While the President’s visit made this year’s annual convocation a memorable event, this was the first such event wherein no elected senators and deans were there among the Panjab University (PU) fellows during the event, said former senators on Wednesday. The annual convocation usually begins with a procession of PU fellows who get seated at the front while the chief guest and other noteworthy guests are seated on the stage.

This time, PU officials were made part of the procession. As per the new convocation attire, their Nehru jackets were emerald in colour. For the officials on the stage, including the vice-chancellor (V-C), the Nehru jackets were cream coloured.

One of the former senators who wished not to be named said that instead of elected deans, the senior most members of different faculties were a part of the procession. He further added that in previous years, a committee comprising high stature people, like former V-Cs, would put forward the names of recipients of PU Ratna awards and honorary degrees which were then taken up in the syndicate and put before the senate for confirmation. However, this time with no syndicate and senate in place, a committee had been formed to decide the names which were then approved by the V-C and the Vice President.

Former senator Ravinder Singh Dhaliwal, who got his PhD in Punjabi this time, said there were no invites for the ex-senators. “Even on stage, I was not introduced as a former senator. Other PU employees getting degrees were introduced with their designations. There has been an attempt to remove the stature of senate and syndicate from the convocation. Students had to rush to even get their pictures clicked with the officials despite years of struggle with their research,” he said.

While PU officials said that it would have been logistically hard to have so many degrees awarded by President Droupadi Murmu, she had made the effort and got a group picture clicked with PU medallists.

Further, the controversy regarding misspelled name of the varsity was also partly solved on Wednesday as the jackets for the officials on Wednesday bore the right spelling. PU Vice Chancellor Renu Vig said it was a printing error by the vendor side. The vendor was asked to re-embroider the patches on the jackets again.