a whole new year in every sense of the term! Let us hope that it will be a fruitful one for everyone. Let us place on record our sincere thanks to Ms Merlin B Joseph of the Department of Management Studies for compiling and edit-ing the data for this newsletter.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

BERCHMANITE 2

A total of 8 meetings of IQAC including 3 meetings of criteria heads and 5 meetings of criteria heads and department heads were held during the period August – November 2020. The important decisions taken in various meeting are listed below.

• Held criterion wise presentations of the Annual Quality Assur-ance Report 2018-19.

• Discussions were held and committees were constituted for the preparation of Annual Quality Assurance Report 2019-20.

• Revised edition of Berchmanite (newsletter of IQAC) was re-leased by the Principal .

• Discussions were held on the master register to be circulated among various departments for collecting necessary data for the preparation of AQAR 2019-20.

• Different committees were constituted for the autonomy exten-sion related activities and duties were assigned.

• Individual meetings of autonomy extension related committees were held to decide upon the details to be collected with regard to various heads.

• The centenary committee met on 15th Sep-tember 2020. Rev Dr Jose George presented a roadmap of the upcoming Centenary Celebra-tions. The meeting proposed Dr Joseph Job as the convener of the Centenary Celebrations. Later on 30th September 2020 the Staff Coun-cil ratified the appointment of the Convener.

• General body meetings of the teaching staff and nonteaching staff were convened on 13th October and 5th November 2020 respectively, to collect inputs regarding the Centenary Cel-ebrations. Later fourteen committees, includ-ing the present teachers and non-teaching staff members, were initiated.

• A promotion logo was launched. The logo was designed by Mr Jithin K Soman, a Ban-galore based freelance designer and an alum-nus of the college.

• With an intention to prepare a comprehen-sive database of the former students SB Cen-tennial Mega Alumni Campaign was launched. Former Chief Minister of Kerala and an alumnus of the college Shri Oommen Chandy initiated the campaign.

• A new plugin was developed to facilitate the data collection in connection with the Centennial Mega Alumni Campaign. The plugin was switched on by the President of SB College Alumni Association Mother Chapter Dr N M Mathew. Former students are welcomed to use the plugin, which contain an inbuiltinbuilt music player loaded with evergreen nostalgic melodies, and to register themselves in the Alumni Database; https://sbcollege.ac.in/alumni-form/

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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Berchmans Erudite Lecture Series- BELS is a flagship programme of St. Berchmans College staff association. 3rd Berchmans Erudite Lecture was deliv-ered by Sir Anthony James Leggett on 28th October, 2020. Prof Leggett was the Nobel Laureate in 2003 for Physics. CurrentlyCurrently he is the Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the talk was delivered on the Zoom platform. It was a dream coming true for the BELS committee as the invitation to Prof Leggett has been there since 2014. Elaborate preparations were in place for this great venture. ThereThere were 1000 registered participants. The talk was streamed by Berchmans Television and MAAC. Principal, Dr Jacob Mathew M welcomed the gathering and Rev Dr Thomas Padiyath, Manager gave a short felicitation. Prof P J Thomas, Convenor of BELS briefly intro-duced Prof Leggett. Prof Ajai Jose, Secretary, BELS expressed grati-tude to the gathered. Prof Leggett's lecture focused mainly on the manifestation of quantum mechanics on quantum liquids and superfluids. Prof Legget interacted with the participants and responded genuinely to the queries on the concept of spin-liquids and neutral superfluids. In every way BELS Lecture 2020 was a special experience for all the participants. Prof Leggett, later suggested planting a tree in the college garden instead of the honorarium offered.

Dr Jacob Mathew M, Convenor of BELS programme and Presi-dent of Staff Association Prof P J Thomas, President of Retired SB Teachers Association Dr James Manimala, Teachers, Administra-tive staff etc. participated in the ceremony

ber at 7 pm on Zoom. Prof Toril Moi, Profes-sor of English, Duke University, Durham North Carolina, United States of America delivered the lecture on ‘Wittgenstein and Literary Criticism: A New Direction in Lit-erary Studies’. Around 2000 participants at-tended the programme.

India Post honoured our college for being the oldest post box holder of Changanacher-ry division by releasing a stamp having the picture of our college tower.

As part of sanctioning new degree and PG programmes our college has been given sanction to start a degree programme in psy-chology.Verification by University and Gov-ernment has been over and we hope to begin the same in this academic year itself.

