The Editor, Sir:

The Guild of Students of the UWI, Mona, campus should be commended for holding a vigil for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. I strongly believe that the display of solidarity within the student community is essential. However, I would suggest that the UWI, Mona, campus community, both student and administrative hierarchy, engage in some fervent introspection with a view to assessing whether or not something of this magnitude is possible in our institution.

I say this because, the UWI, despite its resolute stance of being student-centred, is far from it, rather it is as Garth Baker states "a suffocating bureaucracy, defensive and immune fromcriticism". The UWI's director of student services and development stated that "we should stop and think how many students among us need a friend, but we are too busy, too popular, too caught up in ourselves to see that student"; noble utterance at best. But have the many issues affecting its vast student population been addressed? How often has the UWI fallen into the role of being too caught up in itself to see the plight of its students? How does the UWI intend to answer its students' cry for help or prevent a disgruntled student from 'acting out'?

Recently, the issue of acquaintance rape was raised, has it been addressed? What of the rampant abuse of power in the programmes at the UWI? Perhaps, the UWI could posit an acceptable explanation for the large number of graduate students who have started three- or five-year programmes and at year 7 and 10 are now left contemplating the next step. Many of our students who have experienced cases of victimisation and abuse and have attempted to seek redress from the relevant authorities have been subjected to feigned ignorance or worse yet, useless platitudes such as "take it as an opportunity to build character", rather than being presented with practical solutions. Might I humbly suggest to the UWI that it address the concerns of the students and come down from the lofty grandeur within the clouds to the realities of our struggling students. We cannot continue to pretend that the UWI is immune from the ills plaguing our society, rape, abuse, victimisation, poverty and several other ills, some of which are endemic to the UWI, are affecting the mettle or our students. UWI, I implore you to address these issues urgently.

I am, etc.,

Disgruntled

disgrutledgrad@lycos.com

Kingston

Via Go-Jamaica