When she asked her fellow corridor mates to cut down on the partying, she was harassed on Facebook and referred to as Hitler. Umashree Pancholy from India describes her time in Lund as four months of Hell. Now, she is packing her bags and leaving.
Photo: Private property
In the beginning of the fall semester, when Umashree Pancholy moves into one of the international housing units administered by LU Accommodation, everything runs on smoothly and she is able to peacefully focus on her studies. She is on a Master’s program which is demanding and time-consuming.
Despite her scholarship, she has also paid approximately €8,000 in order to attend Lund University. However, it doesn’t take long before the party activities kick off, something which, according to her, gradually gets out of control.
“Students from different floors and corridors started hanging out in my corridor partying. A lot of times they would keep going well on into the night,” she says.
“I’m not an anti-party freak. I too like to enjoy myself once in a while, but I also want to be able to study in peace.”
The kitchen and the bathroom stalls are a lot of time mired in vomit, which according to Umashree Pancholy, is rarely cleaned up.
“Why do I even bother paying the rent when I can barely use my room and my kitchen?”
Lowered grades
The real problems begin when she finally builds up enough courage to put her foot down. “I asked my neighbors to slow down a little bit, and not disturb so much whenever they had a party going on. After that they openly began posting sarcastic remarks about me on Facebook,” says Umashree Pancholy. She is being compared to Hitler, and several of her fellow corridor mates talk in front of her in their native languages, which she doesn’t understand.
All she hears is her name being mentioned in the foreign language.
“They were very hateful in their ways of conducting themselves towards me. They showed no respect, but they made it clear that they didn’t like,” she says.
“One time I was to take an exam the following day, but I was awake to five o’clock, because of their party. Due to the stress I endured during these months, I haven’t only suffered from bad mental health, but I’ve also lowered my grades.
Never wants to return
In order to eliminate this problem, she e-mails LU Accommodation, detailing her situation, but the response is not satisfactory.
“They pretty much just said I could call security if things got to loud, and so they sent an e-mail saying that people were encouraged to calm down, but there was no improvement. You have to attend to your international students, but they didn’t seem to take me seriously what so ever,” she says.
The original plan was to stay in Lund to complete the Master’s program, but due to everything that transpired, Umashree Pancholy has changed the topic for her paper, so that she can move back to Hungary, where she previously studied.
“Without my friends in my group, I would never have made it. I have stayed as long as possible at the institute and gone home to the corridor as late as possible,” she says.
“I never want to return to Lund University, only if I can afford to live in my own apartment.”
When Lundagård contacts Umashree Pancholy, about an hour after this conversation, to ask if she wouldn’t mind meeting with a photographer to take a photo, she says it is not possible. Her bags are packed, and she is already on the bus, leaving Sweden.”
READ MORE: Lund University: “Failure On Our Part”
Text: Karolina Jakstrand
Translation: Maximilian Aleman-Tennell
11 Comments
Caroline Schönsee
I had the pleasure to stay at the same LU Accommodation as Umashree. I am actually still staying there and I am really enjoying it! The people are really nice and I was able to experience the Green House Accommodation as a nice and homey place in Lund.
I was one of the people who was able to spend a little more time with Umashree. She was a really nice and interesting person. She even invited me and took me with her to an event of the South Asian Students Association which I really enjoyed!
The Green House is usually known as a calm accommodation in Lund without any parties or crazy drinking nights. We had not more than four parties last semester in the common area in the basement and the parties were always announced a couple weeks in advance. The theme was mainly birthday, Halloween and Christmas. Since the Green House is not that close to the city center, hardly anyone showed ever up for the event and there were always just the people who were actually staying at the Green House (not more than a max. of 30 people) The last event was a really nice Christmas party. We cooked together and exchanged gifts.
It feels kind of like a stab in the back when I am reading Umashree’s article about how she is fed up with the harassment. There was never an intention of harassment coming from her corridor mates.
This article represents a complete different view about Sweden and the life at the Lund Accommodation. The Green House people always tried to include Umashree and to talk to her. She preferred to stay in her room with a sign on her door that no one is allowed to disturb her. Instead of leaving her room to actually get to know the people around her, she preferred to send written complaints to the Lund Accommodation and to draft articles such as this one.
Umashree is a really nice girl and I got to know her from a different side. I do not really understand the reason and the hate she put in her complains and especially into this article. This is not presenting the whole situation in a correct way and makes it really unfair to the people at the Green House and future students who want to get an opinion about the life in Lund (specifically LU Accommodations) before they decide to come to Sweden.
