After having an eventful career as a director of the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences,(TISS),Mumbai, Dr S Parasuraman submitted his long pending resignation to the institute on Monday. Dr Parasuraman who has been working as the Director of the institute since 2004 had over the last few years expressed concerns over the changing times that the institute was seeing with the severe fund crunch.
While Parasuraman could not be reached for a comment on Monday, DNA has access to the email that he wrote to the staff and faculty members announcing his retirement. Serving as a Director of the prestigious institute for the last 14 years- a tenure in which he got several extensions, Parasuraman had recently said that he was waiting for the appointment of a new director and was looking forward to leaving the institute for good. In the email he wrote about his fond memories at the institute before bidding adieu. “Sometime towards the last week of March 1981, I came down to TISS campus to meet with the then Director Padma Bhushan Professor M S Gore to ask for a job as Research Assistant. Having submitted the Ph. D. dissertation, the fellowship stopped and I needed a job to survive. Professor Gore looked at my CV and asked me come next day to get an answer. When I came next week, I was told that there was no project job but I can have a job of a Lecturer (now called Assistant Professor). That is how my journey started at the TISS on the 29th March 1981” he wrote.
Talking about his resignation, he stated, “I have wanted to leave the Institute from the time I completed my second term on August 16, 2014 but then the Governing Board asked me to stay on till next Director is appointed. Though the process of appointing next Director is on, I requested our Governing Board Chairperson to relieve me from my job. Thus, I have been relieved by the end of 5th February 2018.The most arduous journey that lasted over 13 years ends today, the 5th February 2018”.
Parasuraman said that he had hope that the three UGC funded centres that had come under the threat of closure last year do not shut down. “I met with the Union HRD Minister and requested him to have all our pending funds released and continue these centres as non-plan grant. I am confident that if we continue with the dialogue, these centres can be secured” he wrote.
