Frayed, loose jeans and longish hair -- that’s still the popular perception that people have of the average ‘hippie’ from Madras Christian College.

But the mere mention of the college authorities doing away with all of those ‘liberal’ indulgences - allegedly with a formal dress code, neatly cropped hair, talking to the opposite sex and ID tags around the neck at all times - raised the hackles of students and alumni on Facebook. All of this happened over the past two days, a week into the college’s reopening.

When Express contacted a few students of the prestigious 175-year-old institution, they said that they had been told of the supposed new regulations by a teachers and security staff. “The third day after we came back to college, my allied subject teacher hauled me up for not having cut my hair and said that all this was not acceptable according to the new rules,” said Siddharth, a second year who wished to stay anonymous. Most others said that they had been hearing these rules from the security guards who manned the gates to the college.

Oodles of sarcasm and outrage characterised the material on FB pages dedicated to the college, especially from alumni.

A community named “Condemn the new rules of Madras Christian College”, created only a couple of days ago on the site, is littered with posts likening the new rules to “Shariah rule” and a concentration camp.

Hannah Jayaseeli, an alumnus posted, “Is this engineering college? I guess the Air Force Station next door has extended its influence.”

Another post by Arun Pradeep said that this would make them “herds of sheep” without individuality nor the glorious traditions that MCC had built over centuries. A chemistry grad who passed out in 2006 pointed out that similar moves had been suggested in 2005 and 2008 but quashed after discussions with students.

Surprisingly enough, a few alumni like Prince Karikkasery said that the dress code was fine and would hold students in good stead when they graduated. What saddened him was the apparent lack of bonhomie that the teachers and staff shared. “The Princy (Principal) used to have at-homes (meetings) in those days with students. We need to emphasize bringing back these traditions,” he pointed out.

‘Limited’ Elections?

One more supposedly ‘official’ new rule that received a lot of flak is the doing away of student elections where every one of the 7,000 people get to exercise their franchise and vote for the Chairman and General Secretary of the College Union Society. While the CUS elections, held at the fag end of every academic year, was postponed due to the protests for Lankan Tamils in April, there is talk that it might be limited to just student representatives voting in the council.

An economics professor who taught at MCC was pushed to post on the FB page, “MCC was the only educational institution in the country to have held free and open elections to the college union society during Emergency. Whither MCC?”

Responding to these claims, Dean of Students R Sridhar said that changes have been initiated and that students are involved in it. He, however, did not elaborate on what the changes were. “Discussions are going on,” was all his terse reply would reveal.

While all these have pushed students to post about staging a protest on campus, Sridhar said that the outcry was limited to social networking sites. “We have had a few security issues with outsiders entering the campus, which is why we have insisted that everyone, including teachers, wear the identity tag inside the campus. There are no other dress or grooming regulations at all. We are very concerned about preserving the traditions of this great institution ourselves,” he assured.

MCC’s Principal Dr Alexander Jesudasan told Express that there was “no talk of protest” against any changes this academic year.