Residents of the Commonwealth hall are irate following the directive to suspend their hall tutor and Hall master in the interim due to the clash with Mensah Sarbah Hall. This clash took place on Friday 5th August and Saturday 6th August 2022.
The Management blamed the two hall officials for being reluctant to fish out the students responsible for the fight, which led to the destruction of property on campus.
The university council noted that violent clashes have become frequent; therefore, stringent actions must be taken to minimise such occurrences. In view of that the outlined the following decisions in line with Sections 16 (2) and 22 (1a) of the University of Ghana Act, 2010, Act 806, and Section 9 (i) of the University’s statutes:
i. Management of the University should continue to work on measures to interrogate the root and immediate causes of the tensions between students of Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Halls and put in place measures to eliminate these. Requisite actions should be taken to ensure the success of these measures.
ii. No events organized by students, should be held for the remainder of the 2021/2022 academic year without the express approval of the Dean of Student Affairs.
Students who are offered places in halls of residence should be made to sign undertakings to be of good behaviour.
iv. To ensure accountability of hall officials to University authorities, the Vice-Chancellor should appoint key officers in all halls of residence, based on recommendations from the halls, in a similar way that heads of department are appointed. To this end, a standard procedure for the election/appointment of hall officials should be addressed in the ongoing revisions to the University’s Statutes.
v. The composition of Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Halls should be reviewed.
The cause of the clash is still being probed however, a car parked at Sarbah Hall was set ablaze and a statue was ransacked and taken away.