Lack of Resources among the Red Bricks

By Raghav Bansal and Vidhi Bhutra, UG'24

Over the years as Ashoka has grown, so has its student body. The undergraduate batch of 2024 is the largest with 687 students, and the batch of 2025 touches around the same number. As the student body grows, the resources and facilities being offered have not been growing at the same rate. This has led to dissatisfaction among the students. Issues such as long queues at the mess, lack of seating options, insufficient washing machines, and overfilled shuttles are some of the problems plaguing students.

To gauge this situation better, the Edict conducted a survey of the student body, so that student grievances can be highlighted. Out of the 154 respondents, 34 students (about 22.1%) think that the shuttle service is inconvenient and can be improved upon. Because of the size of the student body the service is cattering to, the shuttles often get full, leaving students to having to wait for substantial periods of time before the next one arrives. This makes commuting to and from Delhi to campus difficult.

105 respondents (roughly 68%) said that the rush at the mess and the clashing class timings have caused inconvenience for them and have led to them missing their lunch. Some of potential solutions to this problem suggested by students are that the mess area should be expanded and that no classes should be scheduled during lunch hours.

Problems like poor wifi services and the lack of adequate washing machines too struck a chord. The wifi service, despite complaints from the student body, has consistently remained an issue for students across all batches. Moreover, 56% of respondents feel that the washing machines are not enough given the number of students in each Residence Hall. A student said that they are often subjected to waiting for hours to get their laundry done, which becomes difficult especially with all day round classes. The suggested solution is to have a washing machine on each floor.

Not only students but, the working staff have also been enduring long work hours with greater workload as compared to before with no increase in their pay. In the 9 hour work shift, the housekeeping staff in the Residence Halls have been assigned two floors each, keeping them continually busy. While interviewing the staff, they claimed that the administration had said that the workload increased due to some workers being ill, but the situation has improved little since then.

Many also feel that with winter knocking on their doors, the hot water timings should be increased. Several students commented on how the administration had abruptly stopped providing pillows without any explanation. The CLM (Campus Life Ministry) had reached out to the administration about this issue but received no additional response.

The survey interviews all point towards a general dissatisfaction among the student body and the working staff regarding the availability of services on campus, and a seeming neglect of what they believe are basic facilities.