In an email to the student body on 16th August 2024, the Campus Life Ministry (CLM) stated that Residence Hall (RH) 1, which housed male undergraduate students since the Monsoon 2015 semester, will now be designated to female undergraduate students for the upcoming academic year.
Over the past year, several instances of collapsing ceilings and water leakages in RH-1 have been reported. Given the dilapidated state of RH-1, students took to batch WhatsApp groups, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and email to express their disappointment with the decision to house students in RH-1. They highlighted infrastructural and safety issues in the building – including rampant rat infestations, water overflowing in the washrooms and unhygienic pantry spaces – making the RH hazardous to live in.
Following the email a petition drafted by Ashoka Scholars Programme (ASP) students has collected over 300 signatures across batches in five days. The petition demands that renovations be made to RH-1 before students move in on the 24th and 25th of August. It also asserts that it is “unfair” to house any students, regardless of gender, in such conditions.
An Infrastructural Nightmare
As the oldest RH on campus, RH-1 has had several infrastructural issues ranging from faulty door handles to collapsing ceilings. A third-year student, on the condition of anonymity, spoke to The Edict about their experience living in RH-1 during the Summer ’24 semester. “Every time the AC was turned on”, it would “start leaking,” they said. “We had to keep a bucket underneath” and “keep pouring the water out”.
When the AC began to leak in their room, they contacted the maintenance helpline four times. However, there was no response. “Either [they] did not know how to fix it or they put a cloth around [it],” which did not work. A carpenter arrived with the maintenance team in the last week of the six-week-long summer semester to resolve the issue, the student told The Edict.
A wall in RH1 with moisture accumulation | Credits: CLM Evidence Drive
Other students with whom The Edict spoke believe that the safety concerns go beyond crumbling walls, pointing to the “rampant” rat and insect infestations that compromise hygiene. Unlike other residence halls, the pantry on each floor of RH-1, containing a sink, induction stove and a microwave oven, is located on the balcony.
The Edict spoke to a fourth-year student who voiced her displeasure at this setup. On the condition of anonymity, she highlighted that the pantry is “prone to insect infestations in the evenings”. A third-year student, who resided in RH-1 during the summer 2024 semester and wished to stay anonymous, said there have been sightings of “spiders and webs, lizards, cockroaches and rats in the area”. The Edict also came across video evidence of rats being found inside the RH-1 refrigerators, further substantiating these claims.
Rats in the RH1 pantry and fridge | Credits: CLM Evidence Drive
Upon the announcement, parents, too, were quick to voice their concerns regarding the proposed housing arrangements, through emails addressed to the Vice Chancellor’s Office, the Pro-Vice Chancellor, the Dean of Student Affairs (DSA) and the Residence Life Office.
Rheetu and Subrata Basu, parents of Aarushi Basu (ASP’25) pointed to the “incidents of the ceiling in RH-1 rooms falling in” and questioned the building’s infrastructure, “including switches, door handles, and electric ports”, [which] are in disrepair”.
Priyanka Walanju, mother of Ahana Walanju (UG’26) highlighted broken fixtures, leaking pipes, and malfunctioning appliances which have not been addressed. Mrs Walanju, in an email to the student body, wrote that “many rooms have outdated or damaged furniture, peeling paint, and overall signs of neglect, making the living environment less conducive to student well-being.” She said that she believes these issues have persisted despite “attempts to address them through formal maintenance requests”.
In an interview with The Edict, Campus Life Minister Urja Hansraj (ASP’25) highlighted that the CLM has raised these infrastructural issues with the university administration. They have also collated proof of “moisture accumulation causing ceilings to sag or collapse and doors to swell, making them difficult to operate.” Urja added that “multiple instances of roof collapses have occurred over the past year, including two [known] incidents over the summer.” She further highlighted the concerning nature of the instances of roof collapse, regardless of the maintenance team’s swift response.
