Last week, Campus Hub announced a drastic increase in their parking fees, with students and student organisation’s taking to social media to voice their disapproval with this decision and urging stakeholders to reconsider. Students and organisations joined forces to protest against these prices, with a protest going by the name of ‘Students Over Profit‘ set to take place on Friday, 4 November.

These new parking fees were to become effective immediately from November 1, however, Campus Hub announced on the same day that they were going to change their prices again. University of Malta students won’t be subject to the increased parking prices and would only have to pay €3 for a full days’ worth of parking, as long as they present proof that they are students at the University.

Even though the parking prices have gone down, the protest will still happen, with Giuseppe Gatt, Secretary General of GħSL stated, “the parking fee increase was just the straw that broke the camel’s back“.

The Four Protest Principles That Organisations Support

Different organisations, including The Third Eye, met together and decided on the below principles:

• The University conceded land to a private entity, having had no consideration of the effect it will have on students it supposedly caters for. Universities lack of consultation with the students throughout the curation of the project vis-a-vis student services, wellbeing and budget has lead to rampant consumerism taking over student life. The outlets currently operating from Campus Hub vary from eateries to retail outlets, with little to no consideration made to students, their wellbeing and financial limitations. Amenities that would have reflected the students’ needs would be; a pharmacy, groceries and essentials store, a stationery and so on.

• Student organisations’ concerns do not solely lay in the lack of parking, Campus Hub Limited was intended to serve as an extension of the University of Malta Lija. Land was granted by UM for the building of what is today known as Campus Hub. It is now clear that initial intention centred around student accommodation was a pretext to commercialise student life at the core of University.

• The recent decision to increase parking tariffs and subsequently decrease them to €3 per day is a testament to Campus Hub’s failure to consider the people it needs, students. The newly published tariffs are nothing except an abuse of power by a private company withstanding the knowledge that parking at University is already a burden on all students. In view of this, coupled with the questionable activities it holds on its premises, it is inconceivable to think that such a project is to be embraced, or appreciated by students when time and time again, it betrays its initial aim and purpose.

• The overarching issue of lack of effective alternative methods of transportation available for students has lead students to become dependent on parking and has facilitated the abusive consumerism present in student life. Proposals include, a more efficient public transport system, increasing bike lanes and implementing safety measure to protect cyclists and the improvement of the parking situation on University grounds.

KSU’s Take On The Situation

Alex Gaglione, KSU‘s president, put forward her view in light of this situation. Campus Hub’s framework originally was initiated on springing back life within the university regions, since the pandemic suppressed the vibrant student life. Although student presence has become vigorous, primarily because of the easing of restrictions, the outlets within Campus Hub brought about certain undesired repercussions. One of them is the promotion of fast food consumption, whereas bodies like Starbucks can lead to income to be chipped off due to expensive prices.

Subsequent to the proposition of the protest occurring next Friday, KSU has decided to support the initiative. The retaliation was sparked not only because of the erratic parking prices, but also due to what the entire project has become.

Moreover, KSU highlighted how Campus Hub has contributed to the rampant commercialisation and how the projects is “pushing towards a car centric University when we should be doing the opposite“.

“The parking tariff increase was simply a consequence of a culmination of events, including the recent money drop, involving the rampant commercialisation of student life”

Alex Gaglione, to Lovin Malta

Moviment Graffitti’s Reaction

The facilities surrounding the University of Malta have become a capitalist social space that forces students to be consumers in order to make use of them. As the site of the last bookshop is proposed to turn into hotels, we question the representation of commercial outlets compared to spaces that foster more student-centred characteristics, such as bookshops, common areas and work areas. Campus Hub, a capitalist venture on public land with only profits in mind, has brought this fact into the limelight.

Moviment Graffitti went on to state that Campus Hub is going against what student life should be. They believe that this should be “a time for learning and exploring new viewpoints” and not pushing students to “mindlessly take part in the current status quo that ultimately aims to exploit students and workers“.

The organisation concluded with the following

The development of students into key players in society must be given priority over their perceived role as consumers and future workforce. We are therefore calling for the concession agreement for Campus Hub to be published, and ultimately for the space to be nationalised and run by the University in conjunction with students. The privatisation of the land has ensured that it can only be enjoyed as a consumer, when it could have been a prime social space. We are also demanding more direct and frequent bus routes to the University, as well as safe and efficient walking and cycling routes leading to University.

