Opening photo by Laura Pietra
The University of Bergamo, according to Ustat data (data portal of the Ministry of Education), has now exceeded twenty thousand enrolled students, who are distributed across the various locations depending on the department to which they belong. However, there is a problem that a reader who attends the city university wanted to report to our editorial staff as a “source of inconvenience”.
«On Thursday 30 May I went with another boy to the economic-legal department, in via dei Caniana, to be able to study together in view of the summer session. Unfortunately, however, it turned out to be just a waste of time – and desire -: neither the study room nor the library were accessible because they were full. We then decided to book two places at the Tiraboschi library, which is located nearby and which many students usually frequent. However, once we arrived, we were greeted by an unpleasant surprise: at the table where we were supposed to sit there were no power sockets to connect our PCs.”
The problem of electrical outlets
«This aspect – continues the student -, in the era in which we find ourselves, is not acceptable: almost everyone now studies on electronic devices, as well as on books. And it is a common problem: even in university study rooms only a few seats have the “privilege” of an electrical socket.”
As the reader explains, this is not an isolated case, but rather a daily inconvenience that «all UniBg students must suffer if they decide they want to experience the university environment rather than lock themselves at home. Even if the latter seems to be the best solution to take, unless you want to waste time and money moving to what should be a place of study, but which, in fact, is not, because it is poorly thought out due to the quantity of students that it has now reached.”
Few spaces to study anywhere
The reader and her friend, although enrolled in a humanities faculty whose headquarters are in via Pignolo, had decided to go to via Caniana because they hoped to find a better situation than what they usually experience in their home locations. «In the case of the headquarters in via Pignolo – the letter continues -, which houses the department of Literature, Philosophy and Communication, there is a study room which has the ridiculous capacity of thirty seats. The alternative that everyone opts for, thus creating further inconvenience, is the canteen. Consequently, this space becomes unusable in its primary function: the seats are all occupied by those studying and I often find myself eating standing up.”
The situation does not improve in the nearby offices: «Even the study rooms in Sant’Agostino and Bernareggi are not better off in terms of capacity. Basically, you only find a place if karma turns your way.”
In conclusion, according to the student who wrote to us, the University has grown a lot in terms of students, but not in organizational terms. And this does not only apply to the – much debated – issue of off-campus accommodation, but also to the spaces used regularly and daily by all students, such as study rooms. «I believe that all of us students have the right to be able to have a space to study and to be able to do it properly. We should invest precisely in this to improve the conditions of those who attend the university.”
