UB teachers and students march in defiance of wage freeze

The heat associated with the capital today was not only emanating from the high temperatures, but also from the University of Belize. During break, students, faculty and staff converged at the gymnasium in a unified battle mode that grew hostile in the afternoon sun. The university’s employees, who had already heard that the UB board was freezing salary increments for the next three years, were joined today by the students who are fearing a proposed increase in tuition. The consultation process for that proposed tuition increase never got off the ground and that potential financial strain is what’s making U.B. a place the students don’t want to be. The country’s only university is rapidly growing and to meet the development demands under a strained budget, the board decided to withhold the increases. But budgetary constraints were not on the minds of the gathering at the gym. A Pro-Tem Committee organized by the faculty and staff referred to the board as lacking professionalism while implementing an unjustifiable wage freeze at a time of economic downturn. News Five’s Duane Moody attended the standoff at the U.B. gym in the capital.

Duane Moody, Reporting
The protest against a wage freeze stepped up today at the Belmopan campus. The students from both Belize and Belmopan City campuses joined the faculty and staff when it became known that tuition fees would also be increased.

Stephen Sho, President, Belmopan Student Government, U.B.
“Basically we are standing in solidarity with the faculty and staff to fight for a common cause.”

Alex Anderson, Student
“The faculty and staff press conference is now finished and we are going to show them that faculty staff and students of U.B. can come together and will stand together in solidarity for one cause. Students we ask you to get up and let’s walk over to the administration building and we ill walk in solidarity.”

Leonardo Pott, Faculty and Staff Rep, U.B. Board
“Like I said, when this information gets to faculty and staff and students, as a board member, don’t expect me to sit at the board meeting when my faculty and staff and students are out there demonstrating because I will be a part of that demonstration.”

The proposed increase in the tuition fees is slated to come online in 2010 and 2011, according to the student representative of the UB Board of Directors.

Stephen Sho
“It’s a concept paper, but when it comes into effect is in 2010 for new students and 2011 for students that are already enrolled. Because of the frustration and no justification yet, the students are saying no, no to the increase.”

Jacqueline Burns, Student
“We are here for a quality education. This is our national university. If our lecturers are not happy, what kind of quality education are we going to get? Eventually, if they are not happy whatever discomfort they have will trickle right down to us the students. Duane, I cannot begin to express how saddened I am about the audacity of these people telling us that they are going to increase our tuition by such a ridiculous amount when times are hard in these economic days. I am looking at it and I am just thinking it’s not even logical for them to slap me in the face like that.”

Chair of the Pro-Tem Committee, Alison Crawford, says that the faculty and staff have lost trust in the board.

Alison Crawford, Chair, Pro-Tem Committee
“They are not acting on good fate and the meeting that we had, I brought that to the board. I was asking them to please call this emergency meeting to dialogue as they had promised with board. The faculty and staff would like to be treated respectfully by the board. Proper consultation with due process is necessary. A press release of board meetings was made public and schedule for October fifteenth 2009 after the Pro-Tem committee of faculty and staff had requested an emergency board meeting and was denied. The Pro-Tem had been told that a meeting would not be possible until October thirtieth 2009. According to the press release that came out over the weekend, it says as such an extraordinary meeting of the board has been scheduled for Thursday, fifteenth October 2009. So we had to call an emergency meeting for the faculty and staff on Friday to inform them that the board did not see it urgent to meet to call an emergency board meeting. However, immediately after they knew that we had an emergency staff and faculty meeting, this press release came out. We are just a Pro-Tem committee representing the faculty and staff. The Pro-Tem Committee does not give the direction of the plan of action so we’ll have to call the faculty and staff together and the faculty and staff will then mandate the next plan of action.”

The student body and the faculty and staff are up in arms with the U.B. Board.

Jacqueline Burns
“And tomorrow, come tomorrow, we will let them hear our voices where that is concerned. So I invite you back tomorrow so that you see the passion of the students when it comes to fees. We will be heard because we are not only taking this to discussion tomorrow, eventually we are ready to get raatid and we’re going to make them know that guess what we don’t want a dollar added to out tuition.”

On Thursday morning, the board will convene prior to a meeting with students from all four campuses.