How My Student Guild Dropped the Ball on GATE and Why They Need Our Help

Timeline: March–July 2016

10^th March: GATE Task Force Appointed

• Media publishes the appointment of the GATE Task Force tasked with reviewing tuition expenditure.
• The Task Force is expected to submit a report to the Education Ministry by July 2016.
• The UWI Guild President is a representative on the Task Force.

7^th April: The official result of the UWI Guild Elections 2016 published

• Makesi Peters, the incumbent candidate, was elected President 2016-2017.

8^th April: Media: CNMG, Student perspectives on the National Budget

• Makesi Peters, President and Michael Rajnauth, Vice President of the UWI Guild of Students offer comments on the budget review.

13^th April: Media: CTV, Student perspectives on the National Budget

• Makesi Peters, President and Darrion Narine, National Affairs Chairperson express that students have “concerns” about the status of GATE.
• “The big question is what is going to happen to GATE?” Peters asked. Peters does not explicitly state a student position on GATE.

16^th May: GATE is on the Inter Campus Guild Council Agenda (16^th May – 20^th May, 2016)

• On the opening day of ICGC, Michael Rajnauth, Vice President, presented “The future of Gate for Trinidad and Tobago” on Agenda Item No. 4.

27^th May: Guild Representation at the University Finance and General Purpose Committee (F&GPC)

• Makesi Peters, Presidents posts to the Guild Facebook page that a talking point will be “Tuition payment plan for students.”

31^st May: Guild Council retreat is convened

5^th June: Councillors do the Running Man Challenge to build team spirit

23^rd June: Media: CTV, discussing GATE

• Makesi Peters, Guild President, Johnathan St. Louis-Nahous, Treasurer and Shenell Felix, FHE Representative discuss further “concerns” students have on GATE.
• UWI Student Guild advertises a public forum “CALLING ALL TERTIARY STUDENTS: FUTURE OF GATE” to be held on Saturday.

25^th June: At 1pm (two days after the advertisment was published online)

• On record, Makesi Peters adopted the recommendations from the single consultation as the position of the students and Guild of Students. (see: 3:15-3:56).

6^th July: Pokèmon Go released

• What is GATE? Pikachu on the Waterfront.

10^th July: Guild Announcement of Patrick Manning GATE Fund

• On a Saturday, the UWI Guild Council communicates that a “Patrick Manning GATE Fund” will be established by the Council in order to address the “pending changes” to GATE.

12^th July: Vice President, Michael Rajnauth issued a ‘Memorandum’ titled, “New Tuition Payment Response”

• It opens, “It is important to note, that I myself do not sit on the GATE Review Task Force.” Here, Rajnauth critically distances himself from the President of the Guild of Students. He goes further to list the individual work he has done at the campus level.
• He adds, as a result of his presentations at ICGC, the Guild developed a position on Tuition Payment and says “The request entailed that a new policy be implemented where the University allows students to make monthly or even weekly instalments for their tuition fees.”
• The PRO and Guild President was yet to communicate the Council’s position. In addition, the letter suggested an anxiety about “tuition payment plans.”
• This matter was presented at F&GPC since the 27^th May. For the first time, the matter was being publicly raised. Are there adjustments to tuition fees and/or GATE that the Guild Council had knowledge about bout but did not raise with the student body?

14^th July: The UWI Guild Council announces its position on proposed changes to GATE

• Students currently enrolled in University should not pay for tuition (8:01– 8:10).
• Future students should be treated with a cost-sharing model for tuition fees, if GATE is no longer fully sponsored by the state (8:11–8:18).

Where the Guild Council dropped the ball

1. Too Slow to Act: The timeline of public communications suggest that the UWI Guild Council did not establish an official position for the students until the end of June. However, the Task Force, the constitution of members and its Terms of Reference were established since March. Since the appointment of the Task Force, it was already explained that a Report will be submitted to the Ministry of Education in July 2016.

For this reason, we are only left to believe that the “consultation” on the 25^th June, given with two days notice, was a political attempt to “save face,” and at best squeeze in some student talking points for the media.

2. The Student Body was Not Involved: Perhaps there were rules around disclosure on the state’s advisory committee which confined the Guild President to limited statements on the development of the Report. At the same time, the constitution of the Task Force was fundamentally anti-student in its constitution. The Task Force included 1 student representative of the 16 members of the committee. Without doubt, Makesi Peters felt alone in that setting. We would never want the negotiations for the future of higher education nationally to fall on the lap one student.

This, however, does not excuse the lack meaningful student representation throughout the process. All Guild Councillors should have discussed GATE within the student body, building a campaign on sensitising students, shaping public opinion and facilitating greater participation in the articulation of a comprehensive student position on GATE.

3. Students are also responsible. Not equally. But they are responsible too: In the 2016 Guild Elections, on a campus that boasts a 90% Trinidad and Tobago student population, GATE should have been the defining issue to hold candidates accountable to. It was not.

At the “consultation” on the 25^th June, the nature of students feedback descended to discussions on them as “abusers” of GATE, Evening Students versus Full-time Students, and uninformed discussions on the applicability of means-test analyses.

Repeatedly, speakers said, “we are not at liberty to discuss this right now,” as a mantra to defend the Task Force members from divulging information. This was insufficient. Students had every right to call representatives to account and demand answers.

But, the Game is Not Over. They Need Our Help

1. Fixing the problem of isolation and disunity: The UWI Guild President was isolated on the GATE Task Force. This does not excuse his inaction, but we can acknowledge the difficult conditions in which he had to express his positions. I do not believe that the UWI Guild Council should be the national voice for all tertiary education students. All student guilds should convene a forum among themselves to have a united voice on the “good” and “bad” recommendations and decisions to be made by the Cabinet. GATE is neither a UWI issue nor any single University issue. It is a national student issue.

For the reason of developing a national student movement, the National Students Union of Trinidad and Tobago (NSU TT) was established in 2012. UWI Guild Council after council, since, have thrown it aside as a “burden” to the UWI Guild treasury and irrelevant to campus-based student politics. Now, the Guild Council must work 24/7 to build cross-campus solidarity and convene a forum that includes councillors and ordinary Guild members (students) equipped to lead in communicating and mobilising students around a common position.

2. Do not “wait on the Report”: We must define and outline our position before we negotiate any matters related to GATE. Students have the right to express their concerns, feelings, anxieties and hopes about GATE online and offline. It is productive to harness these feelings into a table of informed positions that students have on GATE. “Waiting on the Report” takes time away from students mobilising.

3. Keep Calm and Stay Vigilant: Already, politically opportunistic youth have emerged from their political graveyards to “take charge” on the matter. Youth supporting the opposition party have been commenting on Facebook, “ent, allyuh vote for dat? Red and Ready!” On the side of government supporters, party youth are quite comfortable putting short-term political career ambitions over respect among youth and students of their generation. These political divides also exist in the Guild Council, especially in the Executive where we have student representatives with open political party affiliations.

As University students, it is our duty to develop evidence-based and pro-student positions on national affairs. As we wait on the publication of the report, we can begin to:

• a. Develop arguments for the continuity of GATE in the context of an economic recession
• b. Facilitate a respectful student-led conversation on the ‘abuses’ of GATE and solutions
• c. Until the GATE Task Force (2016) report is published, read the JSC’s Report on GATE (2013) to contextualise and critique the state’s concerns about the programme.
• d. Join student community pages, comment and engage the people on the topic. Solidarity is only possible through deeper connections with our comrades in the same condition.

Concerned Student

Blog Feature Image, Photography of Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, August 1, 2016