MAXINE TWADDLE
Student parliament raised concerns over the placement of students into residences last Tuesday. Parliamentarians debated which factors should be considered when first-year students are placed into residences. Joseph Skosana, a representative for the Faculty of Law, told Perdeby that need and distance should be the determining factors when placing students in residence. “You cannot have someone from Kwa-Zulu Natal or Limpopo be denied accommodation because the room is occupied by someone from Menlo Park or Brooklyn,” he said. Liza-Mari Coetzee, Chairperson of Afriforum Youth UP, was against the changing of the residency placement system. She said that, “Students should receive res placements based on academic grounds.”
Student parliament aims to address the issue this year and it will be dealt with by the SRC’s Heads of Portfolio for Residencies, Simone Engelbrecht and Nic Stead.
Engelbrecht and Stead agreed that residency placement, and the current quota system “should be adjusted to ensure fair and equal treatment for the students.” The SRC will investigate student parliament’s concerns, and will present their recommendations to the university’s executive. Most of the parliamentary body agreed that the quota system that is currently being implemented, which requires a 60/40 black/white ratio, needs to be revised and possibly removed.
