[www.inewsguyana.com] – The University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) has spoken out on the current situation at the institution, in wake of the proposed hike in tuition fees.
In a statement, the student Body wasted no time in pointing out the unsatisfactory physical conditions at the University, striding out of its continual under-resourcing.
“Successive generations of students have had to pursue their studies in what have been and continues to be altogether unwholesome conditions,” the statement noted.
According to UGSS President Joshua Griffith, it is the considered opinion of the Body that current and future generations of UG students must adopt a more assertive, perhaps even more militant posture, in the matter of the wholly inacceptable standards that obtain in many areas at the University.
“For as long as this situation persists the intellectual resources of our country will remain imperiled,” he observed.
The student Body registered its dissatisfaction too with the outcomes of recent deliberations on important University-related matters.
“Since the UGSS participated in those discussions we cannot, in fairness, distance ourselves from the outcomes… We wish however, to provide assurances that no effort was spared to vigorously represent the interests of the students. More importantly, we wish to state that we consider engagements with the university administration to be an ongoing pursuit that must continue as long as there are student issues to be ventilated.”
The President said plans are afoot to write Vice Chancellor seeking a meeting to pursue solutions to some of the more urgent problems confronting the student community.
He said too that student representation at that meeting will go beyond the UGSS executive and will include two student representatives of each faculty and two representatives from the Tain Campus.
The proposed agenda for the meeting will be fashioned by the student delegation after the selection has been completed and will include student loans, funding for the work of the UGSS and student fees.
Griffith assured that adequate mechanisms are being put in place to update students on the progress of the deliberations.
He recalled that at a meeting with students during the ‘season of consultations’ in June, Vice Chancellor Opadeyi asserted that “when you start paying for quality, then you demand quality.” To this end, he observed that that the fees increase is a done deal and said the entire student body must commit itself to holding the Vice Chancellor to his word.
