- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Students of the University of the West Indies stage a peaceful protest on the university's Mona campus yesterday. They are protesting against the administration's decision to deregister students who have not yet paid their tuition fees.
Mayer Matalon, Gleaner Writer
HUNDREDS OF University of the West Indies (UWI) students gathered in protest outside the main administration building at the Mona campus yesterday.
They were protesting against the recently implemented policy which calls for the deregistration and eventual expulsion of those students who are unable to pay their tuition fees.
"We won't take the oppression anymore. If it takes marching around this campus until the walls fall down, we won't stop. This is bigger than the University of the West Indies; this is a philosophy of the society designed to oppress a certain class of people," said Damion Crawford, president of the University Guild of Students.
Simeon Mohansingh, president of the Mona Association of Postgraduate Students (MAPS), said his organisation was in full support of any plan of action the Students Union takes in order to bring justice to the students. He said it is not only the undergraduate but also the graduate students who are being affected by the new policy.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Many of the departmental awardees graduate students who are selected based on their academic excellence to have their tuition waived and who also tutor lower level students are in danger of having their status revoked, Mr. Mohansing noted.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday threw its support behind the students. In a statement, the party urged "the Ministers of Finance and Education Dr. Omar Davies and Maxine Henry-Wilson to assist the administration of the UWI in finding a solution to the present impasse concerning the payment of school fees."
The joint statement was issued by Audley Shaw, JLP Spokesman on Finance, and Anthony Johnson, the party's Spokesman on education. They argued that the decision of the university to deregister thousands of students "could not come at a worst time, coming as it does on the heels of Hurricane Ivan." They noted that the hurricane had disrupted the lives of many Jamaicans, "including parents and guardians of the university's students."
"Many of the parents and guardians are farmers whose entire income was wiped out by the hurricane," the Opposition spokesmen said.
