Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher
@guardian.co.tt
Students at the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine campus might not have any exams to look forward to at the end of this semester, as the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) is threatening to withhold examination papers if Government does give them their promised salary increases.
As academic, senior administrative and professional staff resumed protest action yesterday, which was the start of the new semester, WIGUT president Dr Indira Rampersad reiterated the frustration of staff still working on 2014 salaries.
Rampersad said next week will be a week of “rest and relaxing,” while lecturers can also choose not to attend classes next week if they aren’t satisfied. If there’s still silence on the Government’s part by next month, they plan to escalate their actions with a blackout as part of what they have labelled “February Fury”.
Rampersad again threatened the withholding of examination papers if their negotiations are not dealt with.
“It’s one thing not to get marks for semester one, but it’s another not to get a question paper for semester two because you won’t even have an exam,” she said.
She said “the faster the Government resolves this issue, the faster the campus will return to normalcy.”
WIGUT members converged on the office of campus principal, Professor Rose-Marie Antoine, demanding answers during a protest yesterday.
However, Antoine admitted she too was waiting on Government to follow through with its commitment to not only pay staff but also pay over $1.4 billion in outstanding fees to the university.
While she admitted UWI is the lowest paid amongst tertiary institutions in the region, she said she has no control over salaries.
“We are at the mercy of Minister of Finance and by extension the Government because campus management, as you know, cannot give you an increase... However you turn, we are in a very difficult straight jacket position. It’s difficult for campus management to manoeuvre in this situation, so I really want to implore all of those, the powers of be, let’s just bring this to an amicable solution,” Antoine told union members.
“I don’t know if it will be a happy solution. But, at least something that is reasonable because it really cannot continue. I took the Prime Minister and the Government in good faith, and as a genuine desire to settle this. We know that we can’t expect an outlandish increase, but I do think certainly more than the two per cent. At this point, I do believe that we do need to move in that direction.”
In terms of course registrations, she said the university will extend the registration deadline for students and alleviate late fees for this semester.
While WIGUT insists their actions are not targeted toward students, the UWI Guild says it is prepared to take action to get their grades.
Guild president Josef Paty said while they understand the plight of the lecturers and staff, who deserve higher wages, it cannot support protest action if it negatively affects students.
He also revealed that the guild will be writing to Finance Minister Colm Imbert on the issue.
Paty said, “This has more implications than people recognise. Some students can’t register for courses and it’s not to say that some of those courses will be offered during the summer, so that means that some people will have to repeat another year. If students do not get to do their final exams, it means those final year students like myself, won’t get to graduate. Those are some significant issues that will affect the students. Not to mention, no one is speaking about the mental aspect of it. Students who just came out of completing five or six courses, now cannot get feedback on what they’ve done. That’s serious, serious mental stress.”
Efforts to contact Government officials to get an update on the matter were unsuccessful yesterday.