S B College Staff Association celebrated the festival of Kerala in all its beauty and splendour via Google Meet. Onam unites the whole Keralites on a platform.The harvest festival binds the hearts together to perform the acts of goodness in the coming days. Rev Dr K M George, the well known philosopher and orator, delivered keynote address. He highlighted the need for oneness and togetherness amid the pandemic Covid 19. Masks separate us but social distancing cannot dis-tance human hearts. Through these celebrations, everyone is united again with the string of love. It is our obligation to lend aa hand to the needy. That is what Mahabali exhorts us, he said. Staff Association president Prof P J Thomas presided over the function. Principal Dr Jacob Mathew M delivered the message of the day. Dr E N Narayanan shared reminiscence of Onam. Star singer Abhilash’s melodious onappattu beautified the occasion. Secretary Dr Sunny Sebastian welcomed the gathering and Dr Binsai Sebastian proposed the vote of thanks.

Sir Anthony James Leggett delivered the lecture

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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A new species of flowering plant has been reported from the Southern part of Western Ghats by Jebin Joseph, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany and team. The new species is named as Coleus anthonyi. The specific epithet comes after Dr. VT Antony former Head of the Depart-ment of Botany for considering his contributions in the field of plant taxonomy and ecology. The article is published in the Journal Species.

The Department of Commerce (Self Financing) signed MoUs for 3 years with Miles Education and ISDC (International Skill Development Corporation ) to offer CMA and ACCA respectively as add-on courses with B.Com programme.

Department of Chemistry organised a campus recruitment drive of MRF. BSc (Science) and MSc Chemistry students were able to apply for posts in sectors like Production / Planning / Technical / Quality Assurance. The first phase of the drive was held on 1st February 2020 and consisted of technical test, mental ability, personality profiling, scheduling activity and GD. Nearly 150 students participated in it. The second phase of the selection was held at Chennai and Kottayam. Based on the performance 20 were finally selected and they joined service on 7th September 2020. MRF is the biggest tyre company in India and has more than tenten production plants and research labs. Manager Rev Dr Thomas Padiyath and Principal Dr Jacob Mathew M felicitated the students.

An Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre has been established at St. Berchmans College in collabora-tion with the Kerala Startup Mission, a Govt. of Kerala ini-tiative. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Cell (IEDC) aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurial culture among the students. IEDC will take an earnest effort to upgrade the skills of the students through the conduct of relevant workshops and seminars and by introducing them to state-of-the-art technologies and expert mentors. Students will be en-couraged to translate their innovative ideas into prototypes without the fear of failure and IEDC will act as a mini incubator enabling students to work on prototypes while studying. Thus, IEDC will provide the first launch pad for a student’s entre-preneurial journey.

IEDC in short will bridge the gap between Industry and Academia by conducting skill development training programmes for the students and will act as an aggregator with three stages of growth in mind – Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneur-ship.

To promote an innovation driven entrepreneurship culture among the students.To develop and promote commercially viable and innovative products and solutionsfrom the students.To promote enterprise among budding technopreneurs and thereby creating more employment opportunities.To bridge the gap between Industry and academia.TTo support the budding entrepreneurs through grants and to create an entrepreneurship flavour in the academic fraternity.

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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On behalf of the Department of Chemistry, Dr Renjith Thomas, Asst Professor, collaborates with; 1. Dr Nabil Al-zaqri, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia to offer combined research work and publications and DST Indo-Serbian project. 2. Dr Stevan Armakovic, University of Novi Sad, Serbia for DST Indo-Serbian project and combined publications. 3. Dr Ralph Puchta, University of Erlangen, Germany to offer study of proton sponges and subsequent combined publications.

On 15th August 2020, India celebrated the 74th Independence Day. As part of this, the NSS unit of SB College organised the Independence Day celebrations named ‘THRIVARNA’. The events for the day included various competitions. The inauguration ceremony of THRIVARNA was conducted through Google Meet from 10 am to 11 am. The Principal of SB College Dr Jacob Mathew M inaugurated the programme and the Independence Day message was given by Dr Sunny Sebastian, former NSS pro-gramme officer. Around 65 NSS volunteers participated in the programme.

As part of the foreign language training, the Department of En-glish arranged French Language training for the faculty. The class-es were arranged on Zoom. Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry who is a French Language enthusiast himself inaugu-rated the sessions by teaching the fundamentals of the language.

The Department of English organized an induction programme for the newly joined BA I semester students. Students were intro-duced to the programme and the college by the teachers. Sujaya Parvathy and Joshy Kurian from Asianet News led the sessions.

As part of Gandhi Jayanti, SB College NCC Army wing organized a programme to create awarenes by cleaning the surroundings and nearby places with the involvement of family and neighbours. All cadets were informed to take pictures showing their active par-ticipation in the programme.

