Students of the University of Hyderabad are disgruntled with the extra fees being levied on those who choose to stay on campus during semester breaks. The administration had allegedly started collecting these fees ever since the Rohit Vemula incident in order to prevent students from staying in the hostels and causing "trouble". The amount that was originally asked for was Rs 1000 — which can be quite steep for a section of the students.
The students said that there is absolutely no logic as to why the Chief Warden is demanding these fees, "Lots of students stay back during the break because the library is still open 24 hours, the computer labs remain accessible and the reading room is open for all. When these facilities are functioning, why would they charge students for continuing to stay for a few weeks between the semester? There are also students with backlogs, who need to stay back and study. It doesn't mean they should pay extra fees" another student said.
The Student Union did make a representation to the warden to waive the fees but the warden only waived the fees for the SC, ST students and reduced the fees to Rs 850 for the OBC and the general students. "Under the UGC guidelines, the administration is NOT supposed to collect fees from SC, ST students anyway. So it doesn't make sense that the fees have been waived, they shouldn't have been charged in the first place. And the other students shouldn't be forced to pay either because there is simply no logic to it," he said.
The students are particularly upset with the attitude of the wardens who claim that students are expecting "freebies". "They go on about how we can't expect everything to be free. But we're all stakeholders here, it is a public university after all. They cannot keep penalising us for every single thing that we do," a Student Union member said.
A member of the UoH Student Union said that on their ID cards, all the students have been registered till December 31, which essentially means that they are allowed to remain on campus till that date. "If they wanted us to pay extra fees, they should have said our ID cards will be valid only until the beginning of December. It is written clearly that we can remain on campus until the 31st, so why this extra fees? Also, PhD students don't really get semester breaks so why should they be forced to pay for something that has already been paid for," he questioned.
The Student Union members claim that the students are always flooded with circulars every time there is a semester break, "They want to do everything possible to ensure students spend as less time as possible on campus. Imagine the irony, a campus without students. With all this, the University is applying to be an Institute of Eminence - a 1000 crore project. But if we want to stay on campus for a few weeks, we are called freeloaders."