UB Belize City Campus wants govt to increase subvention

The budget for 2009-2010 for the Government of Belize is scheduled to be presented to the House of Representatives on March sixth and a big chunk is usually allocated to education. But for the Student Government of the University of Belize’s City Campus, their allocation does not look promising. So they are petitioning G.O.B. to increase the university’s subvention in the upcoming budget. According to president of the student government, Moses Sulph, the university is not receiving adequate subventions for the much needed infrastructural development in facilities to accommodate the growing number of students. He accuses government of neglect and says that the current subvention of approximately eight point five million dollars is inadequate and should be increased by another sixty percent.

Moses Sulph, President, Student Government, U.B. Belize City
“We’re asking for the subvention to the University of Belize, the national university, to be increase not by a million dollars, but due to the economical situation of the country at this time, we are more than happy and we are asking for a five million this year. We are not putting it at an amount whereby we expect to get less as in asking for twenty-five million and hope that we get five. No, we’re accepting five at this time or if more can be given then that would be much appreciated. But at this time the reality of the matter is that we need more than a million dollars.”

Duane Moody
“Why is that so sir?”

Moses Sulph
“This semester for instance, we are out of classrooms. We shouldn’t be able to accept additional students unless some revision of where lecture is done is being done here. The fact of the matter is that we need this additional money because we need labs, we need classrooms, we need recreational centers, we need a whole lot of infrastructural development which the university did not come with in the first place. So it is necessary that we get this kind of money over the next couple of years. We’re not asking for it in one lump sum so if we get five million this year, and five next year, by the end of five six years we would have actually achieved excellence in infrastructural development. We have been petitioning for about three-four years straight now and yes we have been petitioning recently and yes we met with the Minister of Education twice and we’ve given him an idea of what we really need here to move us forward with regards to infrastructure and brings about research and all those articles. So we have been doing what you can calls consultation.”

Duane Moody
“If this doesn’t go through what’s the next step for the student government and the students of the Belize City Campus?”

Moses Sulph
“I have always tried to advocate for three things to my students. We’re trying to be as diplomatic as possible so we’re trying to follow the guidelines of consultation, consolidation and confrontation. We hope that our efforts can be resolved through consultation and consolidation, but it is very understandable that in any step if you need to get to the last step to accomplish your goal then that’s what you will do.”