An online course was conducted by the Department of English to introduce the interdisciplin-ary nature of theory and philosophy. It was from 22nd to 30th September. Experts from India and abroad led the classes and around 800 participants attended the certificate course. Prof R Rad-hakrishnan from University of California, Irvine inaugurated the course. Prof Bina Gogineni, independent scholar from USA gave the valedictory address on Counter Enlightenment. Prof Sanil V from IIT Delhi, Prof Dorai Raj from Gandhigram Rural University, Dr Rohin EJ from IIT Delhi, Dr Gasper Albey from university of Kerala and Rev Dr Thomas Padiyath led the sessions.

SB College students actively participated in vari-ous competitions organised by the college’s NSS unit as part of the Independence Day celebrations. Nearly 140 students took part in the open quiz competition held to mark the occasion. Two other competitions, restricted to NSS volunteers, were also organised. The poster making contest had 17 entriesentries and equally good was the response to the video making competition. The topic of poster making was “Teamwork towards Sustainable De-velopment” and the video making competition had “Kitchen Garden as a solution for Covid food trap” as the topic.

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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In the light of the prevailing Covid-19 situation, "Yoga from home" has been encouraged. Cadets participated individually and with their family members from the safety of their homes. Cadets fol-lowed common yoga protocol and as advised, up-loaded their videos on social media.

The Department of Hindi initiated a novel venture to create awareness about Covid 19 precautionary measures among the migrant workers. The department published pamphlets in Hindi discussing the relevance of wearing masks and keeping social distancing in the pandemic situation. It is circulated among the migrant workers residing in nearby places.

Mr Aaron Varghese of II BA Economics of our college got selected to the senior men’s national basketball camp in view of the FIBA Asia cup 2021. The camp will be held from 11th December 2020 to 10th January 2021.

Taking into account the extremely difficult conditions prevailing all over the world in view of the Covid 19 pandemic, SB College NCC Army wing organised an activity for re-juvenating the earth and help in healing the nature by planting a tree on April 27th 2020. The tree plantation activity was undertaken by cadets and ANO by planting at least one tree in their premises on the World Environment Day. The awareness on tree plantation was done through posting pictures and videos on social media.

A total of 672 students were admitted to various UG programmes (aided and self-financing) against the sanctioned strength of 779. Meanwhile 343 students got admission in various PG (aided and self-financing) programmes. This year we got a total of 4061 applications for various PG programmes and 4005 applications for various UG programmes.

The Department of English conducted an online bridge course for students aspiring to do BA and MA English Language and Literature. A brief introduction to all the programmes and the basic concepts were covered in the programme. E-Certificates were given to all the partici-pants.

Cdt Lal Vikram Nair from NCC Army wing participated in the Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat (EBSB) 2020 Camp held between September 24th and 30th (Kerala and Lak-shadweep with Gujarat Directorate). It was the first ever online camp for the members of the NCC.

Department of Botany initiated the second phase of NAVODA-KAM, the much acclaimed project to upkeep the water bodies in Changanacherry. The second phase aims at the eco-restoration of the historically and culturally important Changanacherry Boat Jetty and the canal attached. For the project the teachers of the Department of Botany contributed a beautiful fiber boat. Honor-able Chairman of Changanacherry Municipality officially entrusted the upkeeping of the canal to Department of Botany, St. Berchmans College. Now the team Navodakam visits the canal every week and cleans it with the support of the local residents.

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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The English Association organised “SP Bal-asubramaniam Evening” on October 1st 2020 in honour of the veteran musician who passed away on September 25th 2020. Play-back singer Sudeep Kumar inaugurated the programme. Singers from in and around Changanacherry, including SB College, revived memories of the phenomenal music legend by rendering some of his well-known songs at the event.

This new venture by the Department of English in collaboration with the University of Wales, Trinity St David, was inaugurated on October 27th and ended on November 29th. Nearly 800 participants registered for the event. Major scholars from around the world taught at the school. It was a certificate programme and the academic proceedings from the school will be published with the ISBN.

Our college team comprising Jino George & Akshay G Nair of the De-partment of Commerce secured first prize from Kottayam district in the Power Quiz 2020 organised by the KSEB officers association. They got qualified for the State level finals.

Ms. Sujo Mary Varghese was awarded Ph.D in Commerce by Mahatma Gandhi University for her work ‘Meaningful Financial Inclusion - A Comparative Analysis of Urban and Rural Expe-rience’. She did her PhD in the Research & PG Department of Commerce of our college under the guidance of Dr Anil Kumar V V.

year 2018-2019. She also represented SB College at the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi in 2019.