Collapsed ceilings in RH1 | Credits: CLM Evidence Drive
Lack of transparent communication
The Edict spoke to multiple students who were appalled by the lack of transparency and communication on the part of the administration. The only updates that students and parents alike have been receiving are from the student-led CLM. In an email response to The Edict, Ms. Shalini Mehrotra, the Dean of Student Affairs, stated that “all maintenance that is required to be done in RH-1 will be complete before the Monsoon session starts.” As per these emails, the maintenance includes “extensive pest control, painting, deep cleaning, refurbishing or any replacements that need to be done, and everything else that will continue to make RH-1 comfortable for students.”
The Edict asked Urja to elaborate on the CLM’s reaction to these sudden changes from the administration and the subsequent student outrage. On 15th August 2024, a day prior to the email sent to the student body, the CLM had a meeting with members of the administration, including Pooja Manaktala, Director of Administration and Service Excellence, and Harshit Takkar, Assistant Director of Strategic Initiatives.
Following this meeting, the CLM shared minutes and relevant updates to the student body. Urja told The Edict, “they [Ashoka administration] were a little hesitant with providing approval regarding which RH goes to which gender, because the numbers had not been finalised, though they were fine with the CLM announcing the other updates.” The “other updates”, as the email details, involve information regarding the new food outlets on campus and check-in and check-out procedures about the new campus.
The CLM circulated a Google form to collect queries, grievances and concerns from students. They received 186 responses; approximately 66% of which were regarding RH-1. Urja mentioned to The Edict that many respondents were unhappy about the decision to convert RH-1 into a female residence. “There were a lot of responses that said that they would not like RH1 to turn into a women’s residence,” she said. She specified that “for many respondents the idea of urinals being there in a women’s washroom is uncomfortable”.
A third-year student, who wished to stay anonymous, pointed out that “the administration’s failure to remove urinals from what is now a female residence hall raises questions about their commitment to basic sanitation and respect for residents’ needs.” While some students are demanding that the urinals be removed entirely, another fourth-year student feels that focusing on the urinals of all things is a “strange misdirection of demands”.
According to her, these issues deflect the narrative from the “series of severe infrastructural issues that no one, regardless of gender, should pay almost a lakh in residence costs [per semester] to live with.”
Commenting on the same, the DSA, in an email correspondence with The Edict stated that “the male urinals will be completely covered and blocked from visibility within the period of maintenance.” This temporary fix hints at the possibility of RH-1 being converted back to a male residence hall, presumably after the construction on the new campus is complete. The email from the CLM also mentioned that “the building may revert to housing male students in the future”. As of 22 August 2024, The Edict has learnt that the urinals have not been removed entirely, but a wooden divider has now been built around them, shielding them from view.
Plywood cover for RH1 urinals | Credits: UG25 (UG’26) Batch WhatsApp Group
Parents also believe that the facilities provided in the residence halls are disproportionate to the fees being paid. As of August 2024, the per semester residence fee of Ashoka's undergraduate students stands at Rs. 95,500 (incoming first and second-year students) and Rs. 94,000 (incoming 3rd and 4th-year students) respectively, excluding financial aid. Parents of a few fourth-year students believe that the fee is, “expected to cover a safe and comfortable living environment, however, the current situation in RH-1 does not reflect this expectation”.
Students and parents have voiced apprehensions over email about these changes being announced a mere two days before the semester fees were due. Students are concerned that little action is being taken to address the safety issues in RH-1, to make it at par with the other residence halls. This prompts the question of why the issues persist in RH-1 after “all residence halls undergo annual maintenance during summer breaks”, as per an email to The Edict from the Dean of Student Affairs, Shalini Mehrotra.
International students too are appalled by the lack of transparent communication by the administration. In a recent email to the student body, with the subject “Concerning Treatment of International Students on Campus” San Win (ASP’25), stated that students, “in this summer semester alone, have been made to change residences three times already without prior notice or communication” He further highlights the particular burden on international students who keep most of their belongings on campus. “We have things to do, work, internships, preparation for next semester and future plans. We cannot just up and leave whenever it’s demanded of us. We need prior notice. We need proper communication. We need respect in that communication”, San stated in the email.
