Old Vandals protest ejection of students from Sarbah, Commonwealth halls

Old students of the Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Halls of the University of Ghana have expressed their unflinching support to continuing students who are protesting against the University management for removing them from their halls.

The University revoked the tenancy of continuing students from the two halls as a punitive measure after clashes between some students of the two halls led to the destruction of the bust of John Mensah Sarbah.

According to the university, all continuing students of the Commonwealth Hall – an all-male hall – and continuing male students of Mensah Sarbah Hall will not return to their halls nor to any of the traditional halls.

But the students expressed their displeasure about the move insisting that the decision is ill-intended and poses financial challenges to them as the new halls are extremely expensive.

On Tuesday, January 3, some old students who massed up at the University grounds assured the current students that steps have been taken to reverse the decision in court.

“What the university management is doing is a reaction to a situation, and they are doing that to cover their incompetence. Some 10 years ago, we were able to house every student on campus and 10 years down the line we are facing accommodation challenges and instead of the university solving it, they are reacting to it,” an old student told Citi News in an interview.

Another student added, “the private hostels are four times more expensive than what they are paying at the moment and even with the 1,500 that they are paying some of us have to step in.”