KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Malaya (UM) student volunteers for the new semester registration claimed that they not only had to handle their international peers from China but also provide “hospitality assistance and medical administration”.
In a Facebook post, Tun Ahmad Zaidi Residential College (KK10) Caretaker Action Committee chairman Muhammad Aiman Mohd Firhad said 14 students had only volunteered to handle the registration of the students from China in early February.
In a series of screenshots along with the FB post, it is understood that KK10 was the unit identified to place all Chinese national students in ‘isolation’.
“We initially volunteered to handle the registration of the “mobility students” on Feb 10 and Feb 11. But on Feb 3, the principal told us that KK10 will be the isolation location of the China students (postgraduates, undergraduates or mobility).
“We were also told that our job was just to handle the registration of the rooms and nothing more.
“The postgraduate students from China returned on Feb 5, and we tried our best to manage them without any proper simulation or preparation to handle these students, in the midst of the Covid-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak,” the post read.
Aiman said their task grew as the days went by and the volunteers had to “keep track” of the foreign students.
He wrote that the volunteers were also tasked to create a numbering system for the health screening process, managing the students in the health screening room, distributing food to the students, creating a pass for them to go out, and keeping track of them.
“We had to print copies of forms requested by the Student Health Clinic during operating hours and handling complaints from students.
“The Student Health Clinic even requested our team member to create a database for them to keep track of their data of the isolated students, but we did not do it as that was not our job.
“We received no help from the Pusat Teknologi Maklumat (PTM) and the Academic Administration and Services Centre(AASC). Some PTM officers even refused to come to KK10, for fear of the coronavirus,” he added.
Aiman claimed the volunteers had received no assurance from the Student Affairs Department on their safety and health.
He also said they received much negative feedback due to the ‘lack of explanation for the isolation of the China students.’
Aiman said there was a shortage of rooms for the returning students, and the volunteers had to help to tidy the rooms and set up the bedsheets on Feb 11.
Meanwhile, in a separate Facebook post, the 2019 UM Student Representative Council demanded that the university issue a public apology to the team of student volunteers, to compensate them for doing work outside their volunteering job scope, and fully cover any medical costs if the volunteers contracted the virus or showed any kind of symptoms.
The council also demanded that an external party be hired to handle the quarantine process and make it compulsory for all UM students and staff to undergo health screening.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching told the New Straits Times the university has full autonomy and that comments should be sought from the vice-chancellor.
A UM representative said a statement will be issued later today.