Student Government Introduces New House System for Intra-College Activities

Akshaya Jose Devasia, Class of 2020

In the orientation week for the Undergraduate batch of 2021, the Student Government announced the beginning of a new ‘house system’.

The houses will be named after the primary Ashokan cities Taxila, Pataliputra, Ujjain, Nalanda, and Kalinga.

This is, in the words of a member of the Cultural ministry Rithika Abraham, an initiative to ‘instill a spirit of competition and sportsmanship within the Ashokan community’. She explained that this idea sprung from the SG’s realization that a majority of the student body tends to get so heavily wrapped up in academics that they barely engage in communal fun games or events outside the classroom.

The SG is hoping a programme of this nature would promote greater student participation in cultural and sports activities at a university level.

Currently, membership is mandatory for the First-Years, the YIFs and members of the house. Arnav Mohan Gupta, the Cultural Minister, said this would both give them a ‘house identity’ and be another opportunity to bring the YIFs and Undergraduate students together.

History Repeats Itself?

While this new initiative seems like a fantastic way to bring the Ashokan community closer, a similar house system was introduced by the Sports department in the past, and it failed to garner the participation and generate enough interest.

However, Arush Pande, the president and a vocal supporter of this system, remains very optimistic about the success of the house system this time. He says the chances of this student-led initiative backed up by a majority of the government are higher.

He said the SG was looking at building Ashokan traditions and instilling a sense of Ashokan spirit across the community. Arnav too emphasized that the approach and plan this time are relatively more detailed and well-planned.

A previous version of this article stated that the Office of Student Life started a house system in the past. The article has been edited to fix this error.