“TIP was my first job. I’ve served TIP for over a decade, and this is what they do to me. I’m literally being pushed out of the gates”, said one victim before breaking into tears.

A number of the diligent employees who lost their job had been serving TIP since its inception, while most had been rendering valuable services to the institute’s management and upkeep for over past 5 years.

According to reliable sources, majority of the employees who have been terminated under the pretext of ‘cost cutting’ were in the petty salary range of Rs.7,000 to 15,000 per month.

It has also been reported that none of the TIP employees have received any form of increment in the past two years. Despite this, the governing board which consists of some of the most well-known and successful names from Pakistan’s textile industry and elite circles, found it appropriate to start sacking employees to compensate their questionable organizational planning and management competence.

In an anonymous survey conducted within TIP during the past two days, the following comments were received from furious students and unmotivated employees:

Mera bas chaley tau is pooray board ko jail mai band karwadoon.

Ek mohtaram, apna itna bara F*r**q textile mill band karwa kar ab TIP ko band karwaney par tuley hain.

These elitist frauds in the board should be ashamed of themselves. They teach the students in management and HRM courses that layoff is not the way to make an organization in financial crisis recover, better planning is.

How come the sleeping management doesn’t fire people who sell TIP’s assets to buy luxuries without permission?

Mustafa bhai [faculty peon] had tears in his eyes. I could not look him in the eye.

As TIP heads towards the end of a terrible year, several controversial questions and ironies need to be addressed. For instance, how can a non-profit organization which has been systematically brought to the brink of collapse and finds temporary sustainability by disposing off employees afford an expensive president whose salary level matches that of the corporate world? Similarly, many questions have been raised about the justification and competence of some of the lavishly paid new appointments by TIP salary standards in the admissions and short courses division.

Indeed, these sentiments are heartfelt and must not be ignored how ever displeasing they may appear to top most tier that governs TIP and their well wishers. This is the voice of TIP.

[Related post: Popular media rejects TIP's layoffs]

An introductory session followed by interviews for new inductees will be done on Thursday, October 14, 2010 in 4th  slot (at 1:15 pm) at LR1.

Students interested are requested to please attend the session.

For further details:
Hafza Azhar (tmm-3)
Mir Jawad (amm-3)
Shumaila Rajput (tmm-4)

Why do you cause us so much grief? The recent fervor over an article pushed some former editors of Quack! to convene an international teleconference spanning 3 continents. We got together to see if this article requires a major response such as a makeover of the basic policies underlying Quack! Our discussion quickly shifted to whether North America is really a geographic entity separate from South America (yes it is), where in the world is Abid (eating lizards in Shanghai or foie gras in Paris) and whether it is possible to breathe and write at the same type (not possible for some).

Our task is daunting. The discussion we’re dealing with has swayed so far away from where it started that getting together three people from three continents was the easy part. So we thought it would be a good idea to lay out what we won’t be talking about here just so we’re clear.

What we will not be discussing

1. We will not be discussing TIP’s faculty and administration. Let’s face it, there have always been problems and always will be. That’s life. But they are doing something right to have over 700 graduates out into the industry.

2. We will not be talking about the lake, the horrible food at the cafeteria (apparently it’s not horrible anymore!) or how beautiful the fertilizer factory looks at night!

3. We will also not be discussing the pros and cons of ragging. We’ve been there and done that many a times before and one can find plenty of archives on the subject.

What we will be discussing

1. The ideology behind Quack!
2. What good journalism is about and how to write an effective piece.
3. What to do about anonymous postings

1. What is Quack! about, and who are you guys?
The vision/mission is contained in our about page, and also the first post ever made. Our role, as former editors, has been to hand over the editorship of Quack to somebody who upholds the same principles. At core is the principle to allow freedom of expression to all those associated with TIP. Sometimes we may not agree with what is expressed, or sometimes how it is expressed. However, this freedom of expression brings about an open discussion and debate, and has the potential to allow TIP to establish common ground between students, alumni, faculty and management.

Quack! offers the students, alumni, faculty as well as the management a voice. It is a medium for you to express your opinions. If you wish to be heard, sign up. There’s enough room for everyone.

2. So what! What about an editorial policy?
The role of the editor is to work with the writers to ensure that at least some minimum level of quality is maintained. This is in standards of journalism, fact checking, and in language (the boring bits of grammar and spellings). The editor is one of you, just another student in the next classroom. For the editor, who is studying textiles and not journalism, this is a learning experience too. He/she will make mistakes. And he or she will learn from this experience.

3. You guys still suck! Why do you allow anonymous postings and misinformation?!
Quack!’s policy regarding opinion and news related articles has been fairly straight forward. We have discouraged anonymous postings and gone to great lengths to encourage authors to own up to their writing. Usually, it was because writers were afraid of a backlash from the administration, and felt it was safer to hide their identity.

Commenting, however, has been a different ball game altogether. Quack! Online gives the author of any article, be it an editor of Quack! or not to monitor and edit comments on their articles. This gives the author control over the discussion generated in light of how comments refute or support the arguments presented by the author.

Which brings us full circle (that’s 360 degrees) to the reason for this article.
The recent article “DC fails to establish order,” is clearly stating an opinion based on unverified information. The majority of comments on the article are not focused around the contents of the article and are talking about matters that are irrelevant to the post. We appreciate that TIP faculty has clearly stated where they stand on this article. The writer has failed to respond appropriately, thus allowing the discussion to go into other directions. The writer needs to stand up to his writing.

At the end, Quack! Online is generally a reflection of the environment about campus. The architects of that environment are responsible for the outcome. And TIP can be proud to be having the oldest (likely) running online student newspaper in Pakistan, and also the most vibrant.

Artists can color the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid.

-Jules Feiffer

Watch out for SBlog’s THE RED ISSUE!

Coming Soon!

www.sblog.com.pk

For those planning to go abroad next year check out the amazing scholarship by the University of Cambridge (previously posted on the website as well). For girls, celebrity eye candy in ‘before they were famous’ – Waqar Khan of EP remembers his student life in an exclusive conversation with the Sblog team.

We have an amazing HIT LIST for ‘HIM’ and for ‘HER’ along with movies and reviews in the section STUDENT’S ARE TALKING ABOUT.

Grab your copy NOW!
Contact
Imran Iqbal
TS3B
0301-7515414