The recent news of lower car park 6 being temporarily closed off reignited the discussion on transport on campus. How abruptly this news was communicated to student representatives also brought to the forefront university administration’s poor communication.
On Monday 11th February, KSU hosted an Admin Forum in which all student organisations came together to discuss the pressing issue as well as to listen to a national proposal by Konrad Xuereb from KonceptX.
Dr Xuereb is suggesting to the government plans for a metro system and 3 foot/cycle bridges from Sliema, Manoel Island and Senglea to Valletta, which aim to connect the Maltese islands. Student representatives were quite intrigued by the ideas and followed to ask questions to Dr Xuereb about the feasibility of such proposals who admitted that in the long run his recommendations would leave an impact on public transport for the better.
The organisations’ representatives however were far more eager to discuss the impending issues of university parking. KSU President Carla Galea explained how there was a lack of communication between the administration and KSU which left the student body shocked with the closure news of lower Car Park 6.
Modes of alternative transport were discussed which gave rise to a heated debate between students who argued that such alternative methods were being consulted and made use of by the student body, but the issue of parking still remains for those who cannot use alternatives.
Tensions are rising high amongst students which might even escalate and lead to a national demonstration, as suggested by KSU members and various student representatives.
The following day, KSU organised press conference as they insisted that the situation should be cleared with the entire student body.
The parking issue arose out of plans for the construction of a number of new faculties; one of four projects on campus aimed at improving students’ university life. During the press conference, Carla Galea emphasised their support of these developments that ultimately benefit the students. However, Galea disapproved how extremely late they were informed about these developments.
“A drastic change such as this should have been communicated more diplomatically with the students, especially considering that all this took place during the exam period and that the situation cannot be mitigated.”
KSU President, Carla Galea
In light of these developments, Galea pressed on the need for our attention to shift from short run solutions to sustainable projects that will benefit students in the long run. In this respect KSU has already implemented various initiatives in collaboration with private organisations such as MPT, GoTo Malta, Greenroads Malta and Nextbike.
Despite KSU’s fruitful initiatives, Galea stressed the need to collaborate with the University on implementing further alternatives as it affects both the students and the university staff. She also appealed to the authorities to prioritise alternative methods of transport and consider long-term solutions that will ideally ease the persistent problem of traffic congestion in Malta and our excessive dependency on private vehicles. That said, KSU will be having a meeting with Transport Malta to further discuss potential measures to be taken.
On Thursday morning, a huge chunk of Car Park 6 was closed for construction which created a lot of disruption, traffic and bottlenecks to access the upper part of the car park.
With this being said, The Third Eye team would like to wish you all happy parking games and may the odds be ever in your favour.