The favoured idea now is to appoint persons to faculty positions because they are Christians, even though there are more qualified non-Christian candidates. The college has already announced 50 per cent reservations for Christians amongst students, for which purpose the college's supreme council decided to reduce the cut-off percentage for admissions for Christian students, to as low as 60 per cent (from the earlier 90 per cent or thereabouts). The council also wants 40 per cent seats reserved for Christian students belonging to the Church of North India, and special preference to be given to the Diocese of Delhi. The notion seems to be: We don't care what happens to the college, its standards and its reputation, as long as it caters to Christians.
Naturally, there have been protests from the faculty, which feels, rightly, that the college now runs the huge risk of becoming at best second-rate. It has not helped that the last principal had to go because his doctoral degree seemed bogus, and that the college is violating standard guidelines by not even having a principal just now. Gone in any case are the days when the top 10 positions in any course were invariably taken by students from the college. As members of the faculty have been asking, what is the point of taking in some of the brightest students and then following a teaching process that is unable to get the best out of them? It used to be said of the IAS that it took in racehorses and turned them into mules. St Stephen's College, too, now runs that risk.
It is not that minority reservations are automatically a death-wish. The Christian Medical College at Vellore has practised 60 per cent reservation for Christians for decades, and has remained a centre of excellence
