Walk Alone

The HOD (Head Of Department) of Electrical Engg. gave my CR (Class Representaive) [what am I doing - listing acronyms?] a dressing down over books that were missing from the departmental library. The poor guy has been asked to either recover the books or their cost from the defaulters.

As a matter of principle, I don’t condone filching books from a library. Or defaulting on due dates either. But then my CR did not deserve the dressing down either. I argue as follows.

1. There were no due dates. There should have been. And they should have been enforced.
2. A much talked about ID card system was used. It had a friends’s contact number along with your details. Supposedly to catch you through your friend, or increase the mea culpa emotion in the defaulter’s mind. So the department had the information to act upon if due dates had lapsed. However, refer to point 1 above.
3. The library register holds a record of the students to whom the books were issued. Also, a cupboard holds the ID cards of those students. Why were there no follow ups during the vacation, or during the exams? The students could have been asked to “Report to the concerned authority” after giving in his paper. Such notices always result in immediate action.
4. What about the CRs of the other classes? TE? SE?

I rest my case.