UG’s Commonwealth Hall Students Stranded After Reopening

There is still a restriction prohibiting current University of Ghana students from entering Commonwealth Hall. The management of the University of Ghana (UG) implemented a residential policy that ordered male students of Mensah Sarbah Hall and continuing students of Commonwealth Hall to be placed in other on-campus residence halls.

Due to the new mandate, some Commonwealth Hall students have been forced to wait outside the hall’s boundaries since the first day of classes again [Thursday, January 12, 2023].

In order to stop the affected students from taking the hall, security has been stepped up on campus.

Some stranded Commonwealth Hall students—often referred to as Vandals—who chatted with Happy FM’s / Etv on campus.

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Ghana’s Joseph Nii Ankrah said “We came here and the school’s security said they will not allow us to enter the hall.

I will sleep under the tree today,” one of the frustrated continuing students said.

Added another lost student.

“They gave me another hall, but my parents can’t afford the rent; it’s quite expensive.

I’m anxious and depressed about everything.

It should be recalled that on January 6, 2023, eight angry Commonwealth Hall students obtained an interlocutory injunction prohibiting the University of Georgia administration from enforcing the new residential policy and ordering the school to return to the situation that existed before the policy was announced.

The management of UG countered that the directive had been implemented long before an injunction was obtained, citing data showing that 83% of Commonwealth Hall students had consented to and accepted placement in other housing options offered by the university.

But on Thursday, January 12, 2023, some continuing students arrived on campus to see a heavy security presence, preventing them from accessing the traditional hall.

The restrictions, which became effective at the start of the 2022–2023 academic year, were put in place to stop future incidents of fighting between Mensah Sarbah Hall and Commonwealth Hall students.

Male students in Mensah Sarbah Hall and continuing Commonwealth Hall students are not permitted to return to any of the traditional halls.

Instead, students have been assigned at random to rooms that are available in the on-campus UGEL hostels.

This policy exempts continuing female students in Mensah Sarbah Hall and students with special needs in both halls.

Additionally, beginning with the 2022–2023 academic year, only Level 100 and graduate (Masters and PhD level) students will be assigned to Mensah Sarbah and Commonwealth Halls. As a result, undergraduate students will vacate the halls at the conclusion of Level 100 and may find housing in private hostels from Level 200 until completion.

All traditional halls (Mensah Sarbah, Commonwealth, Volta, Legon, and Akuafo halls) will eventually be exclusively reserved for Level 100 and graduate students, with a full in-out-out-out policy by 2025/2026, for Level 100 students who choose to live in them.

The university council said that it was putting CCTV cameras and electronic access control systems in all of the halls to increase security on campus.

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