UB agriculture students strike over living conditions
Students at the institution formerly known as the Belize College of Agriculture are better known for raising crops rather than cain. But today they were out of class and on the march, saying that conditions at the school were more like a prison than a university. Jose Sanchez reports from Central Farm.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The amalgamation of the tertiary level institutions into the University of Belize has been relatively smooth in Belize City, but at the Faculty of Agriculture in Central Farm, things have gotten so bad, that the Vice President of Student affairs had to intervene.
Martin Cuellar, Vice President, Student Affairs
“These students felt it was important enough to hear the voice and also the presence of, not only the leader of their faculty here, but some of the decision makers in the higher administration of the University. We certainly would certainly like to support that request and that’s why I am here.”
Though UB administrators feel that the students were asking for dialogue, their actions were confrontational. Students have stopped attending classes since Tuesday evening because they felt no one was listening.
Benoni Tzib, Student UB
“As you can see this is the shower where we take our bath. They have chores for us, they want us to clean it and they haven’t given us the materials such as disinfectant to wipe it and when they come and see if they give us a demerit. How do they expect us to wipe it if they don’t give us the correct material? Sometimes no water is there when we want to urinate, it stays like that.”
Jose Sanchez
“And this morning what happened?”
Benoni Tzib
“There was no water. This morning we woke up and wanted to brush our teeth and there was urine in the toilet and we could not flush it. We had to go way by the vat to get water to brush our teeth.”
Aldo Novelo, Student
“We have brought up these issues on several occasions from first semester. Our student government didn’t push these issues until yesterday whereas everyone got tired and everything and pressured the student government to look into these matters. As a result that is how no one went to class from yesterday.”
Shaneen Avilez, Student, UB
“I am upset about many things about our institution. First of all our living conditions are terrible. We don’t even have sanitary water to drink and that is not fair, we pay a lot of money to attend this school and we don’t see where our money is going. And when it comes to administrative work, we have a computer room, yes indeed, but we don’t even have a printer to print out our work.”
But it seems that the problems are more than just about living conditions. Relations with the Dean of the school have gone sour as well.
Shaneen Avilez
“He does not have good PR with his students. Like a number of people told him this morning, most of the students are afraid of him. You see him coming and you want to run, you don’t want to stay there for him to speak to you and this shouldn’t be and we are a tertiary level institution. We are so small all of us should be able to interact like family and that is not happening.”
Jermaine Lino, VP, Student Council
“Students approach us and we have different meetings along with the dean and try to relate our issues to him and let him really understand the situation back here, but when he has meetings and take information to people in the UB hierarchy, he doesn’t tell us what he did with them. He doesn’t even call meeting with us.”
Jose Sanchez
“Some of the students said that they’ve tried to communicate these issues to you, but they don’t feel like they’ve gotten the response that they deserve.”
David Jones, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture
“I think I am partly to blame for that because I like solutions. I don’t want to tell you every time that “I’m working on it.” So all these things they’re talking about, the water system, getting the demerit system in place, getting fees reduced, petitions have been made for all those thing to central administration, but for some reason, they want more information. They’re working on it, definitely working on it, but like I said, I don’t like to tell the students every time that “they’re working on it” because I want to see solutions. So like I said, it is good that sometimes students take a stand and come out and let other people know that yes they are serious about this thing. I don’t feel anyway about it because I’ve been working on these things and the record is there to show that I have been working on these things.”
Jose Sanchez
“Will you change your tactic now and talk to them, because this has resulted in at least two days loss in school and they haven’t said whether or not they will return to classes tomorrow or Monday for that matter?”
David Jones
“We hope that they will return to class because central administration cannot tell them anything that I have not told them, before right now. It’s the same thing we’ve been trying to work with for years… well not for years, but since I’ve been here. But we are trying to work through it and being a part of the solution we can work together. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jose Sanchez
“The meeting between students and school officials lasted over two hours. Students were given promises, but they want results. Unless they believe changes will be made, the classrooms will remain empty for a while. Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.”