Chris Vassallo, Campus Hub CEO, Defends Project

Vassallo has pointed out the benefits that Campus Hub brings to students; with the premises being able to house 800 students, has a gym and pool, a laundry service, stationery and bookshop, and free WiFi.

A new medical school is also being built, but because of an inability to come to agreements with the authorities, construction has been put on hold.

Vassallo acknowledges the students’ right to protest, but wishes to have a meeting with KSU. Gaglione intends to accept the meeting invitation, but has made it clear that the organisation will not change its stand.

I’m not going to into a meeting to have my opinion swayed or to endorse anything that might come out of it

Alex Gaglione, to Lovin Malta

Protest Details

Protest will take place outside of Cakebox, on Friday 4 November, at 12:30.

The Third Eye has always been on the students’ side and will continue to do so in this protest

The post ‘Students Over Profit’ – The Student Protest That Will Still Happen appeared first on The Third Eye.

Galea, made it clear in a Facebook post that as KSU President she would not have let the ground be opened for parking had the circumstances been any different. She persisted that the proposal was accepted only because of how late the student body was informed of the closing down of carpark 6.

“I am completely against students simply relying on the use of their private vehicles”

Carla Galea

Galea remains adamant that the best solution for a decrease in parking spaces is to change the mentality on the islands and choose alternative methods of transport. That said, if the students were informed earlier of the changes regarding carpark 6, the solution would have been to adapt to the lack of parking and stop depending on their private vehicles.

Conversely, Kris Bajada, one of last year’s candidates for KSU President, saw the opening of the football ground as a potential stepping stone towards ambitious projects on campus. In a statement he sent to The Third Eye, Bajada stated that the parking issue must be solved by increasing parking spaces. He applauded the temporary solution and looked towards a potential underground parking being opened as well for the long term.

Bajada also saw these developments as an opportunity to continuously revitalize the university area. He proposed to reserve a small portion of land to construct small residential units and a recreational centre, both for students. Said ideas were proposing during his presidential campaign in the 2018 KSU election.

“Although these ideas may have seemed impossible a few months ago the first steps have now been taken.”

Kris Bajada

The post KSU President Wants Parking Mentality to Change appeared first on The Third Eye.

“Every €3 “Green Contribution” collected with every parking permit issued will be added to the fund. The fund will be used to improve the transport and parking situation on Campus, through a number of projects and initiatives. The ultimate aim of the fund is to be reinvested in all University students, promoting sustainability and creating awareness on Campus.” – KSU

More information can be found on their website. Stay tuned for more information during Freshers’ Week!

image credits, KSU

The post KSU to Introduce Green Fund – Based on Parking Permits appeared first on The Third Eye.

The publishing of this article on this specific date is not intended to effect vote outcomes, it is merely published today as emails were received today at 8:21 am.

In emails sent to us following communication with the University’s Architect and Administrative Director, we were told that all plans to increase parking spaces on Campus are not possible due to Parliament Plans agreed upon back in 2006. This, in turn means that what Pulse and Kris Bajada are proposing to do to fix parking issues on Campus is impossible unless revised in Parliament, something which the University has tried to for other projects, and which shall be brought forward in a different article concerning UoM developments.

We were told the following:

We are also aware of the KSU Statute [Section 6, Article 53] “On the election day, no propaganda or advertising material or other material that may otherwise influence the voting shall be distributed.” However, the Statute as it stands is not in conformity with the voting procedure as it is being done this year i.e. Online Voting therefore the statute has not been updated or at least, an updated version following the AGM has not been made available on the KSU Website. In fact, the available online statute refers to ballots, voting place, counting of votes and ballot boxes. 

Link to latest statute version available: http://www.ksu.org.mt/images/resources/KSU-Statute-EN.pdf

In addition to this, it was brought to our attention that SDM and Pulse as contesting parties failed to respect silent day, after various posts on Facebook which were published throughout the campaign and were sponsored continued to prop up on the newsfeeds of students and Executive Members from both SDM and Pulse also published Instagram posts promoting their respective organisation for KSU this morning. Evidence of these posts can be seen below:

If anyone wishes to see emails, kindly contact anyone from the executive team we’ll be happy to meet and show you in person.

The post BREAKING: PROPOSED PARKING PLANS IMPOSSIBLE – SAYS UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION appeared first on The Third Eye.