DU panel to monitor staff’s social media use

New Delhi: Delhi University has formed a committee to oversee the use of social media by all its employees.According to a notification accessed by TOI, the committee will be headed by Sanjeev Singh, director of Delhi University Computer Centre. Ajay Jaiswal, principal of School of Open Learning; Kshitij Kumar Singh from Campus Law Centre, Manish Manocha, an advocate, Anup Lather, the public relations officer; and Dr Manisha from the department of history are the members.Maya John, an assistant professor in the department of history and a member of the academic council, said: “It seems like a troubling development in the direction of curbing use of social media platforms and freedom of expression. Saying this on the basis of no elected teacher representative on the committee."TOI sought a response from Lather who declined to provide any. This publication also sought a response from Vikas Gupta, registrar of DU, but was met with silence.“Bringing such a policy is beyond my understanding. The displacements of ad-hoc teachers, with students posting write-ups and photographs, questioning the displacements, and the way students and teachers called out the plagiarism of the Strategic Plan of DU.... This is a publicly funded university, and I don't see the purpose of this social media policy.” said Abha Devi, a physics professor at DU.