Being a final-year student at one of the leading public universities who has spent the past few years staying in the hostel which we call the residential college, I cannot help but say this - the college authority is misusing the facility.

A recent development is the most disgusting of all. We received a letter from the authorities on Feb 7, requesting us to vacate our hostel rooms from Feb 12 to 15 as they have rented out the rooms to some organisation for that period. The period coincides with our semester break for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

They asked us to not leave anything in the rooms. All of us undergraduates who were served with this 'evacuation' notice were dumbfounded and we made 'noise' amongst ourselves because we knew that this was the only thing we could do. Complaining to the campus authority will not bring any results and on the other hand could instead backfire. We are treated like outsiders.

The point I am trying to make here is that the hostel facilities are meant mainly for the undergraduates. Preference should be given to us students not to outsiders. This phenomena of outsiders coming is getting worse with lots of people coming in especially primary and secondary school students and adults from various organisations who come and create a nuisance by smoking at the balconies and making live miserable in college.

I just hope someone can do something about it as we undergraduates are powerless to act. The student representatives whom we have 'elected' are also helpless as they have 'better' things to do. Let's not mention the University and University Colleges Act.