What You Never knew About Zik Hall Common Rooms

By Saint

It was during the tenure of Adeniran Adedayo (aka DY) as Minister for Socials back in the 2018/2019 session that Zikites had to depend only on the Akala 2011 plasma TV outside the JCR, when for muddled up reasons the projector inside the JCR disappeared. 

The most the average Zikite knows about common rooms in Zik hall is that, well, there is just the one, the Junior Common Room (JCR). The average Zikite knows the JCR is used to hold programmes, like the last freshers’ orientation, or for tutorials. 

The more aware Zikite knows that there was a time when matches used to be watched inside the JCR through a projector screen. Those days you could watch different matches at the same time – one inside the JCR while the plasma TV outside relays another. And yes, it used to be just exactly as you’d experience it in Indy Hall today. 

It was during the tenure of Adeniran Adedayo (aka DY) as Minister for Socials back in the 2018/2019 session that Zikites had to depend only on the Akala 2011 plasma TV outside the JCR, when for muddled up reasons the projector inside the JCR disappeared. 

If you are wondering at this point why there is so much talk about the JCR as a viewing centre, it is because that was exactly its original function. You only have to glean through the document, “Ethics Governing Halls of Residence”, to find that there is a provision that states, “the TV room closes at 12:00 midnight.” to know it originally serves that purpose. And you guessed right. That TV room is the JCR. 

Front View of Zik Hall’s Junior Common Room (JCR)

And yet, there is more to the utility of the JCR. The Zik Hall Legislative Council uses it for their sittings. Likewise, Zik Hall’s Literary and Debating Society use it conventionally to hold their meetings. 

Although outside of its original function, the Zik Hall management routinely leases out the JCR to non-Zikites for functions or other programmes. This is in view of generating revenue internally. By virtue of constitutional provisions, the maintenance of the JCR is subsumed under the office of the Minister for Socials, currently occupied by Mr. Adeniyi Malik. 

But if you were observant enough you would remain curious as to the pluralization of ‘common rooms’ in the title of this piece. Or perhaps you do not need a press article to let you in on the fact that Zik hall has more than one common room, probably because you have lived in the hall at a time when the Senior Common Room (SCR) still served its original function.

The SCR is located on the other end of the common room building, to the right of it. And yes, it is the same room where today you’ll find a footwear-making business fully operative. Before the conversion of the SCR into a footwear-making outlet, which was barely two years ago or more, the SCR served general and administrative ends. 

Zik Hall’s Senior Common Room (SCR), now serving commercial purpose (the opened door leads into the SCR)

According to Mr. Durowoju, the Hall Supervisor, back when the running of halls of residence in UI was in accordance with standard practice, the SCR was used to entertain guests. Back then, visitors would first make enquiries at the porters’ lodge before proceeding to the SCR to await the arrival of their host. The public address system will then be used to notify on the presence of a guest. If you doubt this practice you can again check up in the “Ethics Governing Halls of Residence”, under item C.

But aside from being a room to entertain guests, Mr. Durowoju also clarified that the SCR is exclusively under the ambit of the ZIk Hall Legislative Council, to hold its sittings. Also, there have been times when the SCR has been used by the Literary and Debating Society for their meetings when the JCR is unavailable.

Today, it is probably strange to the knowledge of most Zikites that the SCR served these purposes, or that the SCR even existed at all. Invariably, the current appropriation of the SCR solely for commercial purpose not only encroaches unduly on its original use but also infringes on Zikites’ right to the use and enjoyment of hall facilities to which they are entitled.