**Lahore University of Management Sciences just opened its latest of its on-campus housing but the name left people scratching their heads.

Three Sisters Hostel

Shehreen Muneeb, 19, a current sophomore at LUMS, who lives on campus, gave Aaj News a sense of the space. According to her the university has five hostels for women, with a capacity of 618 students each. They are Ali family hall, Henna-Amina hall, Perwin Ali hall, Mubarak hall, and MZMG hall. All the hostels are named after Syed Babar Ali’s family.

Syed Babar is a businessman, philanthropist, and former caretaker finance minister of Pakistan. He also founded Packages limited, Nestle Pakistan, and is the founding Pro-Chancellor of LUMS. The Babar Ali Foundation made a donation of an estimated 350 million rupees to get the building made.

The new building has been the focus of some Twitter chatter for its name. According to a tweet, it was named after three women who had a significant impact on Syed Babar Ali’s life: His mother and her two sisters. They chose to go with the name “Three Sisters Hostel” since they supposedly did not want to use the specific names for each woman.

According to Shehreen, “the newest addition is the biggest and most spacious out of all six buildings. Double occupancy rooms, which two women share, have been maintained to the same standards as the others.” There are 252 rooms and can accommodate 500 students.

’However, we desperately needed a new building in my opinion. The other five accommodations were made for triple sharing and it was too cramped having to share a small room with two other girls, this one is more spacious which is great. They are also shifting all the other rooms in the older buildings to double occupancy which will really help“

When we asked Shehreen about details of the security situation and whether the girls felt unsafe she responded with “The boys and girls hostels are two opposite ends of the LUMS campus. There are barricades in front of every entry point that goes towards the girl’s hostel as well as a guard. We also have the faculty accommodation behind ours so that makes it safer. The only problem with the new addition is that its the furthest from the gate and it takes about eight minutes to get to”

Moving on, she gave us some insight into what hostel life is like for girls at the university. “You can bring your own appliances like a cooler, heater, or mini fridge however we usually have to pay extra for it. Most students don’t bring extra things because we have already been provided with the basic necessities. We have a fridge, microwave, oven, kettle, washer, and dryer as well as other appliances in the kitchen that are open for common use”

“Every girl’s hostel also has its own salon, that biggest one is in f5 but they all have rooms where girls can get waxed, haircuts, and other things for very affordable prices.”

“Students currently have exclusive use of the hostels,” she said. “Other students may apply for a room if the girls do not show up. Every hostel has the essentials, some of the newer buildings contain elevators and all have two large shared restrooms per floor and a kitchen that the students can use. The common rooms are well set up. They have airconditioners so those rooms always stay cold and they’ve also added white boards so students can use it as a space to study”