On the Crowded Classes with Unfavourable Atmosphere (II): The Solutions and Controversies

Foyin Ejilola & Opemipo Olukoga

The decrepit state of the lecture rooms in the Faculty of Arts has been a major source of inconvenience to its students especially since academic activities resumed in the university following the suspension of the ASUU strike. While this situation has been pointed out and explored in different ways, it is still not being tackled with visible swiftness by the faculty management and other required quarters as it is expected that this prevailing issue should be known to them by now as they are at the helm of the faculty affairs.

Besides the faculty management, the elected students’ executives, who are closer to the student body as student leaders and representatives before the faculty management, also have a role to perform by taking actions to find long-lasting solutions to the problem at hand, especially as it affects students’ welfare. The fact that they are students of the faculty and are attending lectures in these classes means that they have seen the present state.

In response to this, the president of the Faculty of Arts, Emmanuel Akinyoola told AFAS Press that he has noticed these things and he expressed his discontent at the “abysmal state of most of the lecture rooms, especially the Small Lecture Theatre (SLT) also known as Room 32 and the Large Lecture Theatre (LLT)”.

In these and other lecture rooms mentioned by Akinyoola, it is not rare to see students standing while receiving lectures because the classes are packed with students beyond their capacities. Consequently, students also miss out on most of the lectures as it becomes a struggle to hear the lecturer audibly.

On this, the president of the faculty stated that overcrowded classes cannot be blamed on the faculty management as this is sometimes dependent on the number of students choosing a course, a choice which lies in the hands of the students rather than the faculty.

He, however, declared that to put a stop to students missing out on lectures because they could not hear their lecturers clearly, the faculty executives have proposed the use of public address systems to the faculty management to aid the audibility of lecturers in classrooms.

Another issue contributing to the reasons why students of the Faculty of Arts are standing in these lecture rooms is the many chair frames existing without seats in them. In addition to this, many of the chair covers are torn and quite a number do not have backrests. All these show the present state of infrastructure in the faculty.

On this, Akinyoola disclosed to AFAS Press that he had called the attention of both the faculty and university management to not only the state of classrooms, but other structures in the faculty to which the response has been positive through the consequent actions.

“I had called the attention of UI management to this a couple of times during meetings with the VC and Dean of Students Affairs in which they promised to find a lasting solution. Although not only the two rooms, I complained and called their attention to the bad state of female toilets and the supposed faculty library which currently they have renovated the female toilet to a great and usable extent also the faculty library renovation” he said.

He also explained that the faculty management played important roles in these renovations and that other infrastructures will be attended to shortly. He further informs AFAS Press of how he and the other faculty executives have ensured that these issues are not overlooked by the necessary quarters, stating an instance of how Team Altruism has been on the run to actualise some of the possible steps suggested by the Sub-Dean for the facilitation of the LLT, SLT, and other lecture rooms’ renovation. This includes monetary sacrifices on his part.

“Immediately after we resumed (after the strike), I and the Sub Dean, Dr Babatunde Blavo, discussed the state of some lecture rooms in Arts and I told him I would sacrifice some amount of money to fix fans and electric sockets which were not working in all the lecture rooms in faculty of arts except SLT and LLT, which I did not more than the second week of resumption. For this, I used my money and not AFAS money.”

While the president explicitly informed AFAS Press of his meetings and discussions with the faculty management, specifically the Sub-Dean of the faculty, there was a new development when the press reached out to him (Dr Blavo).

In his words, he told AFAS Press that he cannot make any comment concerning the faculty infrastructure, especially the classrooms as he is not aware of these developments the president has spoken of. He further stated he is not part of the management the president must have discussed the issue of the failing state of the facility’s infrastructure with, disclosing that as far as he is concerned, there is no president in the faculty as he is currently on suspension.

In response to this, the president insisted that it was Dr Blavo he had a discussion with concerning the issue of faculty infrastructure.

The efforts of the faculty management and student executives are crucial to solving the problems students are encountering in the lecture rooms, thereby improving their welfare. However, this may take a while considering the evident friction between both parties.