April 2006 saw the formation of the Xavier Advisory Council of eminent alumni who were willing to give of their time and expertise to contribute to the efforts at excellence at St. Xavier’s College.
Mr. Adi B. Godrej – Chairman, The Godrej Group
Mr. Allen Sequeira – Sr. Vice President, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
Mr. Alyque Padamsee – A P Advertising Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Gerson da Cunha – Trustee, AGNI
Dr. Rajesh Parikh – Psychiatrist, Jaslok Hospital
Mr. Roger Pereira – Director, R&PMC:Edelman
Ms. Shobhaa De – Celebrated Writer
Dr. Swati A. Piramal – Director, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd.
Three Meetings over 9 months focused on evaluating the College and identifying areas that needed to be explored. Strengthening ties with alumni – our great resource, building relationships with the media, preparing students in soft skills, moving towards academic autonomy, instituting foreign tie-ups, upgrading infrastructure, adopting contemporary teaching methods and bridging the gap between industry and college education: these were issues that were identified.
A visioning for 2012 was thought necessary and an exercise on drafting a vision statement was conducted by Mr. Sequeira. Mr. Padamsee offered to work on upgrading the presentation skills of faculty and with dramatics for students. Mr. da Cunha offered help with the College Magazine. Dr. Parikh offered to work with the University and Government on the issue of College Autonomy. Mr. Godrej, Mr. Pereira and Ms. De are on a team to look at resource mobilization. We are looking at a ‘wish-list’ for the College, in terms of funding for infrastructure and programmes.
Mr. Godrej has sponsored the Harvard College in Asia Project, involving an exchange of students between the two institutions and the holding of an International Conference on Entrepreneurship at St. Xavier’s in March 2007. Dr. Piramal part-sponsored an International Conference on Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in January 2006. In the next few months we look forward to effective action to bring greater quality educational experiences to the Campus.