Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
"In each room, each student has a bed, a table, a closet, a chest of drawers for dishes and food. Most of the rooms have a balcony, but there are also those rooms which do not. Toilets and showers are at the end of the corridor and are shared" is written on the student portal about the conditions of the dormitories. But, Entela laughs at this ad, remembering that only the paint on the walls has changed in the dormitories and nothing that would directly affect the well-being of students who come from other cities and who choose to live together in the eternal city of youth, in "Student City".
Four years ago, students protested not only about the hygienic and sanitary conditions in the dormitories. Looking back on time, EK insists that despite the promises, nothing has changed. For three years as a student for the administration-business branch, EK tells "Sinjalizo" that she continues to live in the building of buildings 26-27 of the University Student Residence number 1.The conditions are minimal and we have to take care of ourselves to provide the heater, the refrigerator", - he declares, adding that in the room, in addition to the beds, there is a table, a closet and a sink.
"We wash dishes, face and clothes in the same sink. We don't even have the necessary spaces to maintain clean hygiene",- says the student. "We take care of cleaning the room ourselves, which means that we buy all the necessary detergents ourselves.", she adds.
But the Student University Residence promises that the situation will change soon. Asked by "Sinjalizo", it is officially said that buildings 26 and 27 will benefit from complete reconstruction. However, students and dormitory administrators have not yet been notified of such a thing.
"At the moment, the buildings have returned to summer and no one has told us to vacate, or to inform us that there will be reconstruction of the building" - says Liljana, the administrator of buildings 26-27, admitting that currently there are students of the dormitories that are being reconstructed.
Living under reconstruction
"Sinjalizo" investigated the actual condition of 27 buildings in "Student City", which is the largest dormitory in the country and has a capacity of almost five thousand beds. Some of them continue to be under reconstruction, although the deadlines for the delivery of the works have passed over time. Building 18 is one of the dormitories that is being reconstructed. This building is included in the project that foresees the reconstruction of three student buildings and cost 305 ALL without VAT. In the contract signed by the winning companies of the tender, it was foreseen that the works would last 684 months, according to the data published in OpenProcurement.
Signed on May 5 of last year, the deadline for finishing the works has passed and building 18 is still not ready to welcome students.
Engineer Erald Gjiritri tells "Sinjalizo" that the construction completion date is not his responsibility.
"It is my intention to meet the deadline, but it is not my responsibility. Our pace has been maximum and in "Cytet Studenti" we are the only group that has kept up with the work", - argues the engineer, adding that the plans for the renewed organization have not been released yet.
"The new plans are not out yet, but some work remains to be done", he says, asserting that the construction team is trying to finish the works before October.
Building 16 of RSU number 1 (one) is another dormitory planned to be rebuilt as a result of the earthquake of November 26, but from field observations it appears that the demolition of this building has not yet started, even students continue to stay there since the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.
"They did not tell us that we will have restoration or construction", - said one of the students, who describes that the walls of the building are damp.
"The walls are cracked and the smell of dampness is everywhere. If the experts have declared this building uninhabitable, it is really scary that we, the students, are staying here and we are still not informed about this.", she concluded. But the decision to rebuild this building was made in 2020, when with the decision of Council of Ministers the fund worth 311 425 288 ALL was allocated. The dormitory administrator asked by "Sinjalizo" said that she was not informed about something like that.
"I have no comment on this. We are not informed yet", the official commented.
The money taken out to live as a boarder
From the observation of "Sinjalizo" it was observed that three to four students stay in one room on average. The conditions of overcrowding in a negligible space are also confirmed by the activists of the Student Movement.
"In addition to the amortization of the buildings, a problem for students is the fee that amounts to 4500 new leks per month.- says Elvis Gjini. "In some of the restored buildings, the amount paid per month by students reaches 6 new leks per month", Gjini adds, stressing that in most of the buildings, the furniture is outdated, there is no heating system, and up to 16 students live in an area of 20-4 square meters.
"The amount paid is extremely abusive. 18000 (eighteen thousand) new lek for a room per month is twice the price in the private market for a room of this size", Gjini concludes.
The "Pact for the University" is violated, the unorganized students
in "Pact for the University" the intervention and reconstruction of the dormitory buildings was decided to be carried out within the 3-year term, namely during the years 2019-2021. But currently RSU No. 1 has 29 dormitories under its administration, of which only 3 are under reconstruction and have not yet opened their doors to students, despite the anticipated deadlines. For the academic year 2020-2021, only 4200 dormitories were at the service of 22 students, since 4 other buildings are being reconstructed, it is stated in the written response of RSU No. 1. Changing the conditions of the dormitories was one of the main points demanded by the students during the December protests in 2018, but their organization in the dormitories is completely missing.
"Students living in dormitories do not have any formal structure or organization", - explains the activist Gjini, who mentions that every organization is sporadic.
"Based on the Law of Higher Education and the Statute of the University of Tirana, the structure that protects and represents the rights of students, as well as their requests to the relevant structures, are the student councils at the faculty and university level.",- says Gjini, adding that their elections have never been held.
"In the last 30 years, their elections never took place and were duplicated by the students, who were elected as senators in the Academic Senate and then declared themselves as Council Presidents, but who in reality, not only were not, but did not exercise any their actual function", - he concludes, as he emphasizes that the formula for choosing the Councils at the University of Tirana has many bottlenecks, which has caused the Faculty of Law not to have a Council President since 2021.