umashree
Caroline, there are components to this story that were clearly not fed into the online story. I enjoyed my time with you, alejandro, pascal and others too but you do not have to defend others whose actions have had consequences for me. that sign outside my room went up because i was fed up of people knocking on my door and not showing up when i answered. I also took a course that practically took all the time i had, if i said no to parties and gathering then it should be understandable for others. That is exactly the reason they thought I didn’t want to mingle but maybe they should think about the fact that I was not an Erasmus student and I actually had classes 9-5 everyday. One of your dear friends called je scho even called me gringe on my face when i was trying to do was cooking in my own allotted kitchen and with all due respect to my lovely interactions with you, i was living in a huge pool of stress. people came outside my room to single birthday songs and post-party noises on purpose and I heard my name being called out in French many times right behind me but I didn’t understand a word because I don’t know the language. If all this would have happened with you maybe you wouls have understood what I went through. my story was backed by proof that i had provided by all ways and i also did tell them how people made fun of my complaints on our greenhouse facebook wall, ofcourse i still maintain the screenshots so that even if they are deleted they stay safe with me, for future. i just want to point out the fact that i went to the people complaining about bad management practice from the side of LU A because they should’ve put all erasmus kids together and graduate kids together in order to avoid such “schedule clash”. I understand you all wanted to have fun and who won’t, but all the noise and teasing took its toll on my mental health and I felt more stressed than I should have. Maybe you love everyone in greenhouse but I would advice not to speak for everyone especially because you do not know what all I have endured. The point of culture clash here was totally unnecessary as well. And I still hold my ground here that anyway even if I were being a “hitler” that many of your friends loved to call me with, as per the greenhouse rules you were not allowed to party loud after 10 pm in the corridor nor were you allowed to throw wine bottles outside my window. I have never said that people who lived with me were monsters, it was really good to meet you, but maybe you couldn’t fit your feet in my shoes and see how the actions affected me as a person. Not everyone wants to party and drink alcohol nor does everyone has the time to do it and I think it should be very much acceptable because people are different. I paid for living in my room and using my kitchen and bathroom, not for people asking me to go cook on another floor because they had a party there, not for people wanting me to get outside my room when i come home all drained out at school and certainly i did not pay for cleaning up vomits in the bathroom on mornings. Its a matter of consumer and basic human rights to me, i would like for you to respect that.
Hope
Well pls don’t lie I have lived in Lund’s accommodation, most Caucasian students always parties, plz don’t get me wrong I myself is a Swedish too. The Swedes don’t really care much about the grades meanwhile our American friends, German and the rest all thinks they’re the best since the prof always gives them good grades according to their nationality. If you comes from developing country you better be triple time good than the Americans the Europeans. So I can understand why Umashree feels the need to study harder. Its reality check my friend
Uma
Dear Hope, thank you for explaining that. A lot of people are unable to understand very little basics but I don’t blame them because they don’t how how it feels 🙂
tnk
The parties took place without permission of all residents on ground floor and were never limited to the assigned “party area”. The system should not punish students who want to study in peace especially when they are made to pay for it, it should encourage such young talented students. International students come from far away places to get exposure and we must as people who host them offer our best behaviour to them.
Inès Ben Halima
I was also a tenant of Greenhouse during those 4 months.
First, I would like to say that I’m sincerely sorry that you were as depressed Umashree… However, when only 1 person is thinking something while 39 others have another point of you, may be it’s the only one who should reconsider her or himself…
Indeed, I was also doing my Master 2 there, I had to work too and I managed to validate all my courses… Of course I was disturbed sometimes (and trust me there was noise much more often on my ground than yours) but I asked them to make some efforts in the right way and they did… I think that if you were more social and less harsh when demanding people to be quiet they would have showed you the respect you required. Life in community implies to be tolerant, to learn to make concessions and to accept some things from others: respect people who want to study or to sleep of course but also to accept the fact that other ones want to “party” sometimes (as Caroline said, parties where planned many days before and everyone was aware of them, so if you are the only one who doesn’t want to participate even if you are invited and welcome, you’re the one who has to be tolerant)
I really understand your point but you may reconsider the way you also acted… Come to them asking nicely to be careful would have been more efficient than send an email blaming them… You are giving a really bad image of Greenhouse whereas most of us liked it… Of course we all made concessions (housework, noise etc.) but we had a real human experience that we would have been glad to share with you…
uma
Dear Ines, the publishers of the post had my proof of how big a liar or not I am. As for the question of submitting to majority, I was there paying my own rent on my own terms and if I wanted my rights I don’t have to bow down to people just because they are in majority. There is a term that can be used here, and it’s called social bullying. Please do think before you post anything next time because it harms me not but maybe someone reading what you’ve written may get strange ideas. I am sure you were a lovely bunch, my problem was not with you but with the management. If there is so much partying going on everywhere then Lund Accomodation services should make it clear and transparent on their international website so quiet-loving students like I don’t get wrong ideas about having full freedom to live. If you will understand what I’m trying to say then maybe you will see I about my issue. Please refrain from using really extreme words like “depression” for another person, that behaviour could be thought of as abusive/aggressive to some. Thank you for your attention here
lundagard
Lundagård has removed the name of the accommodation to keep the integrity of the other tennants. Names of other tennants has been removed of the same reason.
From now on: Please beware of peoples integrity and keep the discussion focused on the factual question, and not who did this or that. Otherwise, posts may be removed entirely.
/ Kenneth Carlsson, editor
The Lundian Magazine
Too bad you had a bad time, but truthfully, Lund is a wonderful place to live and study in. When you return — and you will, as almost everyone does — you might find it more peaceful to live in a private home or a room in an apartment with more mature people. Even if you don’t feel this way right now: Welcome Back to Lund!
The Lundian Magazine
Too bad you had a bad time, but truthfully, Lund is a wonderful place to live and study in. When you return — and you will, as almost everyone does — you might find it more peaceful to live in a private home or a room in an apartment with more mature people. Even if you don’t feel this way right now: Welcome Back to Lund!