Some concerned students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall and Commonwealth Hall at the University of Ghana have pledged to access their rooms next academic year despite the University management’s decision to kick all vandals and male sarbah hall residents out of the halls from the 2022/2023 academic year.
Management of the University, on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, revoked the accommodation of members of the Commonwealth Hall and male residents of the Mensah Sarbah hall after the latest clashes involving these two halls on campus.
In a statement signed by the Registrar of the University, these students “are to be randomly assigned to available rooms in any of the UGEL and private hostels.”
However, the students, in their communique released on Thursday, December 15, 2022, indicated that terminating their residency status is not the best way to end violence involving students on campus.
They stated that despite the directive, they are poised to fight for the welfare of students, and as such when school reopens, they would access their rooms and “collaborate with management to find a more lasting solution to these clashes.”
“We would want to send a strong petition to University Management that we would fight for the welfare of all students as we have always done, and in January, we will pay the reduced hall lees and parliament-approved school tees and enter our rooms, welcome the freshmen like always and collaborate with management to find a more lasting solution to these clashes. Taking our beds from us is not a solution. It is, at best, a knee-jerk reaction! It is also a very convenient decision to sway the minds of all stakeholders on the persisting incompetence of management to find lasting solutions to the perennial issues of accommodation on campus,” the communique said.
The concerned students also outlined 6 ways in which the new directives would affect them. According to them, management’s new guidelines would:
- Conveniently deny the complicity and negligence of management in security issues on campus.
- Give these two powerhouses a bone as a form of distraction, to implement outrageous and exorbitant fees without the proper procedure.
- Unjustly punish all innocent students for the deeds of a few bad nuts.
- Unjustifiably increase the cost of education for students.
- Break the backbone of student activism and socialization
- Break and weaken alumni allegiances to the Halls
The Pro Vice-Chancellor in Charge of Academic and students affairs at the University of Ghana, Prof Gordon Awandare speaking on Campus Exclusive said the management would not rescind its decision regardless of any resistance from the student body.
Traditional Halls to be reserved for L100, graduate students only
Management of the University has also announced that the traditional halls on campus, i.e., Commonwealth Hall, Akuafo Hall, Mensah Sarbah Hall, Legon Hall, and Volta Hall, will be reserved for level 100 and graduate students.
The statement signed by the Registrar of the University on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, indicated that a full in-out-out-out policy is expected to be culminated by 2025/2026.
“Progressively, all the traditional halls (Mensah Sarbah, Commonwealth, Volta, Legon, and Akuafo halls) will be reserved for Level 100 and graduate students only, culminating into a full in-out-out-out policy by 2025/2026,” the statement said.
