"I Took Over At 4 AM In The Darkness Of The Night, I Am Going In Broad Daylight": Heartfelt Farewell Of NALSAR Vice Chancellor Prof. Faizan Mustafa

Prof. Faizan Mustafa, who has served as the Vice Chancellor of NALSAR University, Hyderabad for 10 years was given a warm farewell by students and faculty members. The Student representatives expressed earnest gratitude to Prof. Mustafa for his support and endeavour to make NALSAR as topmost Law University. Prof. Mustafa poignantly remarked, recalling the time of his arrival at NALSAR in 2012, that "I took over at 4 AM in the darkness of the night, I am going in broad daylight". In his speech, Prof. Mustafa reminded everybody that "the primary stakeholder of the University is not the Vice-Chancellor, it is the students - and all the infrastructure which is present is for the students. The Vice-Chancellor must be for the students, and the transformation and the experiment which we have made in NALSAR - we involve students in the governance of the University". Prof. Mustafa highlighted that during his tenure, the 12 crore loss which he inherited was converted to profit in the first three years - he also made savings for "the rainy days" and NALSAR currently has over Rs. 100 crores of funds entirely for the benefit of students. Newer hostels, sanctioning of an Olympic Size Stadium Plan, enormous expansion of University Library, Digital Learning during COVID times happened under Prof. Mustafa's guidance and vision. In his tenure as Vice Chancellor, NALSAR was ranked highest in the country in NAAC rating. He highlighted that the UGC and MHRD have recognised NALSAR as a category 1 university. He remarked that, "this is the decade in which NALSAR has gone way ahead of other National Law Schools. How a public university should behave, and what kind of university administration we should have, and how students can be involved in the administration of the University and how they would take ownership in making of the regulations is something which we have shown. From a VC-centric administration, we have made it into a student-centric administration and this is my singular achievement". Prof. Mustafa gave the due credit to faculty members and students for such a drastic change. Special mention was made for Prof. Amita Dhanda, Emeritus Professor, NALSAR University. Looking at the huge crowd in attendance, Prof. Mustafa exclaimed that "I do not need a certificate for what I have done, the students have given me my certificate". Many students were emotional and a few shared their heartfelt thoughts with Live Law: "One of the most important things that I was involved with Prof. Mustafa was the Accessibility Lab. He was very supportive of the demands of persons with disabilities and had never said no in anyway, whether it be the place of the lab or it be the cost of the equipments that we bought for the lab." "…his (Prof. Mustafa's) consistent and valiant defense of the liberal model over the course of his tenure, is the one of the main reasons why NALSAR was able to progress the way it has. In his words: 'my tenure in nalsar was from gender neutral degrees to gender neutral washrooms' Prof. Mustafa has left an indelible impact on NALSAR, leaving an example as an academic, administrator and as a human being for the many whose lives he touched as VC. He was truly ahead of his time in the Indian context, and has taken NALSAR to unprecedented heights."

"I Took Over At 4 AM In The Darkness Of The Night, I Am Going In Broad Daylight": Heartfelt Farewell Of NALSAR Vice Chancellor Prof. Faizan Mustafa

Jagriti Sanghi

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