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UG students must become custodians of internet facilities
Maturity and self-regulation were two of the needful traits listed by Mr Radha Krishna
This building houses the University of Guyana’s Internet Resource Centre
Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), to ensure the efficient operation of the University of Guyana (UG) Turkeyen Campus’ Internet Resource Centre.
Sharma, who was speaking at the commissioning of the refurbished Centre, noted that the facility operates with minimum supervision, as is the case with tertiary institutions. It would behove the beneficiaries to utilise the facility for academic purposes, he said.
Students across the Turkeyen Campus are expected to take full advantage of the facility.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this year, the Telephone Company committed to expending $60 million on the Internet Resource Centre in tranches of $20 million.
Even as he described the project as particularly relevant and useful, Sharma pointed to the fact that in life everyone is not similarly well situated.
“Based on my own life experiences I know that what some persons take for granted or deem an entitlement, others must find ways and means to live and succeed without.”
“I am invariably sympathetic to initiatives that make resources available for the larger social good,” Sharma said.
As he addressed the gathering at the commissioning ceremony, Sharma stressed that such a potential can only be realised “if all students make use of this facility as it was intended and take pride in its care and preservation.”
“In a very real sense the student population of the University are the custodian of the facilities here in much the same way as I as GT&T’s CEO must see myself as custodian of the shareholders’ assets…each of you must see yourself as custodian for the facilities provided for your benefit…each of you must see yourself as having the same responsibility that I have…” insisted Sharma.
In response to the CEO’s appeal, Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Jacob Opadeyi said “trust me; we are going to make the best use of it…”
In order to ensure that the optimal use of the refurbished facility can be realised, Sharma informed that efforts were made to carefully dimension and satisfy the needs of an academic campus population.
He however,‘ cautioned that frequent downloads of very large files, the use of peer to peer applications; the downloading of content from virus infested sites, among other things can seriously degrade the quality of service and the user experience for all users.
“This should not be allowed to happen; all users should have a vested interest in ensuring that it does not…GT&T is relying on the users maturity, a sense of responsibility and strong stakeholders’ interest to avoid the obvious jeopardy and pitfalls associated with bandwidth provision to community facilities,” stressed the CEO.
He said that a project of this nature warrants a close working relationship and a collaborative team spirit that currently prevails between UG and GT&T.
The recent refurbishment of the facility saw the replacement of 57 computers that the Telephone Company had earlier donated, and a boost to the internet bandwidth offered to two megabytes at a cost of $1.2 million monthly.
When the facility was first opened GT&T had equipped it with equipment valued at $10 million and also had provided 512 kilobytes, which was then deemed high speed internet access.
“I feel privileged that my company has been an integral part in this venture as we take the concept of corporate/social responsibility seriously, and will continue to look for opportunities to apply its business model to the solution of societal needs,” highlighted Sharma.
And in discharging its corporate/social responsibility, Sharma said that GT&T’s focus will continue to be on sustainable human development mechanisms, as according to him, “the enhancement of skills will fuel by the multiplier effect, social, capital growth and development.”
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