Headline: How can we study with 3in room?
By: LIEW HANQING

SINGAPORE
TRIPLE- SHARE ROOMS IN NTU?
Students mount online protest
THE rooms are so cramped that a loft bed has to be stacked above a study table.

Students at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) gave an earful after they got an eyeful of new triple-sharing “showrooms” set up in the residence halls last week.

Faced with the prospect of possibly having to cram in a room with two other people, NTU students made their views known on popular online forums, video-sharing sites and blogs.

Fast making its rounds is a virtual tour of a triple-sharing room, uploaded onto video-sharing site YouTube by a student who had visited it.

Since it was uploaded on 29 Feb, it has racked up about 2,700 views.

A student even spoofed a popular Chinese pop song, and made a video comparing the new rooms to foreign workers’ quarters.

Another recorded himself knocking his head on the base of the loft bed while standing up from the study table.

And on social networking site Facebook, there is a 685-strong group which calls itself “Say NO to NTU triple-sharing rooms in halls”.

A short write-up on the group’s webpage is telling: “Next semester, we are all going to be like foreign workers, squeezing into small living quarters which is definitely far away from an ideal living-on-campus experience.”

NTU students whom The New Paper spoke to said they had heard about double-sharing rooms being converted to triple-sharing rooms in late January.

OPEN FOR VIEWING
But the prospect became more apparent when hall residents received an e-mail last week notifying them that the triple-sharing showrooms were ready for viewing.

Students said the size of each room is about that of a regular bedroom in a five-room HDB flat.

The New Paper managed to obtain a copy of the e-mail.

It read: “We are pleased to inform you that two triple-sharing showrooms displaying two different room layouts are set up in Hall 13 and Hall 14 respectively and are now ready for viewing.

“Hence, we will like to invite you to personally view the proposed room layout and at the same time receive your input on the preferred room layout.”

However, a spokesman from NTU’s student affairs office said the triple-sharing room concept is “still in the proposal stage and nothing has been confirmed”.

He added the university is still seeking students’ feedback.

Undergraduates now pay between $155 and $190 a month for a twin-sharing room.

It is not known how much they will pay to share a triple room.

NTU has 16 residence halls, which house some 9,200 students. They are located on the university’s Yunnan Garden campus in the Boon Lay area.

More than 80 per cent of NTU hall residents share rooms. At the National University of Singapore’s Kent Ridge campus, more than half of the hall residents live in single rooms.

A standard single room at NUS costs about $300 a month, and a standard twin room, about $200 a month.

NTU and NUS also have air-conditioned rooms which cost more.

FEEDBACK
The New Paper understands that representatives from the NTU student body are meeting with the school administration next week to give their views on the triple-sharing room proposal.

In the meantime, vocal students continue to make their views known.

Second-year undergraduate Liew Shixiong, 23, who is staying in a twin-sharing room, foresees problems with the triple-sharing room concept.

He said: “It’s already very cramped with two people. And having three guys in a room would cause hygiene problems – it’ll get so smelly with all the dirty clothes.”

He added that relations between roommates could be strained with an additional person in the room.

He said: “I know people who have problems getting along with their roommate. With three in the room, there’s the possibility that two could gang up against one.”

He was also concerned that the triple-sharing rooms would not be conducive for studying.

“Most of us staying in the halls do so because we want to study, he said. “Most of us study in our rooms and it’s important to be comfortable.”

Agreeing, third-year undergraduate Emery Ong, 23, said most of his peers stayed in the halls as they are “quiet and conducive for studying”.

Student bloggers from NTU echoed these sentiments.

One wrote: “For a hostel room designed to house two residents, an additional resident will mean hygiene problems, noise, relationship and space issues.

“Please NTU, stop behaving badly and listen to the students. And students of NTU, stand together and protest.”

Another blogger agreed: “Why should I accept poorer living conditions if I am paying good money to live ‘comfortably’? Is it really that difficult to build new halls?”

Blogger Kureshii expressed concern for the cleanliness of common areas.

He wrote: “Have you seen what happens when 20 people share the kitchen sink, toilet and trash bins on the same floor?

“Instant noodles clog up the sink drain, crockery gets left around the hot-water dispenser area, trash bins overflow with spilling drink cans.

“Now imagine 1.5 times of that. Might as well throw in a flu epidemic.”

However, one blogger, The Matrix, was a little more optimistic.

He said the new rooms were “not bad”, and that a triple-sharing living arrangement could be fun, provided the roommates are decent people.

For a hostel room designed to house two residents, an additional resident will
mean hygiene problems, noise, relationship and space issues...
– Blogger