Life at a Fully Residential University: Why It Shapes Leaders

The moment one leaves home to begin life afresh, making peace with unfamiliar spaces, trying to create a semblance of home away from home, they must look for answers they might have been served on a platter all along. Living at a fully residential university forces you to look for these answers, and, somewhere along the way, you evolve into a mature, confident and independent adult. If you lose something, you need to find a way to look for it. If you are hungry, you walk to the mess or cook for yourself, all while calculating finances. 

However, independence comes at the cost of responsibility. Your decisions – whether they result in reward or punishment – are yours entirely. Even when you’re teetering on the edge, you learn to land on your feet. While the lows may hit you hard, the highs are equally reassuring. It is fun to straddle contradictions, academics, life, and, of course, sleep, but at the end of it all, it is nice to know that you can finally look after yourself.

When alone, you seek family in friends and peers. At Ashoka, we learn far more from each other than we ever do in classrooms. Learning never stops, but flows into conversations, dinner table jokes, and social media debates. Our classes are designed such that peer interactions are integral to learning. Alongside professors, students interact with Teaching Fellows (TFs), Teaching Assistants (TAs, who are usually batchmates or seniors), and, of course, each other. Almost every course requires some amount of groupwork, be it presentations, posts or reports. Students are free to see their TAs and TFs during office hours for course-related clarifications, further discussions, or quick chats. 

The emphasis on peer learning is reflected in independent student organisations and leadership on campus. Although these student-led initiatives have faculty mentors, students are responsible for setting targets, building teams, and executing the vision they set out with. At Ashoka, leadership is never vertical, but horizontal and democratic. Everybody has a voice, and decisions are never declared but collectively arrived at. The Student Life Office (SLO) supports all such initiatives, inciting students to show accountability, transparency and progress. Besides their pedagogical function, participating in student-led organisations is also a lot of fun! It allows us to make new friends, tap into networks, and simply be part of the chaos behind every event. Student leadership also induces frankness within teams. 

All said and done, we understand that there might be times when things get a little too hectic. It is alright to take a break, slow down, and ask for help. Ashoka takes its students’ mental and physical health very seriously. We have our own 16-bedded infirmary offering primary medical care and free First Aid. Our general physicians offer free consultations, and specialised practitioners like physiotherapists and gynaecologists come into campus on certain days of the week. The infirmary also has a 24-hour ambulance service, helping weak and immobile students around campus.

The Ashoka Centre for Well Being (ACWB) offers free and confidential one-on-one sessions with trained psychologists for students struggling with stress, anxiety and other mental health issues. ACWB also allows for walk-in sessions should there be an emergency, and has a helpline for immediate relief in cases where waiting is not an option. The Student Care Office also calls in psychiatrists at regular intervals. Ashoka makes every effort to ensure that no mental health concern is left unattended.

It goes without saying that community bolsters better mental health. Since Ashoka has a residential campus in a remote location, students have formed multiple clubs and societies to ensure meaningful engagement and recreation beyond academics. Clubs and societies span across a variety of interests, some of them being the performing arts like dance, music and theatre. For those with literary and journalistic inclinations, we have Red Brick Words, Ashoka’s poetry club and one of the oldest clubs on campus. The Edict, the student-run newspaper, allows interested students to report on campus events across beats like Sports, Arts and Culture and Opinions. On the fiscal side of things, we have an Economics Society which, alongside other events, hosts its annual fest, Equilibrium. The Entrepreneurship Club, the Business Club, the Investments Club, and so on, offer like oppo opportunities.

Life at Ashoka is organised such that nobody ever feels the absence of home. Ashoka just has its way of seeping into the lives of students through its many academic and extracurricular opportunities. We build similar, yet unique lives, replete with our own aspirations, interests, recreations and, of course, the friends who make life joyful and worthwhile. 

– Written by Srishti Choudhury, English Major, Ashoka University