Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
UGSS demands details on spending of Facilities Fee
– calls failure to include students “deceitful and discourteous act”
Although Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi, had assured students that the use of the Facilities Fee will be transparent, students are beginning to raise concern in this regard.
UGSS President, Joshua Griffith
President of the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS), Joshua Griffith, yesterday announced that the UGSS will be communicating its related discontent to the University’s Council. In an advisory to students yesterday, he noted that “it is with great disappointment that we are compelled to inform you, the student body, that the Committee indicated to have the responsibility of managing the learning resource fees ($40,000 per student)…the majority of the recently imposed hefty Facilities Fee has not been properly convened to date, some nine months after the beginning of this academic year 2014/2015.”
The purpose of the learning resource fee is to cater to classroom resources among other programme delivery needs. It is therefore the role of the Committee to manage the spending and allocation of the Facilities Fee, while ensuring accountability.
According to Griffith, the UGSS has been reliably informed that while the Committee reportedly convened one meeting sometime last year, the students’ society was not invited. This development, Griffith said, resulted in numerous letters being inked to the University’s administration over the past months which only resulted in unfulfilled promises to properly convene the Committee.
“We have witnessed small improvements to the learning resources of the campus (whiteboards, projects, etc.), however these projects did not receive input or guidance of a convened Committee, as was mandated by the University’s Council,” Griffith explained.
For this reason, he pointed out that “…we are unable to state the true cost of these improvements and therefore how much of our money was actually spent, especially in this manner that blatantly disregards an established agreement and principle.”
Regarding the state of affairs as an affront, Griffith added that the trust and sacrifices made by students to pay increased fees must go on record as yet another deceitful and discourteous act by the University’s administration.
With the hike in the tuition fee implemented last year, students were required to pay a Facilities Fee amounting to a total of $50,000. Professor Opadeyi had disclosed then that the fee would go towards the enhancement of the University’s facilities.
He revealed that the fee would be managed by Four Committees, including one which will see input from student representatives, a measure that is expected to cater to accountability.
The then Registrar, Mr Vincent Alexander, noted that transparency will be readily permitted on an individual basis as each student will be able to see online, as well as on his/her invoice, the specifics of the Facilities Fee. “It is broken down item by item on the invoice and online so that they (students) can see it,” said Alexander as he pointed out that there are a number of areas that Committees will oversee.
One Committee, according to him, will cover the General Facilities Fee, which will cater to classroom resources among other programme delivery needs. Other Committees will direct focus to a Sports Fee, Library Deposit and Students’ Society dues, all of which are included in the Facilities Fee, Alexander said. The latter fee, he intimated, would understandably gain attention from the student body members.
But based on the disclosures of the UGSS President, who posted his concerns to his Facebook page yesterday, the process has not been as transparent as it was touted to be.
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