Muslim students at Melbourne University attend Friday prayers (Picture: William Vallely)
MUSLIM students at the University of Melbourne are frustrated at the size of the prayer space provided by the university.
University of Melbourne Islamic Society president Waseem Razvi said the prayer room was not big enough to cater for Muslims studying at the university.
“Space is definitely an issue. We have been informing the university for quite a long time that we need more space,” he said.
Mr Razvi said the existing space in Little Pelham St had a 250-standing room capacity, with close to 500 Muslim students regularly using it.
“We have had to split our Friday prayers into two sessions (12.30pm and 1.30pm) because the demand is too high,” Mr Razvi said.
A Melbourne University spokesperson acknowledged the “popularity of the Friday meetings exceeds the capacity of the building”.
Mr Razvi said UMIS had applied for an extension to the existing room, which adjoins offices for the University of Melbourne Business School, but had received no response from the university.
The university spokesperson said of the extension application: “The Melbourne Business School is an independent affiliate of the university, and as such, any planning applications are a matter for MBS.”
University of Melbourne chaplain Wes Campbell said a relocation of the prayer room had been explored by former acting director of health and wellbeing services Matt Brett.
“Four or five months ago there was an attempt to resolve that (prayer room issue) through trying to organise other spaces on campus,” Mr Campbell said
“A new space was certainly not found.”
Mr Razvi said an extension of the prayer room would allow UMIS to improve the female prayer space and combine Friday prayers into a single session.
“Once we get the new extension done to the premises, then we could actually increase the size of the female section that would be appropriate to the ratio of female attendees,” he said.
“If the extension is done to what we are requesting (10m x 10m) that would give us enough space to do the one Friday prayer.”
Students have also had problems gaining access to the prayer room.
Campus and property services are responsible for authorising students’ cards to swipe into the building, but they are only contactable via email.
Mr Razvi said a phone number or a point of contact on-campus would “make things more efficient”.
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