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The University of Belize’s Board of Trustees met today and after an all day meeting – reversed its decision to freeze increments for faculty and staff and increase tuition for students. After a week in which there was a sickout, protest, and press conference by faculty – it should have been the end of the story. But the news tonight is that isn’t. First there is the reason for the reversal and then the fact that students confronted board members at a press conference this afternoon held off campus at the Belmopan Hotel. Keith Swift has the story.

Keith Swift Reporting,
It took less than a minute for board chair Imani Fairweather-Morrison to make the announcement.

Imani Fairweather-Morrison, Chair – UB Board of Trustees
“It has decided to take the following actions. 1) to reverse its decision in relation to the matter of the increment until it has completed the review of the finances. 2) for the time being to suspend consideration of a concept paper calling for changes to the current tuition rates. 3) to take immediate appropriate action with respect to those responsible for the omission that eventually led to the unfortunate sequence of events that transpired over the past few days.”

That third decision is crucial because almost incredibly – the board says the decisions to freeze increments and maybe increase tuition were based on inaccurate information about the financial situation of UB.

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“The Board of Trustees discovered from a draft audit report which was released literally a few days ago that the information which was provided to them was wholly inconsistent with the financial position of the university. That financial information was materially incomplete and therefore misleading in our view.”

Keith Swift,
“So you said this was an omission, so somehow money was there, I am just trying to break it down for people, but so the university had money and you never know the money was there or something?”

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“I will simply say that there were some major omissions in the information presented to us and the board feels that those omissions, that information would have weighed heavily on the decision of the board. It is a serious issue, we’re making extremely difficult decisions regarding people’s lives and we expect that the information we’re provided with can be relied on. We expect to be given accurate information and that is our position.”

Keith Swift,
“Will that staff member be suspended, fired, what?”

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“I assure you that whatever necessary and appropriate action will be taken.”

Fairweather-Morrison says the tuition increase was a suggestion – nothing more than a concept in her words.

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“There was a concept paper that was tabled and without getting into the details of the issue, the board had a 15 minute discussion on the matter. The board did not at all indicate that that was the direction it would take.”

Keith Swift,
“Is the tuition increase off the table?”

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“I really need to clarify this point; there was never a discussion at the board that would have caused anyone to believe that this is an issue that was to be decided tomorrow. A concept note was presented to the board, we considered it for 15 minutes.”

Keith Swift,
“Is it off the table though?”

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“As we said there is no decision to be made on that right now. It is suspended, we can’t make a decision until we have a accurate financial information in front of us.”

But that wasn’t good for about 100 students who had jammed the conference room at convention hotel. So much so that when the board was finished with questions from the media – the students weren’t done with them.

Student: “Does the students at UB have questions for the board?”
All Students: “Yes.”

Student #1,
“We want to know first of all on behalf of all the students at UB why didn’t the board appear one o’clock at that meeting. We were all present there and there was no show up of the board.”

Keith Swift,
“They said they will be no increase. Are you satisfied?”

Student #1,
“No we’re not satisfied because they have used the word suspend and that means that at a later date they will actually consider the increase and that is not what we want. We want to hear the world cancellation. Cancellation, rejection, that is what we want to hear.”

Keith Swift,
“They aren’t going to take your questions.”

Student #1,
“I know but want the media to know that even though they are not considering us, we want them to show that without us the students there is no UB so whatever the proposal is, we don’t want it suspended, we want it cancelled, reject it. We don’t want it.”

Glenn Tillett, Vibes Radio
“You’re seeking some assurance that it won’t be brought back?”

Student #1,
“Exactly because this is just to calm our nerves for the while but they might say today that today it is suspended but tomorrow it might be back and so we don’t want that. We want a final decision, that is what we want. Termination, cancellation, finado.”

The board had no choice – they caved in and allowed more questions. But they didn’t have a chance to say much.

Imani Fairweather-Morrison,
“The issue is certainly not on the front burner, it has been suspended. We’re not considering that issue…and the board….that was the decision of the board.”

Student #2,
“We are not satisfied with the word for the time being, suspension. We want our President Mr. Steven to stand up and say, representing the students, that we want today the word a complete reversal of point ten be stated because that is the position of the students of UB.”

Steven Sho, UB President
“We simply cannot afford the position of an increase and we hereby ask that the board withdraws the increase of tuition by October 20th at midday. Failure to comply with this request will result in further action.”

And that is pretty much how the afternoon ended. Even though the board reversed its decision- there is no closure to this episode.

So where does it stand tonight? Well the increment freeze and tuition increase are off the table for now. The board meanwhile will begin its investigation and search for the staff member who misled them into thinking the university was broke when it wasn’t. And stay tuned because later we’ll have more from Belmopan when we’ll show you what happened this morning.