Vision:

The Guidance and Counselling Unit (GCU) or Sarathi has a threefold vision. These visions are successive and hence increasingly ambitious. These visions shall serve as the guiding light for the working of this organization.

• Creating a suicide-free campus
• Creating a stigma-free and empathetic environment for issues related to mental health.
• Creating a depression and anxiety-free campus.
• Creating a campus conducive to happiness and peace of mind for its residents.

Principles:

The GCU shall work on the principles of privacy, accountability, and empathy.

Composition:

The GCU team shall be composed of the following:

• Dean of Students’ Affairs
• Chairperson of GCU
• Student Head
• Core Team - a PG Core, a UG core, a Ph.D. core, one Female Representative, and a professional counselor.
• A team of coordinators
• A team of faculty mentors from various linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds as passive members.
• Students General Secretary, Academic Affairs Secretary and Research Affairs Secretary as passive members.

Chairperson of the GCU:

The Chairperson of GCU will be appointed by the Director. The Chairperson of the GCU shall be the official head with respect to any initiative of GCU. The Chairperson shall bear the responsibility of bringing to notice issues pertaining to general and individual mental health to the Institute leadership as and when necessary and shall decide the course of action in such situations with the advice of a professional counselor.

Student Head:

The Student Head shall be responsible for the functioning of GCU. He/She shall ensure the appointment of the Core Team within two weeks after assuming office. He/She shall inform Student Parliament on current risks to the mental wellness of the student community and advise on such undertones on decisions being taken.

Core Members:

The core members are responsible to work closely with the chairperson and student's head to maintain a standard operating procedure for cases related to the mental health of people of IIT Tirupati. They shall be active in identifying people who need help and suggest them to avail help from the facilities provided by GCU.

Coordinators:

The coordinators are responsible for conducting events, seminars/webinars, and sharing informative articles, and editorials that are intended to create awareness about mental health and reduce stress and anxiety levels in the institute.

Passive members:

A team of faculty mentors along with the Student’s General Secretary, Academic Affairs Secretary, and Research Affairs Secretary shall be the passive members of GCU. Faculty mentors shall be appointed by Chairperson keeping in mind the requirement to have people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds while trying to ensure participation from varied departments. The above arrangement shall ensure a deeper reach into all sections of the student community. Students General Secretary, Academic Affairs Secretary, and Research Affairs Secretary shall voice the concerns and agendas of GCU in the Senate and ensure that decisions of SAC are streamlined to concerns of mental health of the Student Community. These members are not part of the decision-making process of GCU but their services, opinions, and advice shall be sought at the discretion of the Chairperson, Student Head, and the core team.

Volunteers:

Volunteers of GCU shall help the GCU keep its ears to the ground and shall serve as the feedback mechanism for its activities and policies. These shall be the active members of the student community whose services will be sought by GCU as and when required. The work done by these volunteers with GCU shall be termed as an extracurricular activity and the position shall not be termed as a position of responsibility.

Term of Office:

All student members of GCU shall have a term of one year.

Eligibility:

The eligibility criteria for being a part of the GCU:

• He/She shall be a student of the Institute.
• He/She shall not have been awarded any punishment by the disciplinary committee in the last one year.

Selection:

The selection process for the members of GCU is given below:

• The Chairperson of the GCU shall be appointed by the Director
• The Faculty Mentors shall be appointed by the Chairperson of the GCU in consultation with the stakeholders in terms of the socio-cultural, linguistic and academic diversity of the campus.
• The Student Head shall be selected by the previous Student Head, the Dean (Students), Chairperson of the GCU, and the previous Core team members
• The Student Head shall coordinate with the Chairperson of the GCU, previous Student Head, and Core team members of the previous year for the selection of the Core Team.
• The GCU representatives shall be selected by the Student Head and the Core team members.

Powers and Responsibilities:

• Provide emotional support to the students of campus on various aspects ranging from academics, and extra-curricular activities to many more, and arrange counseling for students, who are facing any curriculum-related, or personal problems, on a one-on-one basis, during their times of need.
• Assure that all of its student Cores/Representatives undergo professional counseling training so as to equip themselves to handle different situations that they are expected to face as a GCU representative.
• Provide emotional/ mental support to the students (using the lessons learned from counseling training classes that they receive throughout the year from professional Counsellors) who approach them, by carefully analyzing the situation and needs of the student who has approached. If found necessary can seek help from within (like Dean, Faculty, Co-Coordinators, etc.) or outside GCU (like Guides, Friends, Parents, Relatives, etc.) in the due process.
• Escalate cases to Professional Counsellors. Expected to voluntarily take up cases (where students are in need of emotional support) from their environment/social network and connect them to appropriate counseling services
• Also take up cases if brought into notice by the Dean, faculty, student, ex-student, institute staff, parents, relatives, friends or anyone else.
• Work along with the Secretaries during Fresher orientation sessions in the beginning of academic sessions.
• GCU shall work towards an atmosphere that promotes awareness and understanding of mental health and wellness.
• Present a brief report about the activities of GCU once a semester to the Dean of Students’ Affairs or as and when asked to by him/her.
• The GCU must be informed of any case undertaken by the Disciplinary Committee or any other such action which might affect the mental wellness of the concerned student, enabling GCU to take necessary measures.
• GCU shall be the first responder in any case related to mental health and wellness and any member of IIT Tirupati is liable to bring any such scenario to the GCU directly without any intermediary.

Removal from GCU:

Impeachment/Removal of GCU members cannot be carried out by the conventional procedures of SAC bodies given that it is an institute body under the Dean (Students), and a constitutional authority under the purview of SAC. Therefore the circumstances and/or procedures for removal of student members from GCU are as follows:

• The Student Head or any Core Team member can be suspended by the Chairperson of the GCU on receipt of any complaint of serious misconduct/breach of confidentiality against the concerned member. If found guilty of serious misconduct/breach of confidentiality, an internal enquiry is done by a committee appointed by GCU Chairperson, the concerned student member shall be removed from the GCU.
• In case of other general complaints, including financial misappropriation, the Student Head or any Core team member shall undergo procedures as directed by the Dean (Students) or GCU Chairperson or both of them.
• Any team member by default will be invalidated, if he/she fails to attend the basic counseling training series conducted by professional counselors for the GCU team, which equip the members to handle different situations that they are expected to face during their tenure.
• During the term as a GCU member, if he/she is awarded a punishment by the Disciplinary Committee, he/she shall cease to be a member of the GCU immediately.

Funding:

The GCU Student Head shall present a yearly budget to the Chairperson of the GCU and Dean (Students). GCU shall primarily utilize funds earmarked for it from the Institute budget. However, the Dean (Students) may decide to provide additional funds to GCU if the need arises.