Ms Riyamol, an NSS Volunteer (2017-2019) of SB College has won the NSS State Award for the academic

The inauguration of the activities of the Women Cell at the College for the year 2020 - 21 was held online on August 21st 2020. Tahasildar and Ex-ecutive Magistrate of Changanacher-ry Smt Jinu Punnoose inaugurated the programme.

Commemorating the NSS Day, NSS volunteers of SB College Unit put forward their active presence in the creative voluntary activities on 24th September 2020. The volunteers took the initiative on their own and suc-cessfully implemented the activities in line with the Covid protocol. The volunteers cleaned bus stops, church premises, neighbouring streets, Covid quarantine camps, nearby building premises and residential neigh-bourhoods. The programme officers Anish K Joseph, Dr Rubin Philip and Shobin Varghese led the volunteers and co-ordinated the activities.

NCC Army & Navy jointly celebrated the Independence day by hoisting the national flag on the college campus. Dr Thomas of Taluk hospital Changa-nacherry was the chief guest for the event.

All the NCC Army wing cadets partic-ipated in the Fit India Freedom Run organized by 15 (K) BN NCC Thiru-valla. They also participated in other fitness activities sitting at home fol-lowing the Covid protocol.

President of SB College Staff Co-operative So-ciety, Dr Monichen KK inaugurated the distri-bution of Christmas gifts sponsored by the so-ciety to the members by presenting the gift hamper to the Principal.

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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Catholic Students Movement of our college organized an online Onam celebration-Kanavu 2020. Competitions like Pookkalam, Malayali Manka and Onappattu were conducted. Studenst from almost all the departments participated in the programme enthusiastically.

The Departments of Economics and Commerce of our college jointly organized a 3 day webinar on the topic “Unethical Practices in Aca-demic Writing” for the benefit of research scholars, students and teachers. It was held on 17th - 21st July 2020. Rev Fr Tinju Tom Parap-pally, Librarian, Assumption (Autonomous) College Changanacherry was the resource person.

Ms Prejilda K was awarded PhD in Commerce by Mahatma Gandhi University for her work ‘ Savings and Investment Habits of Women – A Study with Ref-erence to Teachers in Kerala. She did her PhD under the guidance of Dr Anil Kumar V V in the Research and PG Department of Commerce of our college.

NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

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NEWSLETTER JULY NOVEMBER 2020

Printed and published by the Principal, on behalf of the IQACSt. Berchmans College, Changanassery, Kottayam, Kerala,Tel : 0481-2420025, www.sbcollege.ac.in

23 NSS volunteers of SB College have joined the Samoohika Sannadha Sena or Community Voluntary Corps, formed by the Government of Kerala, through its website. All those who joined the voluntary initiative later attended an online training for the volunteers. The Sannadha Sena programme aims to raise a volun-teer force that can help the community effectively to deal with the disasters that may strike the State in future.

The Department of English conducted an online orientation pro-gramme for helping the students to make a smooth transition to college level studies after Plus Two. The interactive Google Meet introduced the students to various aspects of the Bachelor Degree (BA) in English Literature and Journalism. The forum also dis-cussed the opportunities and higher studies after graduating in English. The session was open for both the students and parents.

Construction of Second floor of Cardinal Newman Block has been initiated using the RUSA fund. On completion of the work we will have 5 more class rooms covering a total plinth area of 637 sqm. The total estimated cost is 127.1 lakhs.

In order to honour the legacy of Prof. P J Devasia, former professor and Head of the English Department, a dissertation competition for MA English students of 2018- 2020 batch is scheduled for August and September.

In order to familiarise our faculty with the basics of Outcome Based Education, the IQAC of our college organised a workshop on OBE . The first day of the workshop was attended by selected faculty from Science stream and selected members of faculty from Arts stream attended the programme on the second day. Dr Ram Kumar S, Chief operating officer, Centre for Healthcare En-trepreneurship IIT, Hyderabad was the chief resource person.

Making use of the fund collected from our staff for the flood relief activities of the college, we completed the construction of the first house at Koduppuna, Alappuzha district for a flood affected student. A total amount of Rs 2 lakhs has been spent for the same. The Prin-cipal handed over the key of the newly built house to the beneficia-ries. The Vice Principals, the Bursar, representatives of the staff were present. Rs 50000 was given to another deserving student towards the renovation of his flood affected house. Rs 130000 has been given to another student for completing the foundation work of his house.