As a New Beginning, the First Phase of AMU’s Sprucing-Up the Halls of Residence Comes to an End

Aligarh : On 24th July 2024, the weeklong round of inspections of hostels conducted by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Naima Khatoon, for an assessment of the cleanliness and upkeep of the hostels concluded. Ever since taking her office as the Vice Chancellor of AMU, Prof. Naima Khatoon’spriority has been to spruce up the halls of residence by initiating bag and baggage vacating in the hostels, getting the hostels cleaned and maintained for a better living experience for the students.

This campaign has been ongoing for the entire summer vacation, and from 18th to 24th July 2024, the Vice Chancellor steered a round of inspections of the hostels to assess cleanliness, maintenance, and other related upkeep of the living conditions. In this process, all the halls of residence including Sulaiman Hall, Aftab Hall, Sir Ziauddin Hall, Bibi Fatima Hall, SN Hall, SS Hall (North), SS Hall (South), RM Hall, MM Hall, Abdullah Hall, IG Hall, BSJ Hall, BR Ambedkar Hall, Hadi Hasan Hall, Begum Aziz-un-Nisa Hall, VM Hall, Habib Hall, and Nadeem Tarin Hall were thoroughly inspected.

Prof. Khatoon, accompanied by all the concerned officials, including the Registrar, Finance Office, Proctor, DSW, and MICs of Building, Conservancy, Electricity, Land and Gardens, and Health Department, assessed the living conditions in the hostels. A few grey areas, such as seepage in old structures and chipped plaster, were pointed out, and the building department was instructed to take care of them as a priority.  In the heritage building of Sir Syed Hall (North and South), a special effort was asked to be made by the building department.

Most of the residence halls have made very significant improvements, but many things remain to be done, and the work is still ongoing. Prof. Khatoon strictly instructed the officials to improve the conditions to make them resident-friendly, especially in the common utility spaces like dining halls, toilets, kitchens, common rooms, and reading rooms in the residence halls. She inspected each and every dining hall, common room, reading room, and many toilet areas, along with other related common utility spaces of the students. Prof. Khatoon stressedthat only bonafide students avail the facility of residing in the hostels.

Prof. Khatoon made a special mention of the cooperation extended by the student community in this major task of improving residential life at the AMU campus. She lauded the hall residents for taking pains to facilitate this process, which will have a positive impact on their living conditions in the fresh academic session. Prof. Khatoon also appreciated the hard work undertaken by the non-teaching staff members across the halls in deep cleaning, maintenance, and upkeep of the halls of residence.

The Vice-Chancellor has committed herself to the well-being of students and residents, and for that, she urged all stakeholders to continue this process of keeping the campus clean and maintained as a regular exercise. A week of inspections has come to an end, marking the beginning of a journey of consistent efforts for a better campus life and academic culture at the AMU campus.