Protect Students' Rights: Revert Unfair Dormitory Eligibility Rules at UNIMI

On July 11, UNIMI published a notice specifying that dormitory applications would be restricted to students applying for the first time who are under the age of 27 as of January 1, 2024.
Find the notice here:
https://www.unimi.it/sites/default/files/2024-07/Bando%20Alloggi%202024-2025_def.pdf


(We hope that the university has not removed this link from access. If it has, we have emails containing the university's responses before the protests, which are attached.)

However, on July 15, second-year students were unable to apply for dormitory accommodation, despite it being their second time applying.

After raising their concerns and informing the university that this was not their first application, the university revised the notice to state that the age restriction would now apply to all students, regardless of their application history. Essentially, the university completely changed the rules and informed them that they are no longer eligible to apply for dormitory accommodation.

Unfortunately, students who went to the dormitory office to address this issue found that no officials were available to speak with them; they were only met with pre-written and pre-determined email responses.

This raises several questions that we are waiting for the University of UNIMI to answer, and we request the removal of obstacles to dormitory applications for these students:

1. Why does the University of UNIMI choose to change the rules instead of implementing the existing ones, which seemed more reasonable? Taking away the right to apply for dormitory accommodation from students in the middle of their education is unfair and disruptive. If the university no longer intends to provide dormitories due to age restrictions, it should have informed students from their first year so they could have considered other cities with lower rents. The students had counted on this accommodation.

2. Considering that these restrictions have created significant problems for second-year students and may force many to abandon their studies abroad, what is the university's responsibility as a social and academic institution in response to the students' fair requests?

3. Given that almost all European and non-European students received dormitory accommodation last year, and that most of the second-year students facing this issue are non-European, does the University of UNIMI have a discriminatory attitude towards migrants, disregarding their needs and showing indifference to their potential return to their home countries and discontinuation of their studies?