In the midst of a global pandemic that flipped the world order, students found themselves in the middle of a mess. AUIers, in particular, were left with feelings of anxiety and concern after being forced to say goodbye to campus life, not knowing when they will meet again.
With the first day of classes getting closer, uncertainty is being added to the lot due to the lack of communication from AUI officials to clarify the upcoming semester’s situation. However, one thing is sure; the university will only be able to accommodate 50% of its capacity: freshmen, graduating seniors, mentors, RAs, and graduate students with few exceptions if need be.
On Thursday, 3rd September 2020, a long-awaited email was sent to the students allowed on campus expected to replace all feelings of doubt with hope. Housing Reservations were to be made from the portal under the housing reservations for continuing students tab and were fixed between Thursday 3rd September and Sunday 6th.
But what happened?
For starters, it seems like the housing’s decision is premature. Fall 2020 reservations were opened before releasing information about next semester’s learning conditions as well as the eventualities related to access to campus, to facilities, and even access to Ifrane.
In addition, although emails were sent to students allowed on campus, they still did not follow any particular order making spots, weirdly, competitive between students expected to be on campus sooner than others, mentors, and CLE admins for example.
Another issue is the form on the portal was blocked from access to an important number of email receivers showing a message of submitted [previous date] while it was working for others whose mailboxes weren’t notified resulting in more confusion.
The whole situation has left the community demented judging by the numerous posts fueled with anger, distress, and a multitude of questions that no one has answers to on the Student Community Group on Facebook.
In order to clear the confusion, SGA clarifies that only students who received the email were eligible to make housing reservations on the portal. Additionally, only newcomers, freshmen, mentors, RAs, graduating seniors, last semester graduates, and students with special circumstances are allowed to be on campus for the Fall semester.
In a time where students are tired of waiting, exhausted of planning for each possible scenario, and a university soon to be responsible for thousands of students during a pandemic, one can only ask what to do in such unpredictable situations?
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