New Delhi: Fourteen faculty members of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati have gone on mass leave starting from today (April 1). They are protesting against the institute’s decision to give them only one-year contracts, rather than contracts that last for a longer period.The strike overlaps with a period when admission interviews are slotted to take place, between April 1 and 4.The faculty members who are going on strike have written to prospective students explaining their move.“We would have loved to meet you and select some of you to become stakeholders in building this university. It is with painful heart we are informing you that, given current situation, our taking part in the admission process starting tomorrow, would constitute a deceitful act on our part. We do not have the heart to lie to you about our ability to nurture and train you. You would have been admitted for two year of rigorous training in our centers. Sadly, we only have one year contract in our hand, beginning tomorrow. And the non teaching staff will begin their work without any contract in their hands.”According to their letter, the contractual nature of the work at TISS effects both teaching and non-teaching staff, and two faculty members even left last year because of the situation.Also read: In Pursuit of ‘National Priorities’, a University Abandons Its StudentsThe students’ union at TISS Guwahati has supported the teachers’ strike. “We are against the contractualisation of education that is happening across the country. The issue of one year contracts is not just limited to the Guwahati campus but across the Institute. We demand that administration ensure that our faculty have secure contracts as well as secure the future of various centres and programmes,” students’ union president Jit Hazarika said, according to The Hindu.Current and former research scholars at TISS have expressed solidarity with the teachers. They have said in a statement:“At a time when the minimum duration for an MA course is 2 years, the designing of faculty contracts for one year is not just illogical but also insolent to their service in nurturing ideas and young minds. Compelling the faculty members to take such a drastic step, the institute has only degraded its values of justice. While TISS aims at voicing the marginalized, it continues to shut down voices fighting injustices.”