LUMS calls hostelites back to campus as Covid-19 spreads

LAHORE: The LUMS University has directed all the hostelites among its student body to physically visit campus and complete the checkout process from their hostel rooms, while Covid-19 pandemic continues increasing exponentially in the country. 

“As the annual maintenance and refurbishment of hostel rooms is about to start therefore you are asked to visit campus to officially complete your check-out from the hostel,” said an email sent to the hostelites by the LUMS administration. 

Earlier in mid March, students were asked to vacate the hostels by the administration, due to the spread of Covid-19. 

Most of the students left their belongings in their respective hostels, hoping to return in a few weeks, however, with the increase in the spread of the virus, the university switched towards online learning while baring the entry of students on campus without prior permission. 

Now the university administration has asked the hostelites to remove their belongings from the hostel rooms so that it can begin the yearly renovation of the hostels. 

“We want to refurbish the dorms so that in the case we are open partially or in full in the fall we are able to provide good accommodations to our students,” wrote  Adnan Khan, the Dean at the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) at LUMS. 

Hostelites at LUMS come from all over Pakistan, some living in far-flung cities and areas like Karachi and Gilgit Baltistan. 

While the university administration had allotted separate time slots to the hostelites to clear their belongings, a large number of university students protested the administration's decisions on various social media platforms, citing the risk the university is exposing them to the virus while forcing them to travel to the campus. The administration later allowed hostelites to get their belongings removed through friends, which according to students was unpractical in most cases.

Earlier, the LUMS administration had also come under fire when it increased tuition fees by almost 41 percent, at a time when the country’s economy battles the Covid-19 pandemic, making people question if Pakistan's arguably best University even understands the proportion of the crisis that the country is going through.