The Soft Issue
August 2017
Story from Within
Living on
Campus:
The Story You
Never Knew
By: Ife Akintobi
H
aving to wake up early every day: struggle to get cab to school; get to school
few minutes late; face a lecturer who refuses entrance into his class a minute
past the stipulated time; wait hours on a long queue at the park at the end of
the day. This cycle continues every day. As such, anyone who lives in one of
the hostels in school is seen as a king with everything at his/her disposal, and this is why the
process of getting an accommodation on campus is a tug of war; everyone wants a go at it,
with only the survival of the fittest, the affluent, the connected and the persistent.
Living on campus, staying at a walkable distance from classrooms however does not
mean a student has it all. Contrary to this belief, it has been noticed that students who
live on campus become lukewarm in their studies. Why should they wake up by 5am or
6am because they have an 8am lecture? When they can easily wake up at 7.30am for the
class. At the end of day, they are mostly the ones that skip classes or arrive late to lectures.
Why should they go to night classes? Exams are not yet around the corner, besides their
roommates just got a nice movie, they need to watch it with them. Why go for tutorials, why
go for classes in a sunny afternoon, they cannot leave the comfort of the regular blowing
fan for the blazing sun. Why wait for an evening class, they need to go and cook a delicacy
no one can cook, sleep and eventually skip the class, after all they stay on campus, it is a
benefit not just anyone has, they need to enjoy it to the fullest. Most students arrive in hostel
and forget the main purpose they are staying on campus. Staying on campus should aid
and ease their learning not affect or make a student become complacent to his primary
80
the
LENS