By: Trinidad Guardian

Sunday September 05,

The opening of the spanking new $130 million Sir Arthur Lewis Hall has failed to generate rave reviews from some tertiary students, who feel cheated after seeing what the University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine, campus was offering them. 

Up to Friday, students were pouring out complaints to Shantal Nelson, who works for the dormitory’s manager Kevin Snaggs, that the hall of residence situated at St John’s Road in St Augustine, did not meet their expectation. The hall is currently accepting registration of post graduate and undergraduate students for the new school semester which begins tomorrow. 

Among some of the complaints outlined by students who spoke with the Sunday Guardian were non-functioning ovens and closet locks, hot rooms, ceiling fans that barely worked and cupboard doors that needed to be fastened.

The Hyatt of St Augustine

Described as the Hyatt of St Augustine because of its modern and safe living environment, the hall of residence, located a 15 to 20 minute walk from the campus, consists of seven blocks and can accommodate 479 students in its 375 rooms of varying sizes and prices. 

The undergraduate rooms are dorm-styled accommodation spread over six blocks on four floors. There are 14 kitchens with a total of 34 refrigerators and 42 stoves shared among the 430 students. The post-graduate students have the opportunity to enjoy self contained, air conditioned apartments on one block.

Located at the end of each floor in the post-graduate block, are fully furnished self contained units meant for mature graduates students and married student couples. 

The residence is fully gated with surveillance cameras, swipe card entry, 24-hour security, gym, shops, PA systems, with access to WIFI, recreational rooms, mini mart, computer labs, document centre, ATM and a large outdoor courtyard. The one-bedroom apartments are all cable and television ready with views of south of St Augustine and the Tunapuna River.

To get to and from campus, students will be provided with a daily scheduled shuttle service.

The cost of shared accommodation (one room with two beds) for an academic year, which is two semesters, is $11,400. This works out to be $5,700 per person for nine months accommodation. The most expensive lodging at the new hall is the one bedroom apartment priced at $28,500 for the three-semester academic year. Students also have to fork out a $500 caution fee. 

Undergraduate students will be charged a supplemental fee to have their own refrigerator, microwave and television in their rooms. 

A $200 per month additional fee is charged to students using the hall’s car park with a $5 cost for each laundry and dryer load. To have a lost key replaced will cost $50, while swipe card replacement is $25.

Students complain

Having obtained permission on Friday from hall manager Snaggs to tour the facility with instructions to photograph only selected areas of the residence, a Sunday Guardian team visited the area. 

The first challenge was climbing a wet narrow spiral staircase, which leads inside and outside the blocks. For two students to walk the staircase at the same time would be a tight squeeze or impossible depending on their size. 

Another observation was that one of the verandahs overlooking the courtyard had collected a large pool of water from a downpour. The kitchen also lacked sufficient space.

After heading back to the office following the five minute tour, Nelson, the hall’s assistant manager, armed with a pen was busy jotting down the complaints of a female student, who said that the closet key in her assigned room was not working, the sink in the kitchen was rusty, an oven in one of the stoves was out of order and the screws in her cupboards needed to be tightened. 

Nelson promised to address the situation, admitting to the Sunday Guardian that she had been faced with complaints, but nothing to talk about. “They were very little,” said Nelson.

Asked if the students had raised any concern about the rental fees, Nelson said not to her. Nelson she disclosed that close to 200 students from T&T, the Caribbean, Sweden, Botswana, Nigeria, US and Ghana had registered and moved into the hall since June. 

Another 275, she said, were in the process of joining the residence for the new semester. Of the 379 students, 60 per cent Nelson are female whose ages ranged from 18 to 37.

I feel cheated

In touring one of the occupied rooms, the Sunday Guardian team ran into Crystal Cummings from Tobago, a third year student pursuing bio-chemistry, who had moved into her two-bed shared, apartment hours before. 

With all her belongings stuffed into bags which lay on the ground, Cummings said she was dissatisfied with where she was housed. 

Prior to moving in, Cummings said she was given the option to select a room of her choice, but she was placed in another block, where the evening sun was beating on her glass window, creating an inferno in her congested room. 

The blades of the ceiling fan above her bed, which moved at a snail’s pace, brought no relief.

Cummings complained that the closet she got was a different size from her roommate, while the cupboard below the face basin where she and her roommate placed their toiletries was not built with separate doors and locks. “I am disappointed. 

I felt cheated to a point knowing that I had to settle for a one door closet while my roommate got a two-door even though we pay the same rent,” said Cummings.

While Cumming’s room was being photographed, a female security guard stopped the photographer and escorted her back to the office. 

Nelson said that the Guardian team needed to talk to UWI’s marketing and communications director Dawn-Marie De Four Gill, who said by telephone that taking of photographs was an invasion of privacy and a security risk to the students and we should desist.

Pressed further for information, De Four Gill said the Guardian was trying to turn a conversation into an interview. 

She requested that questions be e-mailed to her, but stated up front that she would not be able to answer them until Monday. 

Messages left at Snaggs’ office for a comment were not returned up to late yesterday.

Undergraduate accommodation

• 80 duplex en-suite rooms, one shared washroom per 2 apartments.

• 152 single rooms, common washrooms (toilets/showers).

• 104 double rooms, common washroom facilities.

Post graduate accommodation

• 4 one bedroom apartments, double occupancy, en-suite and air conditioned.

• 35 studio apartments, single occupancy, en-suite and air conditioned.