Researcher shouldn’t have been offered job: St Stephen’s alumni

NEW DELHI: A day after a letter by a US-based researcher turning down a teaching post at St Stephen’s College emerged, the college’s informal alumni association said that he shouldn’t have been offered the job in the first place since his father was on the college’s governing body.

The letter, written by Cecil Joseph, points out that his appointment was being politicized after an alumni group alleged that the institution was hiring undeserving teachers.

“I am deeply distressed at the way my appointment is being politicized as I gather from various sources. An impression has been created that my appointment is based on something other than my academic merit. I consider this to be a personal affront,” the letter stated.

The Association of Old Stephanians, a body that is not recognised by the college, in a statement said that the college A STATEMENT BY ASSOCIATION OF OLD STEPHANIANS

principal was misrepresenting facts.

“The truth and the real reason regarding non-acceptance of the post by Mr Cecil Joseph, is conflict of interest. Mr Cecil Joseph, is the son of a member of the Supreme Council and Governing Body of the college. Threatened with a legal challenge on the basis of conflict of interest, there was no option left for him but to decline the offer of appointment that was denied to the temporary teacher who had been teaching for a long time after finishing her research and Ph.D from IIT,” said a statement issued by the body.

Joseph is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and had applied for the post of Assistant Professor in the physics department and was selected for the same.

The Old Stephanians Association had in March alleged that seven out of the eight teachers appointed during March were Christians. “The Stephanians are aghast with the way the principal has used minority rights and protection of interests of Christians by deliberately selecting undeserving teachers just because they belong to a certain minority community,” the association had said in a statement.

The principal has expressed dismay at Joseph’s decision to turn down the offer.