Sport and Cultural Cum Student Activities
In view of personality development along with academic career and promotion of sports as well as cultural activities among the students this university organizes various regional and state level competitive events under Students Welfare Centre. The winning students, further, represent this university in the state level INDRADHANUSHYA and ASHVMEDH competitions.
This university has made a special financial provision for such sports and cultural activities. That includes passage and food of the students, uniforms and the expenses during the practice sessions.
Sport Activities:
The University conducts Sports meets every year. The sports meets are organised by eight Regional Centers of the University at regional levels and the students of the study centers in the jurisdiction of the respective region participate in these regional level sports tournaments. After the completion of the regional level tournaments, the students of the eight regions who excel at the regional level tournaments participate in the sports meet organized by the University. Students exhibiting good performance at the university level are sent for the All India Association of Universities tournament and The State level Inter-University tournament ‘Ashwamedh’ every year. The performance of the students of this university in these tournaments so far has been steadily improving. In order to spur the students to participate further in sports activities, incentive marks (maximum 10) are given to those who excel in various tournaments in accordance with the rules framed for the purpose. Similarly, the students of this university who win gold medals in “Ashwamedh” are deployed in the services of the University in keeping with the rules framed for the purpose.
Ashwamedh:
At the behest of His Excellency, the Governor of Maharashtra and the Chancellor of Agricultural and Non-Agricultural Universities in Maharashtra, in the year 1997 the Annual Inter University Tournament called ‘Ashwamedh’ was started to create an atmosphere conducive to sports and to provide the students with an opportunity to display their talent in the field of sports and to move therefrom to participation at the National level. Every year the responsibility of organising ‘Ashwamedh’ is borne by one of the Universities in Maharashtra. The Eleventh Inter-University Tournament ‘Ashwamedh’ was organized by the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University during 27 th November 2007 to 1st December 2007 at Nashik. It is noteworthy that despite the fact that being a distance learning set-up with non-availability of the required infrastructure and qualified staff - the prerequisites of an event of such a magnitude, the University conducted ‘Ashwamedh 2007’ very successfully. In fact, Ashwamedh 2007 has proved to be a paragon for others to emulate. Over 1800 students belonging to 19 Universities in Maharashtra participated in five games viz, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Volley-Ball, Basket Ball and Athletics. ‘Ashwamedh 2007’ was inaugurated at the hands of the Hon’ble Smt. Prathibha Devising Patil, President of India on 27th November 2007. The event was witnessed by the Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Hon’ble Minister for Higher and Technical Education and other ministers of Maharashtra. The salient feature of the Inaugural Ceremony was the mega Cultural Programme based on India’s freedom struggle. In this Cultural Programme, 1200 student artists presented the saga of the struggle for freedom under the able stewardship of Shri. Adesh Bandekar, the noted T.V. artist. The programme not only left an indelible impression on the minds of the spectators but also enlightened the generation born in post-independence period about the responsibilities they owe to the nation.
‘Ashwamedh 2007’ ended with a mammoth rally evincing the students’ determination to enlighten people about the dreaded HIV/AIDs. This was followed by the Valedictory Function held on 1st of December 2007 wherein the Chief Guest, Dr. Dayanand Dongaokar, Secretary General AIU and other dignitaries gave away prizes and trophies to the winning teams and star performers. While the General Championship was awarded to Mumbai University, it is worthwhile to note that Ku. Renuka Davne of this University earned one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze medal while Ku. Savita More and Shri. Prabhakar Sawant, also of this University got themselves listed as gold medal winners.
Cultural Activities:
The students of this University are not deprived of opportunities to exhibit their talents in cultural activities. In order to provide them a platform to show their skill and art, youth festivals are organized every year at eight Regional Centers and the students of the Study Centres of the respective regions participate in programmes like One Act Play, Folk Dance, Singing, Fine Arts, etc. The student artists who show excellence and skill are invited to participate in the University level Youth Festival. The students who win laurels at the University level Youth Festival are further given an opportunity to represent the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University in the Inter-University Youth Festival called ‘Indra-dhanushaya’. The Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University has been entrusted with the responsibility of organising ‘Indra-dhanushaya’ 2008 at Nashik.
Dr. Dayaram D. Pawar is a Director of this centre. He is assisted by Mr. Zalse
To contact them, following are the numbers
Dr. Dayaram D. Pawar 0253 2230127
Mr. Zalse 0253 2230127