St Stephen’s College: Assembly hall ceiling collapses, falls on students

The ceiling of St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, crashed and fell on assembled students during a musical performance last month. Footage of the ceiling collapse is being widely circulated online. According to DU Beat, members of the college music society had organised a concert in the college hall on September 29. Their performance, however, was interrupted when the ceiling collapsed on assembled students, injuring one.

The shocking incident – latest in a series of infrastructural concerns in the prestigious institute – was captured on camera by students attending the concert. It shows students getting up and moving away as the ceiling crashes down.
Notably, the fee at St Stephen’s College is among the highest in Delhi University. First-year humanities students pay a fee of Rs 42,000 per semester, and the fee is marginally higher for science courses. Of this, a substantial amount goes towards the college development fund through which the college pays for maintenance-related work.

However, students have raised concerns about the lack of transparency when it comes to development-related expenditures. An unnamed student, quoted by DU Beat, said: “The foyer has been closed off for four months due to safety concerns, and no repairs have been undertaken. They simply cite it as a ‘heritage building,’ using it as an excuse, while the guesthouses are in a constant state of renovation.”

Other students pointed out that the ceiling of St Stephen’s library collapses in 2020, restricting access to students who were still expected to pay the full library fee.

“We had a total of 12 performances and while the 8th performance was going on, suddenly I saw that the roof had collapsed. This isn’t the first time something like this happened. In the past, we’ve had roofs falling in classrooms and resident blocks. However, this is the first time it has happened on such a large scale with everyone present,” another student, who wished to be identified only as Bob, told the publication.