This is the clearest indication yet that the university will go ahead with the decision, despite protests by the students of the hall.
At a news conference at Lego+n Monday, the university authorities said the decision to change the status of Commonwealth Hall was in the overall interest of students, the university, as an institution, and the nation at large.
Responding to a question from the Daily Graphic on whether the university authorities were under pressure from external forces, such as the government, to review the decision, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof Kwesi Yankah, said it would be surprising for the government to get involved in such a "trite matter".
He said the University of Ghana was an autonomous public institution and the government had no hand in its management.
Following the announcement by the university authorities to transform Commonwealth Hall into a mixed gender graduate hall, there have been spontaneous protests by students of the hall, including petitions to the vice-chancellor and the President while members the Old Vandals Association and other interested parties have been making behind the scenes consultations for a review of the decision.
Prof Yankah said the government had representation on the University Council and so it could channel any concerns to the council, rather than make any direct interventions.
"We take decisions that are in the best interest of the university and the nation," he remarked.
Addressing the news conference to clarify issues on the Commonwealth Hall saga, the Registrar of the university, Mr Joseph Marfo Budu, said the decision was arrived at after due consideration of several critical issues that had engaged the concern of the university for a long time.
"Even though these decisions were precipitated by growing indiscipline in the hall, made evident by the disruptive behaviour of Commonwealth Hall students on many occasions, the university, over the period, has been contemplating various interventions necessary to arrest the deteriorating conditions within the halls of residence largely caused by congestion,” he said.
Mr Budu said the university understood the nostalgic and sentimental feelings of the students but gave the assurance that by that decision the Commonwealth Hall would not cease to exist nor would its name be changed.
"It is only being restructured and reconstituted in response to changing times and emerging realities in the university of which the growing female and graduate populations are a part," he said.
Mr Budu disagreed with a suggestion that the decision to change the status of Commonwealth Hall was in response to the alleged heckling of the Chancellor of the university, Mr Kofi Annan, at the last Convocation in , March this year and that the policy was meant to break the front of the students.
Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana
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