Viral Santri Complains About Basi Food, UIN Walisongo Evaluates Ma'had Al Jamiah's Catering

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

SEMARANG - Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Walisongo Semarang, Central Java conducted an evaluation of the quality of the Ma'had Al Jamiah catering service, or pesantren owned by the campus in response to complaints from a number of students that went viral on social media related to stale food.

Deputy Chancellor for Student Affairs and Cooperation of UIN Walisongo Semarang, Dr Achmad Arief Budiman, conveyed clarification in four points on the viral information circulating.

The evaluation of catering quality is stated in the second point, namely regarding the poor findings of the quality of the catering service as reflected in the video that was distributed, although the information that was spread was not entirely correct.

"However, for UIN Walisongo this is a reminder that needs to be responded positively, so that an evaluation of the quality of the catering service has been carried out and applies regular picking tests as an effort to ensure quality for the next period," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 10.

In the third point, it is explained that catering services for students Ma'had Al Jamiah UIN Walisongo are not mandatory programs, so students can choose to continue subscribing to catering in the second month or stop subscribing.

Santri who stop subscribing to catering are allowed to shop on their own for food purposes.

As for the first month, it was decided to provide catering as an effort to help facilitate new students who came from outside the region, outside the province, outside the possible island did not recognize the terrain and campus environment enough.

If they are not assisted in providing food at the beginning of entry, it is feared that they will have difficulties, but the following month they are welcome to decide between the two options, namely to continue or stop subscribing.

As stated in the fourth point, the involvement of the cottage around the campus as a matchmaking partner (for new students) this year is the first year and has just been running. In fact, it is not yet time for monitoring and evaluations that have been scheduled at the end of August.

However, this momentum will be used positively for a comprehensive evaluation, and coordination with partners will be carried out in order to improve and complete the existing facilities.

Arief explained that the matchmaking program for UIN Walisongo's new students is a mandatory program from the Ministry of Religion through the Decree of the Director General of Islamic Education Number 7272 of 2019 concerning Guidelines for the Implementation of Religious Moderation in Islamic Education.

In the decision, it was explained that the development of religious moderation was carried out by Islamic religious universities (PTKI) so that it needed to be maintained and strengthened by measurable quality management, supervision, and evaluation.

In line with that, Public Relations of UIN Walisongo Astri Amanati added that catering is provided for 2,000 female students at a cost of IDR 450,000 each month with two meals.

"UIN Walisongo is committed to providing better service quality and to anticipate negligence, students can complain through the PPID or Hotline website 0895606791616," he said.

Previously, a video of the confession of students Ma'had Al Jamiah UIN Walisongo uploaded by the TikTok account @mimshw03 featured four women wearing hijab protesting the stale food.

While carrying a food container containing rice and side dishes, in the show they admitted that they did not accept being given basic food from catering services that had been more than three times.