MARS24_UNIKUM_WEB

COMMENT
To SIA or not to SIA
Iorest Enache
Writer
Coming to Norway is a boost of excitement, curiosity, education,
and the anticipation of discovering new things, especially for
international students who have never had the opportunity to visit
this beautiful country before.
One of the nicest opportunities for students to visit Norway is
through the diverse international student programs such as
Erasmus+, Nordplus, Bilateral Exchange Agreements, North2North,
Sami Parliament’s Scholarship Program, The Fulbright Program,
and other exchange programs. Once all the procedures for studying
here are completed, international students arrive by plane, boat,
car, train, or bus. Let us strongly hope nobody came solely by bike.
To be honest, I have met a French man (coming from Paris) at
Lillehammer train station who was riding by bike through Norway
in late December of 2023. So, we never know what kind of things
life brings before our eyes.
In front of the eyes of international students coming to University
of Agder for one or two or more semesters, there also arose a
recent controversy about The Student Association of Agder (SIA),
in regard to its department of Housing and Student Services in the
Kristiansand Campus.
SIA Housing and Student Services has long been a cornerstone of
student accommodation in Grimstad and Kristiansand Campuses
of UiA, boasting a wide range of affordable housing options for
both domestic and international students. No, I will not write now
about the dissatisfactions of some Norwegian and international
students regarding the fact that in general they are allocated in
rooms with the same nationality, or some Norwegians are in the
same room with Norwegians just from the same regions they come
from. And in this way they do not have to chance to meet new
people and cultures in a more profound way. But coming back to
SIA, it has a reputation for reliability and fair practices, and many
students have relied on SIA Housing to provide a comfortable
living environment during their studies.
And because communication mostly between students both
international and national is “something that not even Thor can
stop”, new things and feedback about some recent SIA practices
became the headline of a relevant amount of students. It seems
that a large number of students from the 2023 Spring semester
received exorbitant invoices for insignificant “cleaning services”
with poor to no explanations from our “beloved” SIA. In respect
of the privacy to some students, I will just cite here some of
their raw feedback regarding this matter being analyzed: “that’s
a crazy amount to be charged for…”, “btw this is truly insane”,
“scammers…”, “I’ve done exchanges before and never had to pay a
flipping cleaning fee… especially after CLEANING”, “this has to be a
joke”, “…that’s the picture in question, if you find something wrong
with it, please, tell me”, “Haha, seriously?”, “it’s mad”, “same”,
“have they ever seen a dirty apartment?”, “they also sent me
pictures where there’s nothing wrong”, “targeting disabled people
and people from developing countries, Wow SIA”, “Hmmm aight
I‘m going to start a cleaning company in Norway… Who wants to
invest?”, “ask them which part took how many hours to clean and
for a complete breakdown of costs”. When it comes to the amount
of money they had to pay there are some students that mention
that the currency should be Russian rubles, Zimbabwean dollars,
and other examples could continue… It is easy to understand that
these „final experiences“ about Norway have a profound impact on
students‘ memories and pockets.
As space and time are limited, one other „interesting“ experience
about SIA during the 2023 spring semester is as follows: an
international student aged over 20 years old, arriving at SIA to
take his key full of luggage, tired and excited to be in Norway, was
informed by SIA “face to face” that there was a small problem, and
that is they do not have an accommodation for that student. Woow!
Really wow! Take a moment to put yourself in this situation, and
I think we can guess that it‘s not full of happiness for anybody…
Besides this, “the solution” they had was to tell the student to book
a hotel and they will try “to find a solution” but with no deadline.
What could be the difference in booking room hotel in being student
or tourist? In this case should we understand that SIA might “like”
younger students? Hmmm… Who knows?
At the same time, SIA is doing a good job about organizing student
accommodation, and I will also present a feedback in this way:
“There are mixed opinions among students when it comes to the
SiA topic. Personally, they helped me a lot. In the first semester I
was able to transfer from living in Marviksveien to campus. They
are always responding in very short time, and are really nice and
helpful. Even when there was a problem with my mailbox they
came with me to the building to check it out. On the arrival day
this semester my key wasn’t working and I couldn’t get into the
building. Even though it was late, I managed to find the person who
was working long hours that day. He drove me to the SIA office
and my place just to fix a problem and check if it was working
properly after that. They are not perfect, but nothing is, and I just
believe they are doing a lot of great stuff for students at UiA. My
overall personal experience with them is great. Aleksandra Nowak
- full degree MA Popular Music- Music Business and Management
student.”
So it seems here we have a mixture of different types of experiences.
For all the good things we can appreciate about SIA, but for the not
so good ones, we should expect that things need to be improved.
And if it will be the case to write more about it until the awareness
of it and the need of improvement will have less and less to ask,
“to be continued” could be a good solution. And perhaps someone
could reflect on the question: To SIA or not to SIA?
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