UWI Mona to review security measures amid student concerns

By Kimone Witter    

 

The administration of the University of the West Indies, Mona says there will be a review of security measures on the campus and their strict enforcement in light of concerns raised by students about safety.

 

The decision stems from a meeting on Wednesday with the Guild of Students following several incidents, including armed robbery, over the last few weeks.

 

Campus registrar Dr. Donovan Stanberry is in agreement with the Guild that there must be greater vigilance in the manning of access points to the university.

 

Dr. Stanberry says security personnel will be deployed at the various points of concern.

 

He is expecting that this will be among the improved security arrangements to be effected by a new Director of Security following the departure of retired Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor. 

 

"We now have to engage our security providers to ensure that that is improved. I mean, we know that we have a policy, for instance, that the gate is supposed to be closed at a certain hour. I'm now understanding that that is probably not strictly enforced. Now, we're going to have to manage that."

 

Dr. Stanberry said the new Director of Security will come on board by next week. 

 

"Mr. McGregor had a whole strategic plan on board to be rolled out. Unfortunately, he left. So our new security director will have to pick that up, do his diagnostics, and make sure we deploy our resources," said the campus registrar. 

 

The Guild of Students has called for more lighting, the strategic placement of security personnel and the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras. 

 

Dr. Stanberry said CCTV cameras are part of the university's strategic plan for security, to be rolled out shortly. 

 

But he said the implementation of more cameras will be dependent on available resources. 

 

"This calls for investment that we would have to phase over time having regard to the costs involved. So I mean, we are listening, we are taking notes, and of course, our security director and security committee will have to sit down and see where we can deploy cameras strategically based on the resources that we have. That's not something that I can come on radio and say, yes, tomorrow we'll have 10 cameras or 15 cameras," he noted.