The Common Room Survey

How to describe the common rooms of various hostels in a single line? Simply one can refer to them as the most under-utilised space of any hostel on regular days and as one of the most utilised ones during the fests.
Common rooms are meant to serve as an entertainment and socialising hub for the students of different streams in the hostels. But are they fulfilling the purpose they are intended for? In order to have the answer to these questions, Yours’ truly decided to have a survey of the common rooms and then bring to you all the general opinions and reviews of the mass.

It’s suffocating

As expected, most of the students complained about the less space available in the common rooms, especially in the old hostels. The inmates of S.C.Dey were most dissatisfied and gave an average rating of 2.7 for the available students to space ratio. All the old hostels scored below 5 out of 10 and as expected the newer ones scored pretty well with Ramanujan hostel topping the list with a rating of 7.9.

Where to sit?

It seems weird but is the truth that in most of the hostels, the hostel administration never bothered for having some furniture to sit on while watching T.V. All the hostels were rated around 1 to 2 with an overall average of 1.46 out of 5. Ramanujan hostel got maximum rating of 2 while Vivekanand hostel received the minimum rating of 1.

Dark and Hot? LAN ports?

Sad to report but most of the common rooms lack essential amenities like fans, tube light, etc. and the same goes for LAN ports and switchboards also. The situation worsens for the older hostels (with ratings around 3 to 4) as compared to the newer ones which have ratings from 5 to 7 out of 10. Ramanujan and Visveswaraya were rated the best in this section with an average rating of 6.4 while DhanrajGiri bagged among the bottom positions with a mere rating of 2.6.

Nothing to play

The lack of indoor sports in the common rooms with absolutely nothing except Table Tennis was well reported with an average rating of around 3. Ramanujan, Vishwakarma and Visvesvaraya had better ratings as compared to other hostels but sadly none of the hostel were rated more than 5 out of 10. There was a huge demand for sports like carrom, chess and even snooker.

Where is the TV?

As evident from the survey, students from some of the hostels like Morvi and GSMC-old and extension reported the absence of a Television set at all which accounts for the below 2 rating in this particular aspect for these hostels. For the other hostels also, the report was not too good. The only positive reports came from Visvesvaraya, Vishwakarma and Aryabhatta with the three gaining ratings of 7.2, 6.8 and 5.8 respectively. All the other hostels scored below 5 with Ramanujan, C.V.Raman and Limbdi scoring 4.5 each and A.S.N.Bose, Rajputana, DhanrajGiri, Vivekanand and S.C.Dey gaining 3.6, 3.6, 2.5, 2.5 and 2.1 respectively.

Unavailability of remote, inaudible sound and set-top box recharge emerged out as some of the common concerns of the hostellers.

Cleanliness Report

In spite of so fewer people visiting the common rooms, about 40% students rated the cleanliness as bad or poor which should be a serious concern both for the students as well as the hostel administration.

Purpose of use

The most common reason for a visit to the common rooms came out to be either watching TV or playing Table Tennis. However, there were many other reasons like practising for fests, studying, attending meetings, celebration, etc.

When it comes to frequency of visiting the common room, around 17% students go to the common room almost regularly, 32% visit once in a week while around 40% spend their time in common room once or twice in a month. The remaining students never bothered to visit the common room.

Who Cares?

As the result of the survey depicts, in most of the hostel the administration rarely cares to improve the facilities. The Ramanujan guys seem to be most satisfied with the administration where 38% students report that administration takes steps at least once in a week to improve the facilities in common room. Visvesvaraya hostel also provides a positive feedback where 47% students believe that essential measures are taken at least once in a month. Apart from that, the results from other hostels are very dissatisfactory. Approximately 80% students from Vishwakarma, 77% from A.S.N.Bose, 75% from GSMC-old, 70% from GSMC-extension, 68% from Aryabhatta, 71% from Rajputana, 63% from Morvi, 60% from C.V.Raman while 100% students from Vivekanand hostel report that administration very rarely or never cares to improve the situation. The administration and hostel heads of S.C.Dey seem to be not bothered for bettering the facilities at all.

Reading Section? Library? Fests and Clubs?

More than 75% students responded in favour of a library or reading section in the common rooms. Also, around 70% response came in support of shifting the newspaper stand to common room from hostel entrance.

However, almost everyone denied the allocation of the common room to fests or clubs.

Who stands Where

Considering the overall rating of the common rooms, it’s regretful to delineate that 10 hostels were rated below 5 out of 10. Visvesvaraya and Ramanujan hostels bagged the top two positions by gaining ratings of 6.3 and 6 respectively while Vivekanand and S.C.Dey hostels settled at the bottom two places with a rating of 1.5 and 2.1.

Demands and Suggestions

More indoor games, improved seating, lighting, cleanliness and ventilation, well maintained TV, reading section or library, some gym equipment, sound system to improve voice output, etc. came out to be the significant demands of the students.

On being asked for themes for painting the walls of common rooms, the students gave very lovely suggestions like Indian Culture and Heritage, Indian Army, sportspersons, inspiring quotes, TV or movie series, etc.

Conclusion

The result of the survey unfolds the pathetic condition of the common rooms and the apathetic attitude of hostel administration to improve the situation. Problems are more pertaining and evident in many of the older hostels like GSMC Old, S.C.Dey, Morvi, DhanrajGiri, Rajputana, etc. and further ignorance by the authority can make the situation of these hostels more miserable. A.S.N. Bose performs the worst among the newer hostels probably owing to its high population.

Hope that the hostel heads and administration join hands and we can see an improved situation in the near future.