175 students from the University of Belize's Faculty of Engineering are angry with UB's administration over what they see as the take over of their campus located on Freetown Road. After 7 months of planning and preparations for the takeover, the students are up in arms as they claim they will be displaced and the University will be giving up precious assets for nothing. At the request of student activist Moses Sulph and a group of other engineering students, President of UB Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis met with them today to discuss the matter.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
President of the University of Belize Dr. Corinth Morter Lewis appeared embattled today as she faced an overflowing classroom of students from the University's Faculty of Engineering. They called her in to address their concerns over the proposed take-over of the Freetown Road campus of the University of Belize. The Ministry of Education plans to build a technical vocational school that will look like this.
Moses Sulph, Student Activist
"Basically our concern to her is what is the plan for the development of the engineering program. We understand that ITVET is not a part of the university and whatever development they bring here, doesn't benefit the engineering program that the university offers any at all. So we want to know where we will be relocated, the engineering program, and what are the plans by the university to develop
the engineering program to be what it ought to be.
We don't have a problem with ITVET being here but we will not give away this campus for free when the university itself has a financial burden and a financial debt that it needs to meet and cannot meet. So therefore, we are saying that we cannot give up our asset, the university's asset, one of its main assets, for nothing when the said government is not giving the adequate subvention to the university in order for it to developed at the level that it is supposed to be.
We are willing to give up the campus if there is some compensation for the development of the engineering program to be somewhere else suitable."
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"The ITVET project is in-trade and it will be building here on the campus. That was a decision made at the board, that they will be supporting the location of that project on this campus."
Moses Sulph,
"If the government was taking care of the university financially, as itr ought to be doing, then we would not have a problem with giving away the campus to the ITVET for nothing. ITVET is not even the subject of the matter here. The subject of the matter is that we cannot give up our en engineering program and will not give up our engineering program and the university needs to be developed so that the services given to students can be what it ought to be."
And while Sulph balks at the idea of ITVET taking over the university's campus, Lewis confirmed that in fact they have given up title to the lands where the faculty of engineering is located but she claims that they are getting something in return.
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"What will come from it is an upgrading for the engineering program that we currently offer ere. Our faculty and staff will be able to benefit from equipment that will come with the ITVET project and certain faculties that they will access to, labs and those sort of things. And also as part of the ITVET project, the government has committed to making sure that our faculty, at this particular program, the engineering program, are able to get upgraded to the Master's and in one case, the PhD level, because those are the current faculties we have. The buildings we have here will be upgraded in addition to, like I said, getting access to the facilities brought as a result of the ITVET project. Our buildings and facilities will be upgraded as a part of what will be done here at the campus. The students are feeling that we should have gotten some money for giving title to the government."
Alfonso Noble,
Title to the entire compound?
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"Well it has been decided that it will be for the entire compound. At first we were looking for one part next to St. Joseph and maybe another part to see what else they would need to construct but the way the whole concept is now for the ITVET project is that they will have two labs and they will likely build on the side of the campus where the football field currently is and they will have some classrooms built at the section behind the heritage building, the main building that has always been there, and that building will be preserved as part of our campus."
Alfonso Noble,
It seems to me basically that UB is surrendering this piece of land, all the infrastructure that is on the land, to ITVET for nothing.
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
It is not all the infrastructure. That is where the concern is, that if they give up the land then it is like the buildings aren't there and they can be thrown out of it. We have had discussions with the Ministry and it is agreed that we will have a formal MOU."
Sulph however says that those MOU's really mean nothing if they are to judge by past experiences with promises that were made to the University of Belize in its formative years. Six years later, he says, things are no different.
Moses Sulph,
"That is according to a MOU that she have but we know before in 2000 when the university was amalgamated, there are numerous MOUs to develop the engineering program and the lecturers and that never materialized so why now should we have faith in any MOUs? It is just another written document and there is nothing solid to show from it so we are saying that as you mentioned before hell and high water, we are willing to stick in hell and high water and at the end of the day, unity does bring about progress and unity can beat any hell and high water."
Hell or high water and if we are to judge by the sort of support Sulph has been able to galvanize in the past, these aren't just idle threats. The question now is, can or will the school administration somehow appease students before the rhetoric escalates?
And while the ITVET's move to the University of Belize's Freetown campus was on the agenda for discussion so too was the institution's plans to raise fees for the new semester. In August the plan was bitterly opposed by students. The government committed itself to cover the difference in the new fees. For that the Taiwanese government handed gob a check for $900,000. UB then gave government a bill for $610,000. Thing is though, that bill was only for the first semester of this school year. Now, students again have to come up with an approximate 200% increase in fees. Sulph told us he understood that government would pay for the entire year.
Moses Sulph,
"We also have a concern with the fees increase whereby the government was supposed to foot it for a year which we accepted for a while but we did not accept totally that the increase should have anyway take effective after a year."
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"The increase was instituted in August so there is not an increase coming in January, it is the increase that was instituted in August. Why the students
are feeling that it is a January increase is because when it was instituted in August, they reacted to the fact that they were having this increase and the government decided that they would pay the money for them, they wouldn't have to pay it. So we got the money from the government last week, for that first semester. Now the second semester is coming up and it is now the students' responsibility to take on the payment for the semester."
Alfonso Noble,
My understanding is that government should have taken care of the fee increase for an entire year.
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"And that is where there was some misunderstanding in terms of information because the government had decided to pay the fees, as we understood it, for that first semester and the students were supposed to then pay it up for the second semester but now we're having some miscommunication because the students are saying that they were told that the government was going to pay for the entire year."
Alfonso Noble,
They told us in the media as well, the same thing, that they were going to be taking up the fees for the entire year.
Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis,
"And that is where we are now at and so we have a meeting of the board and we will see how we sort this one out."
Despite all the hard talk, the meeting with UB's President ended on a cordial note despite the standing differences over the ITVET takeover and the increase in fees.
