Media Release
Mangaluru, Jul 3: A seventh Mother Mary Aloysia endowment lecture was organised on July 2 via google meet by the IQAC of St Agnes College.
The day also marked the 101st Establishment Day.
The resource person for the lecture was Dr Shashikala Gurupur, director of Symbiosis Law College Pune and dean, faculty of law of Symbiosis International University. She is an alumna of the college (1985 batch of graduates). In her message on ‘Untrodden Paths- future of women’s education’, she spoke about the history of higher education for women taking the examples of the first graduate in Spain in 1608 and the setting up of the first girl’s school in Kerala in 1880 and Bombay University for women in 1882. She highlighted the contributions of Maharshi Karve the founder of SNDT Women’s University. She brought to light the contribution of Mother Mary Aloysia in her zeal and commitment to impart higher education to women in the Mangaluru region.
She emphasised the need for women to break stereotypes and take challenging roles. With detailed statistics, Dr Shashikala explained that many women in the workplace are given 50% of the salary while their male counterparts get the full amount. There is a low representation by women in politics and other areas of administration. Thus, there are untrodden paths to be taken, some of them being to train and mentor women to leave a mark in society, to forge ahead as empowered women even with a role of being a mother, to become lifelong learners by being feminine conscious and participating in public service. She underlined the necessity to educate men so that they will be transformed and support feminism.
The talk was attended by the administrator Sr Carmel Rita, principal Sr Dr Vennisa, IQAC coordinator Dr Ita D’Souza and members of the faculty. It was also live-streamed through youtube and viewed by the students of the institute.
Dr Neethu Suraj, dean of Commerce and Management compered the programme, Vinatha K accorded words of welcome and Helen Serrao, dean of Science rendered the vote of thanks.
Earlier in the day to mark the 101st Establishment Day, the management, principals of the PUC, UG, PG, faculty, support staff and student representatives came as a unit to plant a sapling in the college premises which represented a new phase of growth and development in the field of education as a tree symbolizes life and life is the product of nurture and nature.
Dr Devi Prabha compered the event.