The sorry life of a KU student

Letter May 06, 2012
A perennial shortage of shuttles isn’t the only problem the students of Karachi University have to face.

KARACHI: A perennial shortage of shuttles isn’t the only problem the students of Karachi University have to face. There are many other absolute basics that they are deprived of. These include clean drinking water, broken pathways, discoloured building facades, and many other issues.

The drinking water at the University, although chilled to perfection to beat the hot weather these days, doesn’t exactly meet standards of hygiene, and often students get sick after consuming it. Moving on to the second problem, students have to walk on broken pathways, that are very uncomfortable and also quite unsightly. Fixing a pathway can’t be all that difficult and should be promptly attended to. All of this is present on the campus despite the fact that it is visited by VIPs almost on a daily basis. If the University is not willing to allocate funds for the repair of buildings and pathways, it should know that there are students who are willing to raise funds and help.


However, one problem that the students can in no way solve on their own is that of internet access. The only place on campus that has net access is the LEJ digital library, which is also a good 15 minutes walk from most departments. Internet access is a facility university students are provided the world over, and with the advent of science and technology has become a necessity. Some of us are actually interested in doing research and completing our work, and not wasting time on social networking websites. If the university has doubts of our intentions, it can also employ technology that will allow them to block those websites.


The appointment of a new vice-chancellor has brought hope to us students, and this letter in no way is meant to identify more criticisms, but in fact is meant to draw attention to these issues and is a public appeal, in the hope that one day soon, they too will be catered too.


Tooba Akhtar


Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2012.