THE EDITOR, Sir:
I DO believe that the students who saw it fit to lock the entrances to the university are in the minority. Nevertheless, it is still cause for serious concern when such a large body of students felt that their only option was to unlawfully prevent both non-paying and paying students from
entering the university.
In my view, what this shows is the need for leaders with vision at all levels of the society. Damion Crawford, president of the UWI Guild of Students, and the students who saw it fit to follow his lead, are no different from the persons who block roads and burn tyres in the name of justice. It is very incongruous for the Guild of Students to be calling for justice for non-paying students and at the same time perpetuate injustice to the paying students and other individuals who have lawful business on the campus of the university.
It is very important for us as a people, and in particularly university students, to realise that the end cannot justify the means. What Mr. Crawford should have done was to garner the support of both the non-paying and paying
students and then get a consensus to peacefully protest by staying away from classes and the campus, if all other means were exhausted. In effect, this would have achieved the same
objective of sending a message to the university administration and the Government that there is need to keep the channel of communication open in an effort to reach a more amicable solution. The difference between this option and the one that the students took is that this would have been lawful and it would not have alienated well-thinking Jamaicans.
Being a student (not at UWI) at the lower level of the financial ladder and who is facing a similar situation at my university, I understand and fully appreciate the difficulties that the
students are facing, but I do believe that there is a right and wrong way to achieve an objective. Students are not immune from prosecution because they are students, and therefore if tear gas is what is required to disperse an unlawful assembly by students, then they should not expect to be treated in any way different from law breakers.
ACCOMMODATION
My advice to the student population is to elect a leader with vision. To the university
administration, I would suggest that they create, through dialogue with the students, a programme to accommodate the students that are finding it difficult to pay their fees.
To the Government, I recommend that they play an interceding role between the university administration and the Guild of Students. The Government also has a responsibility to assist the less fortunate in our society. This means that all persons should have equal access to tertiary level education and not just the wealthy.
I am, etc.,
CURTIS JONES
jones70@hotmail.com
Greater Portmore
St. Catherine
