Student Rights

It is clear there is a serious trend of victimisation and opportunism taking place in St Augustine and environs, where our burgeoning intellectuals, engineers, doctors, writers, artists, sociologists, politicians and businessmen are being dealt an unfair blow by their landlords, rent increases being a major setback, an antithesis to the free education being propagated by the Government. Students, relieved of the burden of university fees, are now faced by another demon of capitalism, the opportunist money-maker.

I fully support the march of the on and off-campus UWI students, who, as if not having enough on their plates, are being bullied in to paying higher rent or being displaced due to expansion. Expansion? If not already the case, rental agreements should be sanctioned and fixed by law for all students of UWI and UTT for that matter, and landlords should face penalties for unlawfully capitalising on such a distasteful market. They are only students. They are our future, yet we want to start them off in debt? They have enough to worry about on campus.

The Government should fully back such an initiative and it should have never reached to the stage where students are left on their own to fight battles such as these, leaving a feeling of neglect and even disrespect in their hearts. The local authorities should encourage fair rental contracts, with fixed rates for all students, offering kickbacks if necessary to landlords. There should be an association of some kind with all registered landlords in the environs of all university campuses to regulate the negotiations between students and landlords. This association should be in direct talks with the Student Guilds of these campuses so that students have a voice in this crucial aspect of their lives. If these measures are already in place, why are students resorting to protest action?

The University administration is clearly not supporting the plight of our young minds. Where is the unity? ‘Unity’ is not to be only used on a political platform, it should be a goal of every person, every elected body and it should be the backbone of every organisation, public or private.