A University is an institution of higher education and research that awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Usually, a University campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, Audio-visual room, staff room, Principal room, Main office, etc. And the main building consists of a lecture hall and office, which means students and professors are in the main building most of the time. Imagine the whole University got burnt down due to some short circuit or unwanted situations.
It would have been a complete disaster and led to immeasurable destruction. Students sometimes, due to high work, study, or even assignment pressure, would want their university to get burnt down to relieve themselves from the workload. But in reality, it would be the student who will suffer most if such a thing truly happens. They are not just going to lose the building but the teaching, their work, and their precious time as well. And the same applies to the professor as well as the owner of the university as they altogether had gained something from it, and that will stop automatically if the university gets burnt down. Today’s topic- What If University Burns Down?
The Estimate Loss
- Downfall Of The Institution: The Institution once known to all and highly appreciated would lose its charm and just be termed the institution that got burnt down. It can never be the same and as swift and good functioning as it used to be even after it got rebuild, because it takes a lot of time to return to normalcy after a great fall. Many would doubt its credibility and would not readily join the institution as they will be tempted to join other institutions that are running fine and good. Thus the overall credibility and approachability towards it would reduce to a great extent and would take quite a lot of time to return back to normalcy.
- Records Will Be Destroyed: An already established university had several records to maintain like number of student enrol record on a yearly basis, financial record, class wise/subject wise/department wise record and many other such records. A student’s official academic record is maintained indefinitely in the office of the University Registrar. All the financial structure such as tuition fees, admission fees, exam fees, library fees and all finance-related records are also maintained by the finance department of the university. All the books are stored and properly maintained at the library under the watchful eye of the librarian. Sometimes you will even find records as old as to the time the university first open, such as the level of maintaining records in an university though it has been shifted to computerised nowadays. It used to be paper documents before. Thus a university getting burnt down would lead to loss of all such documents and records, which will take years and years to recoup from the huge loss.
- Financial Loss: To build a University means to pour down a lot of money. As a university will consists of not just one but several buildings to accumulate all its needs, and as the cost of construction is high we can clearly say the budget to build a university will go skyrocket. Bearing in mind the main source of income is from the fees collected from the students and in case if the university got burnt down and students are not able to go to university anymore there is loss not just in the structural building but the source of income being ceased as well. And as the institution will not be functioning there will be no income as such but more money to spend on their side to rebuild it, which will lead them to be financially unstable for a long time.
- Possible Loss Of Lives: An established University had many people to accumulate at one go, meaning many people are inside the campus altogether at the same time namely the students, teaching and non-teaching staff, peon , sweeper, security and such. In case of unwanted situations like fire mishap there is likely to lead to a loss of life. Not necessarily but we are talking about the possibilities here. There are several rooms in a huge building and some rooms like audio-visual room, lab room has less window and are quite, away from disturbance which means once you are inside that room you don’t know what’s happening on the outside world. So in case of fire mishap if there is no proper alarm being set there is possibilities of loss of live as people can be stranded on the said room or several other complications as well.
- Loss Of Building Infrastructure: A fire mishap would lead to burning down of the university building, and as fire wouldn’t have any sympathy towards the building we can never say it will burn down this much or that much it solely depends on how much time we took to make the fire come under control. If the fire department is being alert instantly and took less time to control the fire then there is chances many property and important documents could be saved. But in case of the other way round there could be a huge loss of infrastructure which took a lot of time to get built. The quality of fire protection system the university had plus the swiftness of the fire department would have a great say in this case.
The Possible Outcome
- Students should be shifted to another institution/areas where they can carry out learnings.
If the university is not functioning due to the burning down of the institution, there has to be an alternate arrangement not to cease the students’ learning. The students have to be shifted to a new institution to continue their studies until the infrastructure is fully restored. They cannot just sit and wait on for the institution to get fully restored while others get to move on with their studies. Or alternative arrangement will be to own/rent a building and continue with the classes so that they don’t lag behind their classmates from other institutions. In one way or the other alternate arrangement is a must to coup up with the lost time during the recovery days.
- Virtual Mode of Conducting Class
One way to continue with the learning process is a virtual model of conducting classes. It is easy to access as there is no need for physical gathering in one place and could be conducted anywhere anytime. The teacher had to do the teaching using their smart gadgets at home, and the student will listen to the lecture the same way from their own home. But the limitation is that not everyone is entitled to richness to acquire smart gadgets or good internet connectivity to join an online virtual class. And their only option is to go physical schooling to acquire knowledge. Thus there exist negative as well as positive aspects in regards to virtual classes as well. Still, it is in the hands of the university authority to conduct classes whichever or however possible.
- Temporary Facilities to be Arranged
For the time being, there wouldn’t be facilities available to the students regarding their needs from the institution as the institution will be busy with many other things to sort out, one being to rebuild the university. Therefore, the library will be closed, and the students wouldn’t be able to get books from it, the offices will remain non-functional, and those who need a certificate or document to get from the college will have to wait a while to process through it. In case of this, the institution could set up a temporary website where certain books will be available for those who want to access the library but couldn’t do so. Also, there can be options to apply for certificates online as the physical application wouldn’t be possible at the moment.
- Extra Class After Renovation
Once the renovation has been fully completed and classes could be conducted again, there should necessarily be extra classes to recoup the lost classes during the renovation process. This is necessary because many things would have been skipped due to the unavailability of resources from the university.
Conclusion
Building a University requires a lot of time, money, workforce, and such, but turning into ashes would not take much time Likewise, rebuilding it would take more time than before due to financial crisis. And reshaping the university reputation too requires a lot of time to do so. Thus, to avoid such things as fire mishaps or other things that could lead to the destruction of institutions, there should be a proper fire alarm and protection system to mitigate the destruction and prevent loss of lives. And if possible, all records need to be maintained computerized so that burning down documents will not affect the loss of important files.
