In response to rising concerns about campus security, students at UWI have stepped forward with a range of practical safety solutions. During a meeting with the acting vice chancellor, they emphasised the need for immediate action and proposed measures, including increased patrols, enhanced security infrastructure, and stricter access control to vulnerable areas. 

Published Tuesday, January 22, 1974 

UWI students demonstrate for better campus security

OVER 200 students staged a demonstration at the UWI yesterday, over a number of incidents that have taken place on campus during the last few months. These included rape and armed robbery, but what sparked off the demonstration were incidents of January 13 when a student of Mary Seacole Hall reported that a tape recorder and watch were stolen from her room, and on Monday night when a couple visiting their son in Chancellor Hall were robbed by gunmen.

The demonstrators, largely from Mary Seacole and Chancellor halls, assembled outside Chancellor Hall and then set out on their march to the administrative building, chanting “We want security!” and bearing placards.

Some placards read: “We are not safe on campus anymore,” “No more sleeping guards, we already have sleeping policemen,” “This ya concrete jungle dread,” “What has happened to our evening strolls?” “Our athletes cannot run from bullets, patrol play fields,” “What will they do next? It could be a killing as well as another rape.”
As some of the students entered the administrative buildings, Byron Robertson, senior assistant registrar, is reported to have met them. He escorted five of their number to the vice chancellor’s office where Pro Vice Chancellor Sidney Martin, acting vice chancellor, was in the usual Monday morning meeting with pro vice chancellors and senior administrative staff. On the demand by the student deputation to be immediately heard, Martin interrupted the meeting to inform them that he would meet them at 11:00 a.m., which he did.

At the meeting, the student delegation voiced dissatisfaction at what they called the tardiness of the university in implementing security improvements. They put forward several proposals which, in their view, would improve the situation.

Several of these proposals had already been agreed on at a meeting of the Sub-Committee on Security last Wednesday when Messrs Langdon and Levy, security consultants to the UWI, were present.

The university administration agreed to put forward certain proposals for immediate implementation to the UWI, scheduled to meet on Monday, and to consult student leaders on other proposals of a long-term nature.

In the absence from campus of Emanuel Hosein, president of the Guild of Undergraduates, for the weekend, E.L. Jacobs, vice-president of the guild, was reported to have been one of the leaders of the demonstration, which was regarded as one of the most orderly and business-like as the students registered their protest. . Hosein returned after the demonstration, which had lasted half an hour. He attended the meeting with the acting vice chancellor and university officers.

WIGUT meeting 
In another development, the meeting called by WIGUT (Mona) for the Senior Common Room at 5 p.m. today will consider not only what it calls an abrogation of an agreement by the University Grants Committee but the question of security, not only on campus but on College Common.

Agreement has been reached between WIGUT and the Mona bursar and the registrar, representing the Finance Committee, for improvement in certain security arrangements. Such improvements were expected by staff to have been effected by year-end.

At a meeting of the Faculty of Natural Sciences held last Thursday, reference was made to the fact that the vice-dean had informed a meeting of the faculty that the improvements would have been started from December 3.

The faculty is reported at its meeting last week as agreeing to ask the Academic Board to hold an inquiry as to why the agreement has not so far been substantially effected.
A WIGUT spokesman said that, when staff agreed to teach evening school last term, it was through inducement that, with improved security, they could leave their families with a greater feeling of safety while they took classes.

Another source commented that several new doors were piled one on top of the other by estate management, when there appeared no good reason why they could not be installed.

One problem affecting security lies in the fact that the fence by the playing fields is cut time and again by those claiming glebe rights for grazing their cows, sheep, and goats on campus lands. It is considered uneconomical to keep on repairing those fences, only to have them cut.

A group of students conceded that security would, for long, be a problem on a campus of 600 acres.

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