UWI staff, students must take protest to Government

THE EDITOR: I must express my disappointment with the action of the Guild of Students executive, and its president and vice president in their response to protests by the WIGUT.

The UWI, St Augustine campus principal is rightfully powerless as she does not pay salaries. Let me remind the UWI community that it was a Cabinet decision to cut subventions to The UWI by ten per cent.

Together with tuition fees, it is that subvention that keeps The UWI running and what prompted former principal Prof Brian Copeland to suggest an increase in tuition fees to make up for shortfalls.

The government already slashed GATE funding for tertiary education and national scholarships, so The UWI income stream is running dry hence a two per cent salary increase.

I almost fell over when I heard that Dr David Muhammad, director and founder of the Black Agenda Project and Kwame Ture Centre had the big belly to suggest naming Piarco Intl Airport after Dr Eric Williams! This country is sick with PNM.

At the recently concluded graduation ceremonies of The UWI St Augustine campus, MP Camille Robinson Regi, shouldn’t have been invited. Is it that we have to bend over before the PNM in order to access funding for the operations of our beloved campus?

Why are we still salivating over Eric Williams? The Piarco Airport should be named after Mr Basdeo Panday, as we have had enough of Eric Williams, it’s time to retire this man!

Back to the topic. Colm Imbert is having a giggle watching our lecturers protest to our principal and us students suffer in the form of more examination anxiety. It is our taxpayers’ dollars filling the treasury, we must get back our subvention, the pandemic is over and Imbert is boasting of a booming economy.

The Guild of Students executive has to show some reproductive fortitude and join forces with our lecturers and take the protest to the government!

It is about politics, it is a politically influenced problem, like everything else wrong with Trinidad and Tobago. We did it before to protest student safety on campus, and it worked. We did it back in the day to lead to an uprising against the same PNM, and we must do it again!

KENDELL KARAN

Chaguanas