University Ghana (UG) authorities halt press conference organized by Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Hall students.
The management of the University of Ghana (UG) disallowed students from the Mensah Sarbah and Commonwealth halls from holding a scheduled news conference on campus. The students had intended to hold a joint press conference against what they described as “heartless management decisions” following a recent decision by school authorities to revoke the residential status of continuing students of the two halls.
The decision states that all continuing students of the Commonwealth Hall, an all-male hall of residence, and continuing male students of Mensah Sarbah Hall will not return to their halls or to any of the traditional halls, but instead will be randomly assigned to available rooms in any of the UGEL and private hostels.
The students argue that the notice from management, not to hold the press conference, came on short notice, just an hour before the scheduled conference. However, management deployed the school’s security personnel to prevent the students from holding the conference.
The University’s security claimed that the students were not given any permission to hold the presser. Despite this, the students later managed to hold the news conference off-campus to express their dissatisfaction with the decision. They argued that it will diminish the activism power of the student front. JoyNews’ Jessie Boafo reports.
The Press Statement
The following statement encompasses the grievances of affected students:
Greetings to all members of the press present. Tertiary education in Ghana has seen great progress, from one-roomed accommodations in the past to free feeding and ultimately the famous Akosombo Accord, where the University of Ghana played a significant role. The University of Ghana is also renowned for the birth, shaping and defining of students’ activism.
Mensah Sarbah Hall and Commonwealth Hall have always been at the forefront of advocating for students’ welfare, standing by students on countless occasions, fighting for good causes for the benefit of students and resisting obnoxious policies from both the government and management. This tradition will continue, and we assure everyone of this.
On December 13th, 2022, the University management announced that all continuing male residents in Mensah Sarbah and Commonwealth Hall will lose their rooms. This action is a precursor to welcoming an In-out-out-out policy, which will be implemented upon the successful execution of this decision. We, as students, cannot continue to suffer the consequences of management’s incompetence.
In 2023, after ten years of operating the Diaspora Halls now UGEL hostels, students have been made to bear the cost of the University management’s failure to service the loan contracted to build the halls. This has resulted in the privatization of these halls, a takeover of some annexes of other halls, and an increment in UGEL residential fees from 2,980 cedis per year to more than 3,800 cedis, within a space of two years. The traditional hall annexes, which have also been privatized due to the incompetence of the University Management, now charge different hostel fees on students, which are higher than those in different annexes of the same hall.
We question why senior officers who are incompetent and responsible for the challenges facing students are still at post. The University Management implemented an in-out-out-in system to tackle the accommodation deficit, which was abolished after an assessment and report by external contractors revealed that the rooms should be decongested for good ventilation, and the conversion had a long-term effect on the building. Under Professor Ernest Aryeetey as Vice Chancellor, the University undertook decongestion, getting students a place to stay on campus to pursue their academic journey.
However, in 2022, the University Management, which has sat idle for over a decade, has rolled out an obnoxious In-out-out-out policy. We ask that they have a plan for building more hostels to accommodate the ever-increasing student admissions by 2025, the same way they planned to execute this policy. We and other future students will not be victims of their ineffectiveness and gross incompetence.
Furthermore, the University Management has failed to provide proper security for students and has been quick to issue a sanction that affects all male continuing students in Mensah Sarbah Hall and Commonwealth Hall.
During the riot, university security and police patrol cars were nearby, and top-level university management members were also present, but they did nothing. This has led us to believe that the University Management had a grand scheme and was overwhelmed by their incompetence, opting to watch on and use this opportunity to cripple the student’s front and find a ‘perceived’ solution to the accommodation problem.
The investigations into the riots have not been concluded yet the University has unreservedly sanctioned innocent continuing male students. This act violates natural justice and raises concerns about the leadership’s fitness to oversee the welfare and affairs of students. The University Management released this information a week before Christmas, burdening parents and innocent students with a cost of over GHC 3,800, compared to the about GHC 1,000 they would have paid in their original halls.