Despite an appeal for normalcy from hospitalised University of Guyana (UG) Vice-Chancellor (VC) Jacob Opadeyi, university staffers continued a sit-in yesterday, while the student leadership urged a boycott of classes until their concerns are addressed.
A day after Opadeyi announced that classes would resume after a week-long sit-in, staff and students resolv-ed to continue to press to have their demands addressed.
At a meeting with students at the George Walcott Lecture Theatre (GWLT) at the Turkeyen Campus yesterday morning, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Ramlall disclosed that Opadeyi was hospitalised. After persistent follow-up enquiries, Ramlall added that he was hospitalised at the Caribbean Heart Institute.
However, she read a prepared address from Opadeyi, seeking to explain the current constraints faced by the university administration and the need for lecturers to work more hours, while appealing for a “return to normalcy” to create an enabling environment to resolve the problems.
“I ask for the sake of our students…, let us return to normalcy, let classes resume, and give the Administration the time to turn this institution around for good,” Ramlall quoted him as saying, while lamenting the possible loss of another full week of lectures.
“I appeal to all staff, let us not extend the semester by weeks. Let the negotiations continue without threats and let good sense prevail,” he added.
But according to President of the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU) Bruce Haynes, it was decided that the sit-in would be extended until Thursday. Haynes said the atmosphere on campus was charged and the staff was geared for the long haul. Moreover, he said the shutdown of UG was imminent.
The UGWU and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) last week began the sit-in following a collapse in negotiations over wages with the UG administration. Academic staffers have also objected to a workload policy proposal by Opadeyi, saying they were not properly consulted on it.
Although the UG Council last week indicated that it had instructed its negotiating team to resume engagements with the UGSSA and the UGWU, the unions say are awaiting clarification about the resumption of negotiations.
‘Prorogued’
University of Guyana Student Society (UGSS) President Joshua Griffith, who before addressing the students wished Opadeyi a speedy recovery, yesterday said students have been dealing with the current situation far too long and called for basic changes to be made by the university administration.
“Is that too much to ask?” he enquired from the students, at the GWLT, who responded with a resounding “No!”
He said the semester had just started and the toilets are already reeking. “Until such a time as the… basic conditions are met, this campus is prorogued,” he said.
Griffith emphasised that until there is respect for students and the address of students’ concerns, there is no university and he called on all students to resist the urge to boycott the revolution by attending classes.
He also lauded the lecturers on their sit-in strike action over their demands. “Respect our education; that is all that we are asking for,” he added.
Student Elsie Harry said she received an email informing students that UG was operational and she and other students should turn up for classes. However, when she arrived at the Turkeyen Campus, the sit-in was still ongoing. As a result, she said it was deceitful that the administration would send out such an email.
“We are not sheep and you will not continue to deceive us,” Harry told Ramlall in what she described as her message to Opadeyi.
“…If this administration wants the respect of the students, they need to give the students respect,” Harry insisted, while adding, “Let the Vice-Chancellor know that the revolution has started.”
She further said that if Opadeyi was not going to help the revolution, he should move out of its way.
Harry told students that they will not have any classes since the administration has refused to negotiate with the lecturers. “I am saying to you, if needs be we are going to lock down this campus,” she said, while declaring that the students have suffered long enough, therefore business will not be conducted as usual. “They will not sit in their offices and pretend that they are doing work on our behalf, because they are not,” she told the students as she asked Ramlall to take the students’ demands to Opadeyi.
Among their demands were the rehabilitation of the washrooms by the end of the week, cutting of the grass around the campus, the issuance of outstanding grades, and the enhancement of the lecture theatres. If the students do not see changes by the end of the week, Harry said, “Things are going to get really, really, really bad.”
She declared that she will be writing to the administration requesting a refund of her tuition fee. She said if they refuse then she will take legal action.
Wages
According to Opadeyi’s presentation, which was read by Ramlall, in the past two years the university reduced its deficit from $619 million to $374 million, due to an injection of over $533 million by the government, while an additional $300 million is expected to clear the deficit for 2014.
