Jadavpur University to have social media cell by November 6 after Governor’s nudge

Jadavpur University has decided to set up a social media cell by early November, the vice-chancellor said on Wednesday.

JU moved to set up the cell only after the Bengal governor's office intervened, despite social media cells having long become standard at most reputed universities.

A JU official said that vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee was told during his meeting with the governor at Lok Bhavan on Tuesday that the university's absence from social media was a matter of concern.

The governor, who is the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities, also expressed displeasure over the poor functioning of the university website, the official said.

“We will open our social media cell covering Facebook, YouTube, X, WhatsApp and other relevant platforms by November 6, in deference to what has been advised by the chancellor. The chancellor has suggested that we be active on social media,” Bhattacharjee said.

“We will also be there on LinkedIn,” he added.

A professor said it was unfortunate that JU did not have a social media cell, a feature common even at smaller institutions, despite its strong engineering and technology faculty.

Convocations and other major university events will henceforth be livestreamed on social media, the vice-chancellor said. JU has decided to assign two staff members to develop the cell.

A professor said a stronger social media presence would also help the university connect with its alumni.

“Ranking agencies that assess higher education institutions also insist on a campus's social media presence. Unfortunately, JU did not care for such initiatives despite living in a time dominated by social media,” the professor said.

Suman Chakraborty, a mechanical engineering graduate from the 1996 batch and now director of IIT Kharagpur, had lamented the lack of communication in his batch's WhatsApp group about an alumni meet during JU Alumni Day.

“I am a part of the alumni WhatsApp group of the mechanical engineering department. Today's global alumni meet was not announced in the WhatsApp group by anybody from the university,” Chakraborty had said in his address on January 4.

Another professor said JU needed to showcase its work on social media to attract funding from agencies and corporate bodies.