KUALA LUMPUR: The Universiti Malaya (UM) student union is up in arms over the move by the institute of higher learning to designate one of its residential colleges as an isolation unit for students returning from abroad during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The union wants to meet UM Vice-Chancellor Datuk Ir. Dr Abdul Rahim Hashim to straighten matters on the issue as well as claims that volunteers assigned for this purpose were treated shabbily and allegedly threatened.
UM student union president Mohd Akmal Hazieq Ahmad Rumaizi hoped that the vice-chancellor would meet them, as it involved a serious matter as the coronavirus had become a global crisis.
He added that the union had requested for a meeting with the vice-chancellor and his deputies including all relevant UM administrative officers, at 2.30pm tomorrow.
“He is supposed to come and give us an explanation on the matter.
“Why he made such a decision (isolation unit), to apologise to the students (over shabby treatment and threat), and take responsibility if any of the student volunteers were to catch the virus,” Mohd Akmal Hazieq said, here, today.
The Tun Ahmad Zaidi Residential College (KK10) has been identified as the isolation unit to place all returning China national students.
Mohd Akmal Hazieq said if no further action was taken by the university administration, the Sekretariat Presiden Kolej Kediaman Universiti Malaya, the body responsible for the welfare of the residential colleges at the university, would lodge a formal complaint on the matter with the Health Ministry.
He also cautioned that any form of threat made by university officers against the 14 student volunteers involved in the Covid-19 isolation unit, would also not be taken lightly.
“If there is a threat made by anyone from the university administration office against the volunteers for revealing (the isolation unit), the student union will lodge a report against them,” said Mohd Akmal Hazieq, adding that lawyers had also offered their services if the situation required it.
Tun Ahmad Zaidi Residential College Caretaker Action Committee chairman Muhammad Aiman Mohd Firhad said not only were they forced to "volunteer" from morning until night but were also scolded by both the students from China and administration officers.
Muhammad Aiman also learnt from volunteers that they had been working without any help for the past 12 days.
“The usual job scope for these student volunteers was to register and present the keys to the international exchange students and this was all done during the last days of the final semester break," he said.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, UM has postponed the registration dates of returning students from semester breaks from Feb 10-11 to Feb 22-23.
Muhammad Aiman also said in the residential college which can accommodate 780 students, it now has around 550 students from China while the other 164 local students staying at the college are now wondering what to do.
“We have been receiving questions whether they should move to other colleges or they should look for rentals when the official semester starts on Feb 22,” he said.
A UM representative told the New Straits Times that it will issue a statement on the matter.
Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said the university has full autonomy and that comments should be sought from the vice-chancellor.