There were 27 names on the list. The new English Literature Class of 2002, 27 narrowed down from 10,000 applicants. Many were Christian names, and as we later grew to be friends we realised this included Christians who chose not to apply through the Christian quota. We had all applied because we wanted to be part of St Stephen’s College.

A write-up by a bunch of SRCC students circulated in the university the same year said all Stephanians got in with a 15 per cent increase in cut-off, implying it was a ‘partial institution’ whose students didn’t deserve the academic kudos they got. Others labeled it a snob institution, which aspired to break away from the university it was affiliated to. The disinformation wasn’t pointless: it aimed to puncture the goodwill about the college.

But was it, and is it, a ‘different’ college? Yes. And it’s not just the admission policies that are responsible for this. It’s what comes during and after the admissions: the drive for excellence. That is why the college doesn’t need an extra quota to support its policies.

Despite having one of the largest campuses in Delhi University, this college has stuck to its select, traditional courses. One room to be built for a new media orientation school was made after lengthy discussions on how it should comply with the heritage building. These exercises displayed the college’s exploration of excellence.

It was never ‘easy’ for the Christian students. Most of them were from non-Hindi speaking homes, but this did not exempt them from a Hindi subsidiary examination. They were not handed their degrees illegally when many failed this — they just had to keep trying. All tutorials and subsidiary classes were, and are, accounted for. This is because Christian students, some of whom applied through the quota and were eligible for the 15 per cent increase, do not get preferential treatment: every Stephanian is exhorted to work hard, in both academics and extra-curricular activities. The college builds its pride in shaping each student, no matter where he is from, or who he was when he entered the college, quotas be damned.

... contd.