By Amaechi Agbo and Joy Joseph

Enugu – In its effort to provide effective, conducive teaching and learning environment for the students, the Board of the ESUT College of Medicine, ESCUM on Friday held a Town Hall Meeting with the students.

Held at the College Auditorium, and chaired by the Provost, Professor Uchenna Ekwochi, the meeting provided the students and the Board great opportunity to interact, identify challenges and ways to solve them.

In his opening remarks, the College Provost, Prof Ekwochi noted that the essence of the meeting was to interact with the students, get unfiltered information from them about their challenges, where the board is not doing well and how to serve them better. He added that no student would be witch-hunted for expressing his or her opinion adding that such act is not permitted within the College.

“When I came on board, my mission is to99 take the College to the top. The College is not just about the staff, it is also about the students who are major stakeholders because the reason the staff are here is because we have the students.

“One of our major core values is anchored on students focus and the initiative of the town hall meeting is to help us get an unfiltered information from the students. We want them to talk to us and we talk to them. If we are doing well, the students should tell us and where we are lagging, they will also inform us and the board will take it up and effect improvement.

“We want the students to tell us areas they want us to serve them better because they are the reason we are here and our priority is to ensure that they enjoy staying here.

“We planned it early January because if we are able to harness these information, we will be able to give them the best in the year and beyond.

“No one will be witch-hunted for expressing their views. Nobody does that in the College of Medicine, that is against the regulations. There is freedom of speech even after the speech. We don’t tolerate anybody who abuses his/her privilege,” he said.

During the interaction, the students who appreciated the board for their efforts to make their studies seamless also commended them for restoration of power, renovation of the Anatomy Department, completion of water reticulation as well as installation of CCTV cameras in the campus to enhance security.

They however listed other challenges such as not having enough chairs and tables in some classrooms, lack of internet connectivity to aid their research work, delay in organising induction for graduates, shortage of hostels due to increase in quota for some departments, lack of projectors, thefts, installation of a Gym Centre, among others.

Responding, the Provost acknowledged that the management is not unaware of the challenges enunciated add thing that plans are underway to build recreation facilities in the campus to enhance students extra curricular activities once the resources are available.

He noted that bills to fix the chairs was on his desk and the replacement would take effect from first week of February.

On shortage of accommodation, Prof Ekwochi noted that it has been a concern to the board due to the increase in quotas for some departments which led to more number of students being offered admission. He stressed that the board is on the lookout for a space for new hostel and advised the students to keep the hostels clean.

On his part, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Health, Dr Yomi Jaye appreciated the students for their outspokenness and promised that the complaints would be tabled to the Governor for prompt action.

“You have the resilience to succeed and I believe the challenges you mentioned will be looked into. His Excellency pays keen attention to health especially on the institution that trains the manpower we need to drive home his health policy for the people. His priority is to make the environment conducive for you so that when you graduate, you will become a tool in stabilising our health system.

“For instance, the government is currently building a 300-bed specialist hospital and when it is furnished with the state-of-the-art medical equipment, many of you here would be key pioneers of the system,” he said.

In his Vote of thanks, the President, Enugu State University Medical Students Association, ESUMSA, Eze Michael Uzochukwu thanked the College Board for initiating the Town Hall Meeting and promised that the students will remain obedient and imbibe all they are to acquire.