PUNE: A five-year prospective study on lifestyle-related diseases has been conducted by Symbiosis School in association with the Paediatric Department of KEM Hospital to make schoolchildren aware of the same.   A meeting of school principals was held recently at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan, where 28 principals deliberated about the findings. Dean, Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS) and Symbiosis Centre of Health Care (SCHC), stated the need and possibility of addressing lifestyle-related disorders amongst student scommunity. KEM’s Paediatric Research Consultant Dr Sheila Bhave gave a presentation on ‘School Health Initiatives in Prevention of Childhood Obesity and other Lifestyle Disorder’.   Symbiosis School Principal Leena Chaudhary shared how their school has increased physical education periods, included 20 minutes zero period and gave marks for physical education.

Community legal care (CLC) activities of Symbiosis Law School (SLS) in and around the city in collaboration with Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN), CUNY School of Law, USA, has been identified as a significant project for achieving inclusion and development by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a recent publication titled ‘Envisioning Empowerment’.   “The work of providing legal aid to the underprivileged through CLC has brought credit to CUNY School of Law, and institutes in other countries also want to work on this model. UNDP has listed this collaboration as an imperative project that needs funding,” said CLRN Director Frederick P Rooney on Monday.   Rooney is in the city along with New York Judge Justice Fern Fisher as part of a conference on ‘Access to justice and legal education’ organised on Saturday.   CUNY School of Law’s CLRN trains lawyers to serve the marginalised sections of the society and address their legal needs.

Community legal care (CLC) activities of Symbiosis Law School (SLS) in and around the city in collaboration with Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN), CUNY School of Law, USA, has been identified as a significant project for achieving inclusion and development by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a recent publication titled ‘Envisioning Empowerment’.   “The work of providing legal aid to the underprivileged through CLC has brought credit to CUNY School of Law, and institutes in other countries also want to work on this model. UNDP has listed this collaboration as an imperative project that needs funding,” said CLRN Director Frederick P Rooney on Monday.   Rooney is in the city along with New York Judge Justice Fern Fisher as part of a conference on ‘Access to justice and legal education’ organised on Saturday.   CUNY School of Law’s CLRN trains lawyers to serve the marginalised sections of the society and address their legal needs.

PUNE: Distance learning has always been connected with flexibility, in terms of actual distance from the institute as well as timings.   Now the learning experience gets more enhanced with the launch of virtual classrooms and online chat facility by the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL).   The centre has introduced virtual classrooms with the objective of creating an academic faculty to guide distance learning students.   While the virtual classrooms are intended to help students attend lectures, clear queries and replay lectures if needed, the online chat sessions allow students to be in contact with the faculty and refer to questions of a particular session.   “We offer 136 different courses at present through distance learning and in Maharashtra alone we have had about 20,000 students in the last two years. We are at present planning to introduce two virtual classes everyday on different subjects, and later, we may introduce more.

PUNE: The shocking death of the 23-year old 2nd year Symbiosis telecom management student on Monday evoked a sharp reaction from the nearly 1000-strong resident student community in the Lavale campus on Tuesday.   The agitated students refused to attend classes throughout the day and presented a memorandum of demands to the Symbiosis Principal director Dr Vidya Yeravdekar who addressed the students later in the day.   While the Symbiosis management had stated on Monday that the cardiac ambulance had reached the student within 8 minutes, the students’ contention is that it took more than 25 minutes to reach. The Symbiosis management has responded by immediately ordering an investigation into the discrepancy that has arisen over the statement made by the medical staff on the campus and the allegation made by the students.