IISc to raise funds by selling bricks of razed hostel to alumni

In a unique fund-raising initiative, India’s premier scientific institute, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is selling to its alumni the bricks of its old hostel, which was brought down last year.

About 8,000 bricks of the old hostel building, built in 1956, will be sold to the alumni in India and abroad for a whopping $ 1,000 apiece to raise funds for new research programmes.

The sale of the bricks, that could trigger nostalgia among the IISc alumni, is scheduled to be formally kicked off at the IISc Global Conference to be held at Santa Clara, USA, on June 22.

Chairman of IISc’s Governing Council K Kasturirangan said some bricks kept in glass casings would be photographed and put on display at the Santa Clara conference to woo the alumni. The bricks will also be sold online and details of how to apply for them would be put up on the institute’s website www.iisc.ernet.in

If all the 8,000 bricks are sold, the IISc would be able to raise a hefty amount of $ 8 million, which is about Rs 320 million.

IISc Director P Balaram told reporters that the unique fund-raising initiative was the brainchild of its Associate Director Prof N Balakrishnan, who is himself an alumnus of the Institute. Prof Balakrishnan and some of the senior scientists of IISc have ensured that the bricks of the old hostel building were kept safely under lock and key after the demolition last year.

Though the Federal Government extended a grant of Rs 1 billion to IISc two years ago, the aid fell short of the Institute’s requirement to fund research in new areas. Hence, the institute plans to strike at the emotional chords by tapping into the nostalgia of its alumni.

IISc hopes to use the funds to finance a series of five-year projects to improve the infrastructure and attract students to pure science research, which had witnessed a dip in recent times.