I refer to the letter UM facilities driving students up the wall and I simply cannot agree more with the writer.

I am a final-year student who has been staying at one of the residential colleges for three years. It has been my pride and joy to be able to study at Malaysia's top university and I am proud to be a UM-er.

However, it does frustrate me personally that problems along the way make the university journey not as smooth sailing as I expected it to be.

The water coolers for example. It is frustrating enough to have dirty-filtered water coolers, but what's worse is seeing so many of them stationed at almost every corner of the faculty hallways.

Just when you think you can find another ‘cleaner' water cooler, you bump into one that is not even functioning - what false hope it gives. Students end up having to pay for drinking water from the sparsely-located RO water machines.

Also, I am a broadband user as I have given up on UM's Wi-Fi connection. I can recall the days in my first year where I had to carry my laptop into the dining halls or libraries where I could get a little bit of connection.

Yes, even though the connection has improved and we can now access it at many more spots, it is still insufficient. Many students would rather sit at a McDonalds to complete their assignments - just because of the Wi-Fi there.

A lack of printers. As students, printing documents and assignments is a must but not every student owns a printer. There is a lack of printers in a lot of the faculties (eg, Faculty of Business and Accountancy and the Faculty of Law) and in general in UM.

Imagine how long the queue can be when one whole faculty shares one printer, not to mention the times when we pop by the printing stall and they are either closed or out of toner.

We then have to rush to the cyber café at the Perdana Siswa Complex only to queue up for a minimum of half-an-hour as there is also only one printer being operated. How frustrating it can be if the guy in front of you is printing a chunk of 100 sheets!

I suggest the installation of more printers all over the university or even the idea of a debit-card self-printing service meaning we have a debit card which we swipe, and it connects us to the printers.

My friends at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore tell me that their university has adopted this for printing and photocopying. With this, we would not need people to mind the printing store. I also suggest that these printing stalls open for longer hours.

Little details of maintenance - how the studying area in my faculty gets flooded with rain water every time the rain hits, ceiling lights in lecture halls which look like they are going to fall off any moment, clocks in tutorial rooms which are out of batteries (for weeks!), lab computers which simply do not start up, and the list goes on and on.

I know these might seem like minor details to many, but put all of them together and it is not as pleasant as we would like it to be. I want to do something about it, I want to help, I want to see change, but how do I go about doing it?

Speaking about the administration, I have written in many complaints and appeal letters which sadly have not been attended to. E-mails of complaints, suggestions and voicing up on matters are all to no avail.

It is also difficult for us to meet the higher authorities as we have to go through a long procedure of ‘making appointments' by which time, our issues or frustration become irrelevant. We have no choice but to just forget about it.

I talk myself into thinking that the university just does not have enough ‘care' for the welfare of the students. It is of no use to just give attention to the academics and it is equally important to take care of each student's welfare.

Happy and satisfied students will translate into a better overall performance for the university as a whole. I do hope that due action will be taken to ensure a better UM for all.