By Yana Paul, Amina Nourah and Wadi Ishaku
The Dean of Students’ Affairs and Involvement, Byron Bullock, last Saturday, advised AUN students not to hesitate to discuss their problems with the university authority.
Mr. Bullock gave the advice at the meeting of the university’s Students Government Association, SGA.
The meeting is convened weekly by the leadership of the student body to discuss and seek solutions to problems faced by students.
“We try to resolve whatever issues we can and make sure you have information you can give to your constituents,” Mr. Bullock told the student leaders.
“Your responsibility is to carry that information to your constituents. Sometimes it won’t be a quick answer because it may be a problem that has to do with infrastructure.”
He assured the SGA members that the university authority was open to ideas and suggestions from them with a view to improving the welfare of students.
“We do whatever we can to find out the root causes of problems so we can communicate with you about what’s going on, and to follow up to make sure everything is restored,” said Mr. Bullock.
He also spoke on the complaints that many students were being locked out of the campus at 8. pm against the curfew policy of 10.pm and 11.pm on weekdays and weekends, respectively.
“Curfew was set at the beginning of the year and you all signed that contract with policies that outlined the curfew for the university. If anything has changed at the gate, you let me know,” Mr Bullock said.
While the issue of curfew was resolved, others complained about security officials harassing students without ID cards at the gate.
On this, Mr Bullock said, “We are weighing on a consultant to give us option on how students, faculty and staff could get to the gate and use their biometric data and their thumb prints to clear them to get into the campus, if they don’t have identity cards.”
When the technology is fully deployed, he said students, who do not present identity cards at the gate would be permitted on campus if their biometric data is on the system.
Currently, he said the university is still working to ensure maximum efficiency of the new system.
He urged members of the SGA to continue to serve as the mouthpiece of the students and report cases directly to him for necessary action.
“Like I said, these are the kinds of things you should report to me because we face the same issues and I agree with you, some of these things should not be happening,” he said.
He, however, advised students to adhere to the university’s rules and cooperate with security officials for the good and safety of all on campus.