Dear Editor,
The Administration of the University of Guyana has noted with grave concern a letter published on Friday 17th July in Stabroek News titled: `This lecturer is extremely inconsiderate regarding students’ mental health’ purportedly written by a student whose name was not published.
We wish to acknowledge the matter and to note that we are actively addressing it. It has been engaging the Faculty and was being addressed directly by the Assistant Dean in consultation with the students. It is important to note that the published account contains some uncontextualized information which must be explained in fairness to the particular Lecturer and the 1000 other course lecturers in the University who have been overextending for students, especially during this period.
The key contextual points are that (1) the course was among a few which started late in the semester (2) due to the loss of some lecturers for personal matters pertaining to Covid and (3) the rigours of converting to the online mode sometimes require some time. There was a domino effect in some cases which is regrettable but not deliberate on anyone’s part. The loss of the original lecturer meant a late start and this naturally led to a late conclusion of the course. However, all grades shall soon be made available.
Further, it is part of UG’s regulations including those created for this emergency pandemic, that any student who wishes time off for any reason can apply for it and receive it. The University with its limited resources also provides free counselling to students and their families should there be a need for psycho-social support. We, therefore, wish to gently remind all students of these internal mechanisms for redress available to them.
While we sincerely regret that this situation has developed however, careful note should also be made of the fact that both students and lecturers are operating in unprecedented times and are subject to similar unexpected and sometimes unmanageable adverse personal circumstances.
Finally, the University also sincerely regrets that the Letter to the Editor was published without adherence to the norm of basic journalistic practice which mandates the publishing entity to seek to verify or contextualise claims in letters they plan to publish. This is necessary to protect media entities from legal challenge due to unfair or un-factual presentation. It is also to ensure the public trust is maintained through confidence that reporting will occur in a fair, balanced, factual, contextually nuanced, and complete manner especially when letters are being published. We, therefore, request under these journalistic codes, the enshrined right of response in the interest of the public good in publishing the University’s response.
Yours sincerely,
Krest Cummings
for University of Guyana
Editor-in-Chief’s note: There is no requirement for the university to be allowed to respond to letters before they are published. This could be done in some instances at the discretion of the newspaper. The publishing of the letter did not contravene journalistic norms and the university has now been availed its right of reply. The fact that students choose to ventilate their issues in the media suggests that the university has to work harder at solving problems.
