UG management using Sarbah and Commonwealth hall residents as ‘lab rats’ – Former Sarbah JCR president

Former President of the Junior Common Room (JCR) of Mensah Sarbah Hall, Joshua Nii Tackie Essel suspects foul play in the new accommodation arrangement proposed by the University of Ghana management.

Instead of this approach, he wants the university to take responsibility for the students’ security on campus by channelling their energies into positive use.

This comes in the wake of recent clashes between the two rival halls which have informed the new residential modality.

According to him, it will be unfair for the students to be at the receiving end of such “unthoughtful decisions”.

“If you tell me that you are taking Commonwealth and Sarbah out at the moment because you want to fully blow the university into an in-out-out system then that means we are becoming lab rats. It’s not because there was actually a clash since you are claiming the investigation is not over yet.

“So then where is the report or the purpose of this punishment?” he quizzed.

“What makes this even more interesting is that the riot happened for over four hours and just about 30 meters away from the incident, there was a police car there. About 50 meters away, there was a university guest house where top university management was there yet they did nothing,” he said.

Speaking on Prime Morning with his colleagues, he stated that if the management wanted to curb the riot on that particular day, they would have.

He continued to say that the University should rather focus on expanding the accommodation system on campus to align with the increasing admission numbers instead of hiding behind students’ violence to cover up their incompetence.

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“I did education when I was an undergraduate and we were 37 in the class, now level 400 class they are 600 which means there is an increment in intake meanwhile there is no addition to infrastructure and that is the perennial problem to be solved”, he stated.

The University of Ghana has been in the news recently over the decision to evacuate all male continuing students from both Mensah Sarbah and Commonwealth halls to UGEL hostels due to their clashes and admit only first years into these halls.

The University also wants to gradually implement the in-out-out system which will completely take effect over time.

Source: myJoy