Students have expressed concern over College’s plans to move Halls residents into a single apartment block, after a case of coronavirus was confirmed in the residence last week.
On April 14th, residents received an email from the Halls Accommodation Office – seen by The University Times – that told them that students remaining in Trinity Hall past May 17th would have to move out of their flats and into a single, designated apartment block so College can close other apartment blocks to “conserve energy and costs”.
However, a recent confirmed case of coronavirus in Halls has worried students who fear that moving out of their apartments may compromise current social distancing rules that are in place.
The University Times was able to verify the identity of the student who’s contracted the virus.
Mayank Arora, a third-year computer engineering student at Trinity, told The University Times in an email that “moving all students left in halls into a single building is not in the best interest of the students”.
“Given a choice, a large percentage of us would stay wherever we are right now and wait for at least Phase 4 of the plan rather than move”, he said. “The probability of any random student getting infected increases by a significant amount as if one student in an apartment is infected the whole apartment is compromised.”
“Given that a Halls resident was infected, it shows that although Ireland has successfully ‘flattened the curve’ of coronavirus transmission, we are still very vulnerable.”
Zaid Albarghouthi, another Halls resident, expressed frustration at the Halls Accommodation Office’s lack of transparency in recent months.
“We have expressed multiple concerns previously, yet, we have been buried under the thick layer of bureaucracy, so I think it is now the time for decisions to be inclusive of what is left of the original student body at Halls”, he said.
“We have been instilled with measures of social distancing by the staff here in a very appreciated way, but then to see such a contradiction is something we really did not expect”, he added.
In response to residents’ concerns about being moved into the same apartment block, Trinity’s Media Relations Officer Catherine O’Mahoney wrote in an email statement to The University Times: “Our priority remains the health and wellbeing of the whole Trinity community.”
Chrisopher Mrema, a first-year global business student and Halls resident, told The University Times in an email statement that “the coronavirus case reported in halls definitely concerns me as I was also identified as a close contact, plus putting all of us together would likely increase the chances of us getting the virus as this virus is still around”.
He added, however, that he understood that the decision would “help as far as our mental health is concerned” and that it would save on water and heating costs.
Halls residents have been left incensed in recent weeks, by Trinity’s handling of Halls residents, and in particular its decision to continue to charge them the normal rate of rent of €29.64 a night over the summer.
Mrema said that he was “confused and simply appalled that they still want us to pay the same rates considering they are taking some cost cutting measures on their side but are not allowing us to do the same”.
Albarghouthi said: “I believe that the fact of having some not very ideal decisions is totally understandable, especially at such times, but the fact of not having a single response that shows some good faith after expressing previous frustrations is just inconsiderate”.
“We are all in the same boat and if we at least cannot get explanations and answers to our questions, this boat will sink sooner or later”, he added.
