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UGSS launches students’ support initiative
With the aim of supporting students who can ill-afford to procure some basic items
Some of the stationery that students will benefit from.
needed to aid their university education, the University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS) on Wednesday officially launched its second annual Back-to-Campus semester initiative.
The move the UGSS has outlined caters to “students who find it difficult to afford basic stationery, an opportunity to receive much needed stationery at no cost to students.”
Stationery include: pens, pencils, three-subject note books, highlighters and calculators just to name a few.
The initiative was inspired in January 2014 by the then UGSS Senior Vice President, Joshua Griffith. Griffith, who has since assumed the Presidency of the UGSS, recalled that at the time he found it quite difficult to acquire basic stationery to attend University.
According to him, “I remember January 2014 was tough. I remember writing on sheets of paper until (one of) my classmates noticed and blessed me with a five-subject notebook and I thought to myself, more students may need this kind of support; let’s give it to them.”
But according to UGSS’s Crystal Blackmoore, “admittedly the second back-to- campus initiative has received a decline in corporate support.
However, the support thus far, she asserted, “will go a long way in helping to improve the lives of our nation’s scholars.”
Nevertheless, she pointed out that “The students of the University of Guyana wish to express appreciation to our main sponsors, to date for this event- Metro Office Supplies and NEC Computer, Office Supplies and Central Electronics.”
We are still awaiting feedback from a few other businesses who have indicated their willingness to support this initiative.”
Students at both the Turkeyen and Berbice campuses will be able to benefit from the initiative as long as stocks last, Blackmoore has asserted.
In addition to the launching of the stationery initiative on Wednesday, Blackmoore reported that there was also an official launch of the UGSS Students’ Affairs and Welfare Division (SAW Division). This division will be coordinated by Natural Science Faculty Representative and Pageant King – Dwayne Mckinnon and Pageant Queen Esther Inniss.
Some of the objectives of the S.A.W division include: to promote the health, happiness, and well-being of students, thereby improving their ability to achieve their educational potential; collaborate with the UGSS to provide financial aid to students because of need; stimulate improved school attendance; advocate fair and just student treatment; educate students on their rights and responsibilities; coordinate strategies for guidance and student support; promote involvement and support of the University’s administration in all of the above mentioned factors.
Just recently the UGSS launched its #UG Revolution, an initiative that is aimed at highlighting students’ concerns, with a view of addressing, substandard and poorly maintained facilities at UG. These concerns, Griffith had disclosed were evident for decades and have remained constant because of the lack of financing.
Moreover, he noted that the #UG Revolution is a conscious effort by students to demand improved facilities against the backdrop of increased tuition. The manifestation of the initiative has constituted actions such as student rallies, the mounting of banners of shame and even multiple campus shutdown tactics.
“We remain steadfast in our struggle for basic facilities. The #UG Revolution is a student effort to rebuild our campus,” said Griffith at a forum earlier this year. And he has since asserted that “I wish to state unequivocally that all actions taken thus far by students, led by the UGSS, were to bring forcibly to the fore our utter disdain at the prevailing substandard conditions at the University of Guyana.”
Although attempts to address some of its concerns, such as moves to improve the physical environment at the UG campus, by the Ministry of Public Works, the Parks Commission and other such entities, were recognized, Griffith has insisted “that this generation of students will not be dissuaded by cosmetic changes. Unless our demands are closely coupled with sustainable commitments, the students will not relent in their struggle for a better University.”
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