Lack of rooms means lodging aid an 'empty promise' - students' union

 

Universiti Malaya Students’ Union (UMSU) has lambasted Universiti Malaya’s claims that it would provide students with accommodation assistance, labelling it an “empty promise”. 

This comes after the varsity stated it would provide accommodation assistance to students through the Student Affairs Division, especially those from B40 families, after retracting a decision to implement online classes this semester. 

In a statement, UMSU alleged that the residential college rooms in UM were insufficient to accommodate students in need. 

The union claimed that in September 2021, it had provided UM’s student affairs division with a list of 1,875 students in need of residential college rooms, but was not entertained. 

“Furthermore, as of April 14, 2022, there are only 583 empty residential rooms open for application, which means that history is bound to repeat itself soon,

“Besides that, the university administration has failed to address the demands made by the union such as the issue of where students would be quarantined after all the rooms have been taken up.

“Additionally, the union would also like to point out that the university administration is not giving out accommodation ‘assistance’. 

“They are just using students to cover their operational costs by forcing them to pay for a full semester’s worth of accommodation fees although the students will only be checking in during week 8 of the semester,” it added.

Last week, UM’s management reversed a decision to allow students the option to continue with online classes, claiming it was a “misunderstanding”.

UMSU called on UM for more flexibility to accommodate students who may need to take up the option of online classes, especially students in non-technical streams. 

It added that UM’s late notice for face-to-face classes made it difficult for students who needed to prepare for accommodation and transport. 

78pct of students want online option

UMSU added that as of April 16, a total of 13,475 UM students have signed a petition demanding that students should be given the freedom to choose their mode of learning for this particular semester, accounting for 78.5 percent of the undergraduate student population at the varsity. 

“Students are disinterested in knowing that there has been a miscommunication between the faculty management and the university administration. 

“For students from non-technical streams with little need for hands-on classes, an announcement allowing classes to continue online or allowing students to choose between online or physical modes of teaching should be the proper way forward. 

“This is because, at the beginning of the semester, the students have already been given notice that classes would resume online for the semester. They have relied on such notice and have made the necessary arrangements. 

“Now, they should not become the victims of the university administrations’ U-turn by being forced to pay for accommodation and travelling expenses although half the semester has lapsed,” UMSU said. 

In response to the varsity stating that in special circumstances, deans or directors of faculties, academies, and centres, will allow exemptions from face-to-face classes, UMSU claimed that some faculty administrations were “unprofessional”. 

“The union notes that some faculty administrations are acting unprofessionally by not giving out a notice saying how soon they will be responding to the applications or approaching the relevant faculty-student union representatives to clarify the matter despite the representatives’ efforts to contact them. 

“We strongly condemn such conduct as students are left puzzled with their mode of learning status quo,” it said. 

The union called on faculty administration to grant exemptions to students who face financial and accommodation issues, international students, students from Sabah and Sarawak, final-year students, and students about to carry out their internships. 

Alternatively, it said, the university administration must inform the students of the status of their application by this week (week six) to allow sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements. - Mkini