The addition of 480 rooms at the St John’s Road Facility, with a further 150 rooms at Milner Hall were some of the immediate plans outlined by the Campus Administration towards meeting the increased demand for housing by students. The 150 additional rooms are going to be available in September 2006 and St. John’s Road project is being phased so that at least some of the 480 rooms come on stream by September 2007.

“The Administration is aware that the demand for housing far exceeds the space available on the Campus, especially with the increased intake of students over the last two years. The students are our largest stakeholder group and it’s our business to ensure that their needs are met as far as possible.

“However our main business is education not housing and while we provide some housing for students, students must take responsibility to look after their housing needs if they want to study at the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies, that is why we must give priority to first year, international, regional, Tobagonian students, as well as Trinidadian students outside a 20-mile radius from Campus.

“The Housing Office is organized and equipped to help all those students who seek their help.” This was the position of Campus Principal, Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, as he commented on the agreement reached with the Students’ Guild and Hall Chairpersons on April 28, 2006.

“The Campus has approximately 13,000 applications for places in the new school term, but only 4,000 would be accepted. When you increase the intake of students you cannot build housing on the same day. It takes time for the housing to go up.

“We can also reduce student intake by 2,000 to ease the pressure on housing but that would mean denying 2,000 applicants their legitimate expectation of a good quality education at the University.

“It is my view that second and third year students who have already lived in the Halls for one or two years are being extremely selfish in seeking to deny first year students from abroad and first year Trinidad students from the remote areas, an opportunity to find their feet at The University of the West Indies,” said Dr. Tewarie.

The Housing Officer of the Campus Shala Vance also explained the extent to which the Housing Office had gone to service the students and to manage price and quality with the landlords. She indicated that a registry of landlords who were willing to work constructively with the UWI, to provide good quality room at reasonable rate has been established and this involved some 3,000 rooms.

A meeting, she said, had also been arranged for Saturday May 13 with the landlords and the Principal had agreed to attend this meeting in support of the Housing Office.

The Agreement was hammered out in a five-hour meeting attended by all relevant parties including past members of Guild, Hall Chairs and current Guild leadership.

1. Hall Committee members would be allowed to return
2. First-year or first time international, regional and Tobagonian students would be given preference
3. A fixed number of returning students would be agreed to on the understanding that these would be selected by the Hall supervisor in consultation with the Hall Committee
4. A fixed number of first-year Trinidadian students, whose residence fell outside of a 20-mile radius off the Campus would be agreed upon

Arrangements for each Hall:

Joyce Gibson Hall
There were no anticipated challenges involving this Hall and the arrangements in place were satisfactory and workable.

Canada Hall
168 spaces, 11 returning Hall committee members, 29 returning residents chosen by the Hall Supervisor in consultation with the Hall Committee, 103 first-year or first-time non-Trinidadian students (international, regional, Tobago), 25 first-year Trinidadian students living outside of a 20-mile radius from the Campus.

Trinity Hall
140 spaces, 15 returning Hall Committee members, 25 returning students chosen by the Hall supervisor in consultation with the Hall Committee, 85 non-Trinidadian first-year or first-time students (international, regional, Tobago), 15 first-year Trinidadian students.

Milner Hall
(Scenario One) - 180 spaces, 20 graduate spaces, 11 returning Hall Committee members, 33 returning students to be chosen by the Hall Supervisor in collaboration with the Hall Committee, 91 non-Trinidadian first-year or first-time students (international, regional, Tobago), 25 Trinidadian first-year students living outside of a radius of 20 miles from Campus.

(Scenario Two) – 325 spaces, 45 graduate spaces, 11 returning Hall Committee members, 65 returning students to be chosen by the Hall supervisor in collaboration with the Hall Committee, 154 non-Trinidadian first-year or first-time students (international, regional, Tobago) and 50 Trinidadian first-year students living outside of a radius of 20 miles from the Campus.

Guild President, Rodney Jaglal, said that while he was initially willing to stand by the agreement, the issue was a sensitive one and required much more attention than originally envisaged.

“The agreement reached will displace approximately180 students and when residents heard the news it was met with hostility. The Guild was concerned about the fallout and since we had to seek the interest of the students, we decided to meet again with the Administration to treat with the matter,” said Jaglal.

As such, Jaglal said the Guild had organised a peaceful march to highlight the housing issue and to sensitise the nation as a whole. The march however, got out of hand when about 40 students led by Vice-President Ardene Sirjoo became aggressive towards Campus Security and pushed down the gates to the Principal’s Office.

Speaking with UWItoday on May 8, Jaglal emphasised that he was very much a part of the peaceful march around the Campus, but he could not identify with or support the action of some students outside the Principal’s Office.