REGIONALISM is definitely on the agendas of the student guilds of the four campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Thursday, the Inter Campus Guild Conference of the University of the West Indies met at the Cave Hill Campus to discuss the issue.
Odwin Trenton, guild president of the Cave Hill Campus, said the current guild was trying to create a culture of regionalism so future university students would build on the work they had started.
“The division we see amongst ourselves is an affront to that regional effort that our founding fathers believed in, and we want to revitalize and ignite that spirit again in our people that as a regional block we are worth so much more than individual islands,” he said.
Trenton and the ordinary person had not been engaged in the process and needed to understand the benefits of regional integration.
“It cannot be done only by our leaders or by the so-called intellectuals, but has to be a collective effort where there is movement at every single level,” he said.
President of the Mona Campus guild, Stephanie Abrahams, weighed in.
“There is strength in numbers and as a region of many small states it is important to stick together to reach one common goal,” she said.
She explained that the various guilds were not just identifying problems but were looking at where other people had gone wrong and seeking to find solutions so some form of regionalism could take place.
“It must start with us, and we must take it to the youth so that when they are growing up they will express it to everyone else in order for us to have continuity and for it to have a long-lasting time frame,” she said.
To get the regionalism message out, the guilds intend to host public lectures which would be open to all and not just the campus community. (LK)
