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By Meher Mehtab

Hamad Bin Khalifa University Housing and Residence Life is considering a reversion of the new housing policy announced last month that plans to charge students for staying in their rooms over the winter break.

“There is nothing set in stone [as] HRL, firstly and lastly, exists to help the students. We will do anything in our power to help the students,” said Adil Elshaigi, housing coordinator at HBKU Housing and Residence Life. “We do have policies and procedures, but if it conflicts with students’ interests and is not feasible, we will not employ it.”

In an email sent out in September, HRL announced that students living in the residential halls will have to check out by Dec. 16, or pay a weekly rate if they stay during the break. Previously, students were not charged for staying in their rooms over the winter break. The announcement was not well received among the students living in the residence halls, who complained that they were not made aware of the policies when applying for housing.

“I am glad that they are keeping in mind that the policy was not communicated to us in time. A lot of us had made plans with the assumption that we will be in the dorms [over the break], so it would have been quite a hassle,” said Rania Sohail, a senior at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

According to Elshaigi, any official decision to postpone the new policy is dependent upon senior HRL management, but he said he personally believes that it would most likely be postponed till next year, when it will be included in the housing contract students sign before applying for housing.

“We need the period between semesters to turn over the rooms and prepare them for next semester, in case there are any maintenance requests or if we have any other issues,” Elshaigi said about why the policies were introduced in the first place. 

Once the new policies are in affect, Elshaigi explained, residents that are traveling during the break will be allowed to leave their belongings in their respective rooms without any extra fee. However, they will be denied access to the room for that period. Students who are not traveling and require access to their rooms during the break will be charged a weekly rate for however long they choose to stay.

 “As a local student, being forced to move my things out of my room twice a year is extremely inconvenient. I can only imagine how bad it is for an international student,” said Majdi Khatib, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

Elshaigi said the new policies will not affect the universities that operate on special academic calendars, such as Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, which has longer academic years as compared to other universities. WCM-Q has a pre-arranged understanding with HRL where students are charged weekly for the entire academic year, unless requested otherwise by a resident.

“I will be really happy if HRL reverts to the original policy. The new policies were made without adequate consultation or prior knowledge of student body,” said Sabal Subedi, a senior at CMU-Q. “By reversing the new policies, HRL can show that they do value our opinions and voices. I hope they will involve the student body more in the future decision making process.”