In addition to deficit management, he said other issues facing the university include antiquated examination and admission regulations; a high number of lecturers with less than adequate qualifications; poor level of productivity; arbitrary cancellation of classes; unacceptable; and undue delays in the submission of examination results. Also facing the university is an unworkable system of student evaluation of lecturers. “This is too much weight for a lone University to carry,” Ramlall quoted from Opadeyi’s statement.
At the same time, he said the university administration will not shirk its duties and responsibilities to correct the signs of poor financial and human resource management that have plagued the university for years.
In reference to the wage negotiations, Opadeyi said the university’s Negotiating Committee began meeting with staff unions in November, 2014, after receiving a duly delivered Memoranda of Demands for staff. So far, he reported that the administration has had two “cordial and collegial” preliminary meetings. However, he said a third meeting was postponed due to the need to present a counter offer and receive remit from Council as well as the need for negotiations to be held with a duly recognised union.
Opadeyi argued that the current salary increase demand of 60 per cent across-the-board should be examined against the backdrop of how the university would ensure that it does not return to a deficit and how it would reduce wasteful spending. Also of concern to him is how the university would improve efficiency and quality and, furthermore, fund the proposed increase. “It certainly will not be through a new increase in tuition fees nor through the use of facilities fees, as some have advocated,” he said, adding, “We will not use these funds to support a salary increase.”
Productivity
Opadeyi, in his presentation, lauded the “hard working” staff who have supported the university over the years and ensure it is kept open.
However, it was noted that a recent Human Resources study of the university revealed that 29 per cent of lecturers spend less than 20 hours per week on the job and 48 per cent of lecturers spend less than 10 hours per week teaching. Further, 70 per cent of lecturers publish zero papers per year and 80 per cent of lecturers spend less than 10 hours per week on research.
Opadeyi also questioned the rationale of a full-time lecturer being contracted to teach nine hours a week, while raising concerns about what a lecturer does with zero published records does in a 38-hour week after teaching nine hours. Further, he asked why over 50 per cent of lecturers are not available for students’ consultations between 9 am to 4 pm daily and how could a university with 6,500 students and 268 full-time lecturers have 177 part-time lecturers. “It is because most of our full-time lecturers carry very light teaching loads?” he asked.
Although Opadeyi admitted that the salaries of lecturers are “very low” compared to their counterparts in the region, he added, “But so also are their teaching loads.” Full-time lecturers, he charged, “teach one day in a week and disappear for the rest of the week, but return with no research output at the end of the year.”
Additionally, he said low teaching loads by full-time lecturers mean more part-time lecturers are needed to fulfil teaching obligations. As a result, he said the university currently spends $150 million per year on part-time appointments.
Opadeyi added that the current employment contract of every lecturer at UG clearly states that he/she is required to teach at least 360 hours per year. While saying the salaries and benefits of lecturers should be increased and will be, he added that “their workload must be equitable.”
Referring to the Human Resources study, he said it found that an increase in salaries and wages at UG will not necessarily lead to improvement in the quality of offerings and service delivery. “Increase the salary today; it will be the same old same old,” he said, while adding that increases in salaries will only lead to efficiency and quality of services only if the administration holds lecturers to the true meaning of 360 hours, raise the minimum qualifications of lecturers and make student evaluation results an input in contract renewal decision, among other requirements.
Options
Opadeyi said options for funding an increase include an increase in subvention, in tuition or a decrease in part-time expenditure by at least 50 per cent and reduction in programme offerings with low enrollment. Additionally, he said another option is the boost in enrollment in Science and Technology programmes through government scholarships to 1,000 new students over the next five years.
The key decision issues before the university administration, he added, are whether to seek the Ministry of Education/Ministry of Finance and Cabinet support for an increase in subvention, and maintain last year’s Council decision on increase in tuition and management to maintain current policy of at least 360 hours of classroom teaching and over with a defined maximum.
“Can these be accomplished in one week of negotiation filled with intimidations, sit-in, holding of students as hostage and disrupting the lives of 6,500 students?” he asked.
“The current industrial climate is not about the reluctance of the administration to increase salaries,” he said, “It’s about how we raise the funds to support the increase and how we improve the productivity of our lecturers.”
