The regular students of Dhaka University (DU) are getting allocation of legal seats by the hall administration touting materialisation of their dream as seat management was under control of ruling political parties’ student wings for years.
Students were seen moving to their allocated seats and sharing the joyous moments on social media getting rid of misery of ‘Gono Room’ culture, where students, especially freshers, were accommodated usually by the ruling party’s student wing.
After the interim government took charge following student-led mass upsurge, the hall authorities announced the abolition of mass rooms and issued notices asking students to be finished graduation and post graduation leave dorms along with announcement of allocating seats for regular students in phases.
Talking to BSS, a number of students expressed their satisfaction on hall administration’s role in recovering the rooms occupied by post-graduation completed students, political activists expiring studentship and outsiders, and allocating it to regular students.
Before the ouster of the Awami League government, general students had no option but to accept, someone calls it “political slavery”, to stay in the halls as the administrations could not exercise authority in seat management.
Hall accommodation would have been fully controlled by leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in all 12 male dormitories, said students and house tutors.
Moreover, to survive in the politically allocated ‘Gono rooms’ or any other congested room, each student-from first year to masters-had to attend political events by force on regular basis as violation of political leaders’ instructions would result in driving away from the dorms along with torture.
An artificial seat crisis was created in the dorms for regular students to sustain political authority, whereas around 50 percent seats of all male dormitories were occupied by expired students, outsiders and BCL leaders.
Availability of seats in the dorms increased as all BCL leaders, most of whom had no studentship, left the dorms after the fall of the AL government on August 5.
Afterwards, seats have been allocated to each legal student whoever applied in two phases along with around 150 students under 2023-14 academic sessions at the Hazi Mohammad Mohsin hall, seat allocation committee convenour Dr Aynul Islam told BSS.
“After allocating seats to everyone, we still have vacant seats in the dorm,” Aynul said.
He added, “For the first time, first year students were given seat allocation…In the past, allocation used to be given by hall authorities but students could not move to their seat because of political occupation.”
Like Mohsin hall, students from first year to masters, seats were allocated to other male residential halls.
During the 15 years of Awami regime, its student body BCL controlled the seat management while its leaders and activists continued to occupy rooms even six to seven years after having finished their graduation and post-graduation.
The incidents of torturing and political exploitation of general students, particularly forced accommodation of first year students to the ‘Gono Rooms’ by BCL leaders, have been a common scenario in the DU dorms, said students.
“July-August mass upsurge brought the most significant change in the universities as the artificial seat crisis went away. We are getting our legal seats in the dorms,” said Riaz Ullah, a first year student of Bijoy Ekattor Hall.
“After a one year of torture and exploitation by political leaders…finally we have got our desired seat,” said Mohammad Nazim, a second year student of organization, strategy and leadership and also a resident student of the Hazi Mohammad Mohsin hall.
However, the crisis still remains in the five female halls due to the scarcity of seats against the increasing number of female students.
“I applied for a seat on August, 2023 but I still did not get a call. Besides, I submitted another application this month seeking a legal seat,” said Surmi Chakma, a second year student of political science who is attested to Shamsun Nahar Hall.
DU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed Khan said for the first time, the university administration has managed to take control over the seat management and overall activities in the halls and the students are getting benefits of it.
Mentioning that 53 percent of students in the last academic session is female, Dr khan said, “It is a great sign that female students are increasing significantly but we have only five female dormitories against the huge number of students.”
“To reduce the seat crisis in the female dormitories, the only solution is to build new hall which is difficult in this situation. However we have been working relentlessly to build new halls. We have already talked to the government, UGC and stakeholders,” he added.
“Besides, we have been inspecting the capacities and facilities in female dorms to at least add some seats for the time being,” the VC added.
Besides the seat issue, students are also enjoying other facilities as house tutors visit the halls on a regular basis while employees assigned for different services-security, laundry, health assistance-also became active in the dorms.