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But none of those six years were actually spent in the sprawling campus in Gombak (covering over 700 acres of land). For the early intakes (the university itself was established in 1983), life was pretty hard in IIU, actually.
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When I entered the matriculation program, our "campus" was at section 15 in Subang Jaya, where Inti and Taylor's are located now. The hostel consisted of shophouses that accommodated 16-20 people per room.
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Second year of matriculation saw us shifting to Lembah Pantai after taking over the Institut Bahasa premises. It was rather okay, except that for one semester, we had to be relocated to Section 8, Shah Alam (near Bukit Cerakah, for crying out loud!). So every morning we had to take a charter bus and if we missed it, it meant us having to ponteng for the day!
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Finally when I got to the actual 4-year law degree program, we moved to the campus in Petaling Jaya. But as the university grew, and more and more student were admitted without really considering the facilities available, it became quite uncomfortable, both with the hostel and classroom situations.
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Anyway, maybe I'll write more about those wonder years in the future, but back to last Friday's espisode, I was thrilled to see the beautiful campus which I last visited maybe 10 years ago.
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As usual, we started at 6.30am, and in no time at all, we had a decent crowd flocking to the Business Centre to have a look at how a live morning show was done.
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From another point of view, I was rather surprised by what I saw of IIU during the broadcast. They had various arts and culture groups that were represented by both sexes.
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And we also saw some other interesting types of activities like the silent march, muay thai and even yoyo-playing!
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Back to my earlier point, I found this to be surprising cos that wasn't the scenario 15-20 years ago. Still during its infancy, IIU saw a "battle" of sorts between those from religious schools and those from "secular" schools, like myself.
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I won't say this was a good or bad thing, it's just that it was quite an interesting period where the culture and philosophy of the university were still being formed and manifested by its students. Segregation of the sexes was very strict, and there was no way an angklung group with both sexes included could have been formed back then.
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I remember once M.Nasir was invited to give a talk and even that became a source of disagreement for many.
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But again, the feeling was very special for me last Friday, especially when I even got to interview the Rector. Never had I imagined back then that one day I'd be interviewing the IIU Rector 'live' on national TV!
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Indeed it was a real eye-opening and a special day for yours truly...
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Pics: www.facebook.com/mhitv3
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