WHY CHUKA IS NOT YET A UNIVERSITY

The last time I checked, a university is defined by an institution of higher learning, and this has kept me wondering how my university, Chuka, fits into this definition, and the only answer I keep coming back to is that maybe it’s because it offers education beyond high school. In any case, how is learning in Chuka University higher?

I am a student at Chuka University, and I have not at any moment regretted having Chuka as my first choice. Chuka is certainly a nice place to be, but not as I thought, probably not as anyone else thought. Maybe everything may not always turn out as we expect, but it is always worse when we can’t do anything about it, but when we can, we have to. That is why, while so many are oppressed and cannot speak out for themselves, I take it upon myself to speak up for my fellows.

Chuka, as a learning institution, has no social responsibility to anyone; not to the students, not to the society, not to the country, not to the government, and not to the shareholders. The Vice-Chancellor, however, as the head of this institution has a social responsibility, first and most importantly, to the students, without which this institution would be inexistent, then to other parties like the staff and the society. Therefore, it is for the Vice-Chancellor to ensure, above anything else, that the welfare of the students is upheld to the uttermost, before considering what pleases the university council and what doesn’t.

Definitely, the council will be pleased if fees are paid in time, many buildings, regardless of whether necessary or not, are constructed, many lecturers are employed, and if many students are admitted. But the students won’t be at ease if both male and female students have to squeeze themselves in a queue just to get a gate pass. Mind you, no one cares the delicacy of the female students’ bodies, and no one even considers the possibility that there are always some minions of folly who, despite being in the university, have clung to the lowest rungs of intelligence, and do not see the intellectual gap between campus and high school, who keep unreasonably pushing their fellows in the queue.

Despite how it may sound, I am not condemning the gate-pass system, that is no longer an issue, at least it motivates people to work hard to be able to raise fee on time, the issue is getting the gate-pass itself. Even so, for anyone to have access to the fundamental right, for which we come here: tuition, this is what they have pay: mentorship fee, for which a public lecture is organized maybe once per academic year and on a Saturday, caring not about those who worship on Saturday; activity fee, for which only 0.5% of the students, who participate in sports and co-curriculum activities benefit from; material development fee, which I suppose means such things as Wi-Fi-which is utilized by only 2% of students because it is only efficient 1% percent of the time, and lighting, yet some lectures are cut short due to improper lighting in lecture rooms. I am not saying these should not be included in the fees, I am saying that failure to pay for them on time should not deny us the right to attend lectures, even after paying the tuition fee.

Maybe the Vice-Chancellor is not aware of the conditions under which the gate-passes are issued in this university, and I don’t know if this should be called irresponsibility. I don’t if he knows that male students are forced to squeeze one another in the same queue with female students or if he knows that students are forced to stand in the sun for hours before they can get a gate pass. While there is a possibility of developing a system which automatically generates a gate pass for whoever clears the required fee, the option taken is the one that is totally insensitive to the welfare of the students, certainly because no one is willing to spend on the former, yet there is an easier option.

This is why I am saying that before the university council, or the society, the Vice-Chancellor has a social responsibility to the students first, and that is to ensure that above everything else, that their welfare is upheld to the uttermost, which he has certainly failed to do. I don’t know if this is the case in every other university in Kenya, but it should be for the learning in any institution to be termed as ‘higher’. Now, you tell me, is Chuka an institution of higher learning? Hold onto your answer, I will be back with more proof. Yea, there is always room for improvement, and it is an improvement that we plead for.

by Vincent Owino