The Volta Regional ‘Katanga hall’ alumni of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have kicked against the conversion of the Katanga Hall into a mixed hall.
In a press release copied to www.GhanaWeb.com and signed by the Secretary of the Volta Regional Alumni, Etornam Ohene-Sefadzi, the old students said they are horrified by proposals being made by authorities of the university to commence admission of female students into the hall next academic year.
“It must be understood, with no shred of equivocation, that what the administration of the school, spearheaded by current Vice Chancellor, Prof. Obiri-Danso, means to do, in principle, is to bulldoze a carefully and thoroughly thought-out residential policy that has stood the test of time, throw all sanity and legality to the dogs and trample unfairly on our cultural heritage for no justifiable reason,” the statement reads.
They further stated that, “It must, however, be stated, for the record, that our primary motivation for speaking to this unfortunate issue is not necessarily anchored on any personal gain that we seek to make, nor even for the sake of any political correctness and piety on our part; but our concern is borne purely of our sincere conviction of what true and prudent administrative proactivity is, and what we should stand for as a people.”
According to the alumni, although authorities of the university believe female students’ presence in the hall would curb lawlessness, they think the “in-out-out-out” residential policy is the cause as most violent acts are allegedly perpetrated by non-members of Katanga hall.
They, however want authorities of the university to consider building more halls of residence, abolish the existing residential policy and use marshals during processions and gatherings if they want to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
“Katangees are not a violent and reckless people as others would have us believe. There may be a few occasional excesses involving some members of the Hall, but that is quite normal in any community of predominantly teenage students of diverse cultures, values and orientation; and is therefore not limited to the University Hall alone. Again, the school authorities can attest to this to be true,” they reiterated.
Read below their full statement
The decision has been met with much hostility from both residents and alumni of Katanga Hall