By Muammar Hadi
GOMBAK, 30 January 2023: The first IIUMSU Town Hall took place at Human Sciences (HS) dry area IIUM on 21 January with IIUMSU Welfare Officers, Aiman Faris Sharudin, as the speaker and Deputy President 1, Nur Athirah binti Abdullah, as the moderator.
With the theme of Holistic Welfare Offers, the town hall, according to Nur Athirah, was intended to engage and gather feedback from the students to gain information that can help create a more inclusive constitution when amended.
The town hall initially focused on the questions selected by the union that was sent to their official Instagram account which included the Welfare Office’s manifesto progress, campus lifestyle recovery post covid, long-term planning, and the issue of broken facilities.
“Most of the Welfare Office’s manifestos are in progress such as the careline project where the students can contact our trained individuals to listen to any of their concerns,” Aiman explained.
On recovering the campus lifestyle, Aiman mentioned that his office is working closely with the Office of Communication and Advocacy (OCAP) to promote businesses, cafes, and festivals that students organised every semester.
“Further, we will put Qr codes in front of the toilet for students to give their feedback where we will then ask the right people to repair the toilet immediately as one of the ways to tackle the issue of broken facilities,” Aiman added.
When it comes to long-term planning, Aiman shared that the Welfare Office has planned to collaborate with non-governmental organizations especially on funding since a lot of projects require money.
The session further invited attendees to raise any related questions to be addressed directly.
A student from the Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED), Muhammad Naquib asked how the Welfare Office plans to deal with lost parcels. Aiman replied that they have been planning to collaborate with the Mahallah Representative Committee (MRC) by creating parcel hubs in each mahallah equipped with closed-circuit television (CCTV).
Further, when asked by Nurhanis Izyani from the AHAS Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS KIRKHS) how the office plans to deal with stray dogs, Aiman said that they have and are continuing to fix broken gates and fences which have become the entrance for the dogs into campus.
The IIUMSU Welfare officer also responded to a student from the same kulliyyah, Faris Jafri, who enquired about the plans in improving the reduced campus mobility. He said the Welfare Office has been in touch with the university and Rapid KL busses to increase the bus frequency which was initially reduced due to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, a student from the Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences (ECONS), Mahbub Mohammad, mentioned that female students are getting sick from walking in the rain due to the mahallah gates’ early closure to which Aiman responded since the rule of gate closures are under the purview of Mahallah principal, arrangements with proper documentations can be made to allow some students into the gates during odd hours.
Farah Syafiah from AHAS KIRKHS suggested that a pedestrian walk be established to ensure students’ safety when walking to and from their mahallahs.
In response to this, Aiman mentioned that this issue would be raised to the university to create a more walkable campus.
The town hall session was attended by some 40 students from 2.30 p.m. until 4.30 p.m. and ended with a photography session.***