While expressing gratitude for the institution’s ongoing response, students at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus say they are hoping some measures can be extended and others reassessed following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

“It’s like everyone was just turning their backs on what was happening, to me it felt like an adapt and move on or get left behind situation,” said a 23-year-old student from St Catherine, one of two who spoke to the Jamaica Observer on the condition of anonymity.

Classes at the university began on November 3, less than a week after the Category 5 storm made landfall in western Jamaica, causing catastrophic damage.

Explaining the decision to restart at the time, Campus Registrar Donovan Stanberry told Observer Online that the university had the facilities to restart and maintained it had put several measures in place to support affected students.

Those measures included the recording of classes so students could have access, a 50 per cent waiver on remaining school fees for qualifying students, home visits for affected students, access to mental health services, and the possibility of exam and semester deferrals.

However, the students who spoke to Observer Online say that while they are grateful for the measures, they do not fully address the issues they are facing.

Regarding the 50 per cent slash in remaining fees, the students indicated that it is not as much help as it sounds.

“The problem is that the storm came after midterms,” one of the students, who is from Trelawny, explained.

“In order to take a midterm exam, you’d have to pay at least 75 per cent of the tuition. So for them to implement that is not— I mean, we’re grateful for it and all, but it would be better for that to come in place for a January semester.”

The student from St Catherine, who says her extended family in St Elizabeth was affected and now shares a home with her immediate family, putting additional strain on financial resources, was in agreement.

“I think for semester two they could also extend the waiver because that is when most of the financial burden will begin to set in for a lot of us from the western side of the island,” she explained.

In commenting on the potential extension of that waiver, Stanberry said: “For now, the relief is on first-semester balances.  If that needs continuing in the second semester, well, as management, we would have to regroup and look at it.”

The waiver applies to students in Cornwall County, or other affected areas, who have lost property (homes of residence), or whose caregivers have died or experienced loss of livelihood or employment.

The students also indicated that the resumption of classes was not a smooth process.

“They did say that classes would be online and recorded, but after, I didn’t have any light or any reception, so I came up [late] because you know the community is damaged. Everybody’s trying to help each other to put a roof over their heads and so forth, right? Some lecturers were keeping class [soon] after the hurricane, so when I came back, there was a big gap,” said the student from Trelawny.

The student shared concerns that the directive for lecturers to record all their classes is being carried out in a haphazard way, with only some educators complying.

“Not all lecturers are listening to that, but some are,” she said, adding, “class resumed face-to-face like a week after, even when the students said that they were going to protest, persons that weren’t affected, who lived in the Kingston area, were all at class; field trips went out.”

The student from St Catherine added, “In terms of catching up, a lot of the lecturers, they extended deadlines to submit reports and stuff like that. We do we did have some lecturers who went ahead to record classes, some who decided [to] start back on the week of the 10th of November, while some just went ahead and just [started] classes regardless of who was left behind.”

Both students say one of their main concerns is that some pupils missed over a week of school and must now catch up if they are to pass without deferring their studies.

“So far, I don’t see anything put in place to help with the workload…they did extend exams, but for like three days later,” the student from Trelawny explained.

“School continued, and they’re continuing with the material just as normal. I’ve established a relationship with my lecturers and they’re lenient like in terms of submitting work- [but] well, not everyone is like that,” she said.

Regarding the issue of recordings, Stanberry acknowledged that the university had heard some similar complaints and said while it may not always be feasible to record sessions, lecturers were instructed to make material, including lecture notes or PowerPoint presentations, accessible to students.

The student from St Catherine also said the school could have been more flexible in terms of final exams.

“I do understand that we have to do our final assessments to properly evaluate our knowledge of the courses, but I do think that they could have found a different way for us to get assessed without the burden of exam stress, along with having to mentally come back from what has happened in the West.”

Her suggestions included: “Maybe giving us a bit more coursework, giving us more presentations and eliminating the aspects of final exams because we all know that when it comes down to final exams, we get very stressed.”

The student pointed out that some courses are exam-only, which also poses a problem

“It is a case where we definitely have to pass the exams in order to pass the courses; a lot of us have very good grades within our coursework, but with this added stress, I don’t think we’ll be able to manage to pass the exams to pass the courses themselves.”

In responding to those concerns, Stanberry emphasised that the university had anticipated this and measures are now in place to provide similar flexibility under its Student Solidarity Programme.

Revealed in a town hall meeting on November 10, the programme facilitates alternative assessments, including a shift to 100 per cent coursework in some cases, as long as they are approved by the requisite school boards, and the extension of deadlines to better facilitate students’ needs.

Stanberry is urging students who have needs to visit the campus registrar and make a case for themselves, while noting that those who have not yet been heard from have not been forgotten.

“We’re still in the process of trying to find our students. We’re actively doing that and we’re using every medium known to mankind to find them and deliver to them,” he said.