Proposed Fixes
Renovation and cleaning is underway in RH-1. As of 20th August 2024, some students who were temporarily housed in RH-1 have been asked to move to RH-3, for “extensive renovation and cleaning” to take place, according to confirmations from both Urja and The Edict’s sources, who wish to stay anonymous. Painting work has begun, and a shipment of new mattresses has arrived to replace the old ones.
However, the larger infrastructural issues brought up by students and parents do not seem to have solutions right now. A source from the Residence Life Office mentioned to The Edict that they are changing “just two things: the chairs and the mattresses.” Explaining this move, they added that “RH1 had had these for 10 years now” leading to them getting “a little dirty” and paint-ridden. “So, we thought we would change them”. The source confirmed that apart from the annual maintenance process, these were the two major changes that were the only ones they were aware of at this point.
Talking of the overall maintenance process, the source said “as soon as somebody moves out of a room, it is handed over to the maintenance department”. They then undertake all the maintenance work before the rooms are handed back to the Residence Life Office. The Edict has reached out to Bhaskar Mishra, the Vice-President of Operations, and will update the story if we receive a response.
Commenting upon the issues related to weak ceilings and water leakage, the source emphasised that “any issues are immediately repaired by the Maintenance team as and when they occur.” The residence life team cannot “predict which room these issues will occur in, so we repair them as and when they occur.” They highlighted the fact that [roof collapses] did not occur in all rooms, saying the cases are “few and far between”, and “dealt with swiftly.”
New mattresses and chairs in RH1 | Credits: “Ashoka Class of 2025”, Batch WhatsApp Group
Calling RH-1 a top priority, Urja told The Edict that the CLM is ensuring that “it is refurbished properly.” She added that this was because “we face this every year, in the sense that every year we come back to roofs collapsing, rats, leakages and seepage, even after the administration has spoken to us about deep-cleaning, painting and pest control.” She stressed the need for a permanent solution rather than a temporary fix.
The Edict reached out to an alumnus from the founding undergraduate batch (UG’17), who pointed out that “there were no significant problems with RH1” during their stay. It was then a “new building” and in the initial months, the only issues “were with the HVAC systems being installed.”
As an Ashoka student who had occupied the same living space a decade ago, the alumnus brought up the importance of “creating a good hostel life experience”, particularly in a residential university. “If there are problems that affect the health and safety of the residents”, they must be given “utmost attention and priority”, he stated. “It is imperative to provide a safe environment to everyone on campus.”
Regarding gender-neutral housing, which has been a matter of perennial concern at Ashoka University, The Edict spoke to Rhea (ASP’24), who opted for gender-affirmative housing last year. Rhea clarified that “affirmative floors” are different from “gender neutral floors”, where the latter can also house cis-gender students from both genders.
In an earlier email to the student body dated 26th August 2023, Rhea expressed that “gender neutrality would entail that access to the Residence hall were gender blind, something that is abjectly untrue”. Rhea urged that “Ashoka is a gender-inclusive campus and remains as such. RH-5, RH-4 and RH-2 are listed as women's residences and given the absence of gender-neutral residence halls, GNC (gender nonconforming) students should be allowed to select the residence that they will have to live in.” Even though these concerns were raised last year, the CLM email states that, “the specific details [...] are still being finalised”.
When asked if the CLM anticipated any issues or hardships that disabled students would face with the new living arrangements, Urja said that the Office of Learning Support (OLS) would accommodate all requests for additional support and assistance wherever required.
One question, however, looms large. Why were no changes constituted in RH-1 earlier in the three-month-long summer break? In response to the parents, the DSA and Parents’ Office have been sending assurances of the renovation, pest control and refurbishment of the residence hall. When The Edict reached out for comment, we were met with the same response. The story will be updated to reflect responses as and when received.
(Edited by Srijana Siri, Aditya Roy and Madhumitha G.I.)
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