No consultation between UWI Guild President and TSUTT
The Guild of Students of the University of the West Indies St. Augustine wishes to acknowledge that it has made no official statement on the Constitution Amendment Bill 2014 thus far. The 24-member Council of the Guild considers as misleading, the contents of a video news report published on the CCN TV6’s website on Saturday 23rd August 2014 entitled ‘UWI Constitution Reform’.
The first issue is that of the title of the story, which suggests that the University of the West Indies either made a statement on the bill or was directly involved in the current public discourse surrounding the bill. Let it be known that until now the Council has made no official statement on the controversial bill. The second issue is with the statement that the Tertiary Students Union of Trinidad and Tobago was ‘given a mandate by the country’s student Guilds and their presidents to protest the Constitution Amendment Bill, in particular its run-off provision’.
While the Guild Council encourages and supports student activism, there was no discussion between the TSUTT and the President of the Guild of Students Mr. Matthew Peters regarding the Constitution Amendment Bill nor any other issue currently facing students of the country. A letter has been sent to the Chairman of the TSUTT Mr. Jean-‐Luke Atwell to enquire as to when the UWI Guild of Students was engaged on this or any other matter and for another public statement to be made explaining the Guild’s involvement and interaction with the Union.
While there have been several calls for the Guild of Students to comment on social and even political issues, it maintains that its purpose is to serve the needs of the students first and foremost. The Guild acknowledges that this servitude extends beyond the confines of the St. Augustine Campus, especially where political decisions may affect the students of the UWI. However the council will only act and comment on issues following consultation with the student body. The second semester at UWI ended on May 16th 2014 and Summer School, which began on May 19th 2014, ended on July 25th 2014. This means that the 18,000 plus student population could not be properly engaged on this or any other topic as the Guild of students currently does not possess the necessary resources to significantly gain feedback from students outside of the academic year. It was always the council’s position to consult with students on this and several other issues through proposed town hall meetings on campus once the semester began on August 24th 2014.
At present the Guild Council is treating with other issues that directly impact the student population such as the drastic and significant cut in tuition funding for Barbadian students, the broader economic impact on students from Small Island Developing States, the difficulties faced by students registering for the e-‐GATE service, campus safety and security and the many other stresses and strains that tertiary level students face. Needless to say the Guild will speak directly to national, regional and international issues once proper consultation takes place at the St. Augustine campus in the upcoming weeks.
Guild of Students
St. Augustine Campus
The University of the West Indies