Lady Shri Ram College hostel now only for first year students

Lady Shri Ram College Wednesday said from this year, its hostel will be available to only first-year students. The college said the move was “to promote inclusivity” in hostels so that more students from marginalised backgrounds could avail of hostel facilities.

“Kindly note henceforth hostel will be available to first-year students for one year only,” the college said on its website Wednesday. “They will have to vacate the hostel at the end of the first year, in May. There will be no further intake of third-year students.”

The college said the decision was taken as per the governing body resolution “to promote inclusivity by implementing constitutional reservations and to provide a secure environment to a large number of students from parts of the country in their first year”. Despite calls and messages, principal Suman Sharma was unavailable for comment.

“There is no change for the current batch of second and third-year students because they were told they would get the hostel facility for three years,” hostel warden Ujjayini Ray said, adding the college has made an exception for students under persons with disabilities (PwD) category who would be allotted hostel rooms under the previous policy.

“Keeping hostel for students of all three years would have been impossible because we couldn’t have reduced general category seats,” she said. “No further floors could have been built at the current hostel and despite writing to the university and university grants commission, we don’t have funds for another hostel.”

Former student Sakshi Bhati said, “Many students don’t have enough resources to avail of PG accommodations.”

The hostel offers 300 seats and charges around Rs 67,000 for two semesters. Besides, first-year students have to pay Rs 5,000 security.

First Published: Jun 20, 2019 12:04 IST