OPEN LETTER TO THE FUTO VICE CHANCELLOR


WHAT FUTO STUDENTS REALLY NEED


Good day sir,

Let me once more congratulate you on your assumption to office as the 7th substantive vice chancellor of Futo and pray you achieve your goal of driving the culture of excellence during your 5 year tenure.

Sir, moving round the large expanse of FUTO, one would definitely see your impact especially with the planting of grasses around the campus and the completion of the various infrastructural projects inherited by your administration. We fully believe in your good intentions in the university.

Sir, of recent, I heard of a rumour of your intentions to increase the school fees by #13000 in order to increase the ICT capabilities of FUTO in line with international best practices, introduce free and fast Wi-Fi on campus and also introduce inter and intra-campus shuttle to ease transportation problems of campus. This, we believe will help position Futo as the best and premier university of technology in West Africa. But sir, with the current economic conditions of our country Nigeria, I believe such proposals are luxuries which are not supposed to add extra burden on our already over-burdened parents. I also believe there are some critical areas concerning the welfare of Futo students that need more urgent attention. This I hope to convey to you with this letter and hopes it gets to you through the media.


First sir is the nature of some university lecture halls. The Workshop 3 lecture hall that harbours over 500 students from 4 major departments (EEE, MEE, AGE, MEC) has just about 10 pews and is totally unfit for lectures considering the nature of the building (an engineering workshop)

Lecture hall 2 for students in CHE, PTE and PET is located in the heart of business centres at old registry and the noise from generators from the business centres hinders effective learning. Also, majority of students in lecture hall 2 and SOSC extension (Ground floor) that harbours students from MTH, PHY, CSC, ICH, STA stand up to receive lectures as these lectures do not contain seats for up to 30% of the students there.

Sir, it is also a miracle that learning takes place at Hall of Mercy where over a thousand engineering students receive lectures without any public address system. This is also the situation in all the large lecture halls in the university such as the SOSC extension, SAAT auditorium, 500 and 750 capacity lecture halls, etc.Sir, we plead you provide fitted public address system in order to achieve excellence in the delivery of lectures in these lecture halls.


Secondly sir, is the nature of hostel allocation in FUTO. While other universities now employ ICT in hostel allocation, the story is different in Futo. Over 5000 students line up and struggle in front of Students Affairs Unit to collect and submit the hostel forms and at the Microfinance bank to pay the hostel fees. Just last year, the fence of the microfinance bank was pulled down by the multitude of students at the bank and yet, it seems as if the university administration has done nothing to improve on the process of hostel allocation.

It is also on record that new students resume without the school making any provision for temporary accommodation for them and this has caused a lot of them to fall prey to rapists, homosexuals, cultists and armed robbers. In schools like your alma mater, UNN, hostel allocation and payment is completed online even before school resumes such that new students already have a place to stay when they come in. Sir, we plead you ameliorate the suffering of hostel allocation on the hostelites by the introduction of online allocation and payment of hostel spaces.


Thirdly sir, I once again plead that you review and improve the banking situation in Futo. With only a functional banks and 4 functional ATMs in the school, the pains of students is better imagined than experienced. I still wonder why it is difficult to get more banks when neighbouring schools like Federal Polytechnic, Nekede has over 4 banks on campus servicing their student and staff population. Sir we sincerely plead you make arrangements with other first generation banks to site a branch in Futo.


Finally sir, is the delay in the release of semester results in FUTO. While almost all universities now employ ICT resources in the compilation and release of students academic results, it is still done manually in Futo. Sir, it is on record that it takes an average of 2 semesters to see the results of examinations already written in Futo while it takes just 6 weeks in uniport for students to see their semester result on their portal. Sir, this has discouraged a lot of students and has been the cause of the underperformance of majority of Futo students as results are often and always, a source of encouragement and morale booster to students when seen early enough.

Also Sir is the problem of missing exam scripts and practical results. After a student labours for 3 months studying a course, no result is returned for him due to the carelessness of the lecturers and the student suffers grievously. Sir, over 60 percent of FUTO students have re-written courses that they did not fail simply because ‘their scripts missed’ and nobody bothers or cares for their fate. Sir, we plead that you set up a system that ensures that every student who writes an exam must be given his acquired grade and any lecturer that misplaces the scripts or makes random mistakes in computation of the student's scores be severely punished. I believe this will further boost the morale of our students.


Sir, on a concluding note, I pray you give these areas their needed urgent attention as they will aid in driving the culture of excellence in the process of teaching and learning in FUTO.

I also pray you take into consideration, the current economic recession that has sent a lot of our parents away from their jobs and have also folded the businesses of our parents and change your mind on the intended school fees increment as such may cause severe heart attack and possibly loss of life on the already traumatized parents.

We also pray that this appeal should not discourage you from implementing the good and innovative ideas you have for the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.


Thank you sir.

Lalasticlala seun