NUJS Kolkata’s student body has voted to institute a new system of governance to de-politicise the campus but increase friendly intra-college competition.
The decision follows fears that the Student Juridical Association (SJA) could become too politicised, with the new system intended to “promote bonding and healthy competition”, according to one student.
The SJA and students therefore voted for a compromise that would replace the SJA with a system of four representatives from the student body.
Instead of voting for one SJA, students would be allocated into one of four houses, in a system that is popular in schools in the UK and also in the fictional Hogwarts school of Harry Potter fame.
Taking the latter as inspiration but with a legal twist (and it’s not the first time NUJS has done so), the students proposed that the four houses be named after famous US judges: Ginsburg House (inspired by Gryffindor), Holmes House (inspired by Hufflepuff), Rehnquist House (inspired by Ravenclaw) and Scalia House (inspired by Slytherin).
The allocation to each house would happen via an interview by faculty, plus a personality test based on a test devised by Cambridge University-
The interview would also test qualities identified with each of the four judges and each NUJS house: courage (Ginsburg), intellect (Rehnquist), industriousness (Holmes) and cunning (Scalia).
The interview process would also establish political leanings of student members, and allocate them accordingly: conservatives would go to Scalia, left-liberals would be allotted to Ginsburg, centre-left liberals to Holmes, and centrist liberals would join Rehnquist House.
Each professor would get to choose a House and become House Masters, who would choose a student as House Captain.
Those four House Captains would de facto act as representatives for the entire student body and bring grievances to the notice of the administration, in effect replacing the SJA.
Much as under the British schools system, houses would win points for academic performance, moots, social service and sports, with the winning house getting funding for scholarships and moots for their own house students.