CRUTECH Female Students Camp With Guys, As School Management Fails To Provide Accommodation

By Thankgod Inyang

Students of Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH Calabar campus have lamented bitterly about the inability of the school management to meet its promise of making available hostel accommodation for students within a fortnight.

The promise was contained in paragraph three of a publication by the school management notifying the students of resumption of academic activities and adding that “students in Calabar campuses are to note that hostel accommodation will be available in a fort-night due to ongoing renovation.”

Our reporter who visited the campus to sample opinion confirmed that, though it’s over three weeks after ASUU suspended its over 6 months strike, the promised by the school management to make available hostel accommodation for students within the Calabar campus has remained illusory as renovation is still ongoing at the hostel site and it’s not near completion.

CrossRiverWatch gathered that most students have been stranded due to lack of accommodation; the most affected ones are the first year students who have little or no knowledge about the non availability of hostels at the moment.

A 100 level student in the Department of Educational Administration and Planning, Princess Chiwendu, who spoke with our reporter lamented how confused she is with the situation, in her words she said: “I came all the way from Abuja, though I’m an indigene of Enugu state, I don’t know anyone here, the last time I was here was for my post UTME. Since I came I’ve been in the hotel. I thought I was going to secure hostel apartment in few days time. I’m actually a fresher, I never got the information about the renovation, I’m just confused now because I can’t continue staying in the hotel and I don’t know anyone here”.

CrossRiverWatch further gathered from a reliable source that some of the female students who don’t have friends or relatives around and can’t afford hotel apartments, have opted to go with men that comes their way to stay in their houses, pending when the hostels will be available. While their male counterparts go around during the day and sleep in the lecture halls at night.

“I know of a friend who is currently harboring two girls in his apartment he said he wants to discharge one to any of the friend that lives alone in his apartment because he is no longer comfortable with the two, you know what that means”, one student who did not want to be named told our reporter.

The students called on the school management to speed up the renovation process to enable them go back to the hostels as not all of them can afford to get apartments off the school campus. They complained that the accommodation challenge is affecting their concentration on academic work.

Attempts to speak with the Vice Chancellor of the institution Prof. Owan Enoh to know when the renovation will be completed were not successful at the time of filing this report as calls to his phone did not connect.