U.B. faculty, students challenge administration
On Thursday night personnel employed by the University of Belize met to establish a U.B Faculty and Staff Association. The union, which represents over three hundred employees of the University, was formed to immediately address the proposed restructuring of U.B.. Today, News 5 spoke with the Association’s Interim President, Luz Longsworth and the Chairlady of the Association of Student Governments, Stephanie Young, who said they were surprised to hear U.B. managers last night tell News 5 about the new measures they will be undertaking, when the restructuring has not yet even been discussed with students, faculty and staff.
Stephanie Young, Chair, Assn. of Student Governments
“Well first of all it has been brought to my attention that there are a list of programmes that are going to be cut. And from these programmes, there are two hundred and six students that are enrolled in the programmes and one hundred and ninety-one students that are applying for these programmes. And if these programmes are to be cut, then we are looking at two hundred and six students having no place to go. We’ve heard that, you know, the V.P. of Academic have said that students will be placed in other institutions, but students have not been given this warning or anything. When they left for summer they were given a letter that just talked about the transfer of U.B. to Belmopan, so students left with that in mind, not thinking that they will be coming back to school in August and hear that the programme they were currently enrolled is now being cut. So that is some of the concerns that the students will be facing.”
“So what we as the Student Government have set out to do is gather our student body and organized a meeting with where we can call the students, parents and students who are applying and currently enrolled students, to come and voice their views and concerns and how they feel about it because clearly they are going about it in the wrong way by not asking the students their thoughts and all this, the cuts that will be making. They said that they are going to do one on one counselling with students, but when will that happen? We are already in June and come August, school will be reopening, so how long will that take. So students need to know way before hand.”
Luz Longsworth, Interim Pres., U.B. Faculty/Staff Assn.
“We do believe and agree that there needs to be a look at how we streamline our programmes. But we feel that this is not something that you can do overnight. We think if we do it in twenty days or thirty days, then we’re simply putting a Band-Aid on the situation. We need to be able to have a proper study of the needs of the country, of what the university can offer, and where there are areas that we can perhaps trim without affecting the lives of the students and with the least amount of dislocation for the rest of the faculty and staff who are participating in this process.”
Jacqueline Woods
“But do you believe it’s already a done deal, because it sounds like they are already making the necessary steps as part of the restructuring?”
Luz Longsworth
“Well this is what really surprised us. We were aware of discussions, because we have not actually been, as a group, spoken with. And we thought these were proposals. And indeed, we were waiting to get the details of these proposals from our managers; that has not yet happened. So to have heard last night on the television something that sounded like a fait accompli, really surprised us, because our understanding was that the board had not received any final proposals, nor had the Prime Minister. So to really upset the staff, faculty and students with what we thought were proposals that needed full discussion and study was perhaps a little bit premature.”
On Thursday night the association faxed a letter to Prime Minister and Minister of Education Said Musa to advise the P.M. that students, staff and faculty have not really been part of the consultation process. The association says they are now awaiting a reply.
