Cave Hill students still protesting
published: Thursday | February 17, 2005

By Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN students and school officials at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados have reached a stalemate with students vowing to continue demonstrating until the administration reopens talks.

Kenneth Bobb, president of the Guild of Students told The Gleaner: "We are still at a stand-off (because) the administration has refused to meet with us for negotiations as long as we are demonstrating." He added that "The students have indicated that as long as the administration maintains its stand-off by not being able to negotiate from zero dollars, then we are not going to remove the obstacles."

The students are protesting over a proposed implementation of a mandatory J$21,700 or BDS$700 student amenities fee, which was announced by Professor Hilary Beckles, principal of the school on February 4. The fees are to be implemented in September.

Yesterday, students went into day two of their demonstration. Dressed in red, they formed human barricades across the campus preventing any form of activities. They also padlocked the doors of classrooms, the library and the administrative building, completely shutting down the University.

Members of the Guild of Students also met with the school administration to discuss the proposed student amenities fee. But according to Mr. Bobb, nothing came from those talks.

"There is no change, except in the fact that that he (Professor Beckles) has indicated that he is now willing to consider hardship cases as reasons to discount and set up criteria for such hardship cases. While the student body stand has always been, let us start with the negotiations at zero dollars," he said.

The president also criticised the school administration for their "high handed" approach in implementing the fees. But in an address to the angry students yesterday, Professor Beckles said that the fees were necessary as the Cave Hill campus was the least developed of the other campuses in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

"The Government of Barbados is committed to funding the academics, the infrastructure and the capital works of the campus but not to finance social amenities and therefore that decision about social amenities ought to take place in the context of a student amenities fee," he said.