The Senate of the University of Madras, on Saturday, elected S Sathik, the former Vice Chancellor (VC) of the varsity, as its nominee to the soon-to-be-formed Search Committee (SC) to identify the next VC of the institution.
The election took place at a special Senate meet on Saturday. The meet was held in the backdrop of a controversy in the Syndicate on Friday, when some members alleged that VC Col G Thiruvasagam allowed proxies of ex-officio members to vote despite it being illegal under the statutes.
Senior Senate members said that following the defeat of Sathik to R Balasubramanian in the election held to nominate the representative of the Syndicate a day earlier, it was decided to field him as the contestant yet again in the Senate.
While the meeting began at around 11 am, members said that the Additional Chief Secretary to Government (Higher Education), T S Sridhar, who is an ex-officio member, proposed the name of P Kaniappan, former VC of Alagappa University, to represent the Senate in the SC. However, the name of Sathik was proposed from the side of the academia, which resulted in a contest as per the University’s laws.
Members said when the counting concluded at around 3.30 pm, it was announced that Sathik bagged 49 of the total 77 votes, defeating Kaniappan by a margin of 21 votes.
With this, both the Senate and the Syndicate have nominated their respective representatives to the Search Committee.
Members said this would be followed by formal announcement from the government’s side on the formation of the SC, which will also include a nominee of the Governor-Chancellor.
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