Why are Student Members of University Senate Exceptions?

The dorms belonging to the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca are no strangers to some degree of scandal. There have been many cases of abuse of power signaled by the students throughout the years in regarding the dorm regulations as well as the placement of some people who do not qualify to be assigned to a dorm with a higher degree of comfort.

The basic principle in which a student can be assigned a room on campus is simple: a certain faculty has a pre-established number of dormitory places in various buildings, and based on that number it assigns its rooms to the students who have obtained the highest grades in the previous academic year. There are some exceptions to this rules, as disabled, orphaned or senate and student council members have priority. However, this priority simply states that students belonging to the categories previously mentioned are guaranteed a place in a dorm, but not in a dorm with high comfort. Initially, the top students in a year (the number of students depends on how many rooms a certain faculty has) receive placement in the best dorms, such as Economica 1 and 2, Sport XII, or what is commonly known as the A dorms. This is often not the case, as the privileged often take these spots for themselves.

In September 2013, the dorm Economica 2 had officially opened its doors on the 28th. Regulations clearly states that apart from the buildings assigned by the comittee to remain open during the summer for students who do not leave Cluj-Napoca during that period, all dorms are to remained closed, and nobody is allowed inside except the guard, the administrator and the cleaning staff. Claudia, an European Studies student in her third year recalls that the day she came to occupy her place in the dorm, ...

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...d have been easily placed in the better dorm. “That when my friend called and told me to go to my faculty and write a request to change my dorm. He told me he would take care of it.” The council made kept his word, and Andrei is now living the better dorm, but he is not too happy about that.”At first I was happy, obviously. But then I found out that in order to get me into 14, someone else had to go. It was particularly sad when I saw that one of my friends got downgraded because of me.”

Writing a rule and keeping to it proves to be a task harder that it seems, especially for the students placed higher in the hierarchy. Apparently the rules written in order to protect the students are the very tools with which member of the student senate and student council can disregard student rights, and it hardly looks like the situations is going the change in the near future.