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By PETER KORUGL
POLICE are on standby to move into the University of Technology
campus in Lae if the situation gets out of control.
Lae police commander Chief Supt Nema Mondiai issued the warning after
the campus coffee shop was nearly burnt down on Tuesday night.
Some security guards and students saved the shop.
Several police were stationed outside the campus yesterday morning to
ensure that a referendum by the students over the issue of semester fees
proceeded peacefully.
Mr Mondiai had also planned to address the students after they voted on
the matter.
The referendum, however, did not proceed as there was confusion over a
new free structure released by registrar Allan Sako earlier in the day.
In an advertisement in the Post-Courier yesterday, Chancellor Philip
Stagg said the governing council would still require the students to pay
20% more in board and lodging.
However, he added, for the 2008 academic year, students would be
required to pay 5% more.
He said the fees for 2009 would be decided early next year.
Student Representative Council Sampson Apai told The National that
students were confused by the new fee structure.
He also described the situation as “quiet but tense” and appealed to the
Government to step in.
“The issue here is also about good governance in the university,” he
said, adding that the class boycott would go on.
Some students said it was pointless for them to pay more if the
university’s financial problems were not resolved.
They said the university had a fixed budget and they could not
understand why it was now operating “in the red”.
They also said that in 2003, the council raised fees by 23% using the
same reasons but infrastructure and services still deteriorated.
Sources had told The National that the university owed about K3 million
to a catering company and a few hundred thousand kina to PNG Power and
the PNG Water Board.
A department head also said that several lecturers had left.
Mr Stagg, who described newspaper reports as “bordering on character
assassination”, said in the advertisement that the 20% increase was to
bring the university on par with CPI increases in view of its overheads,
and to some extent, on par with other institutions.
He said the decisions taken by the governing council were made in the
best interest of both the students and the university.
“We would like to appeal to parents and sponsors to understand the
funding need of the institution, and to appeal to their children and
sponsored students to return to lectures and complete the academic year
because any extension of the academic almanac will not be entertained by
council,” he said.
“The council also appeals to the students who have engaged in criminal
activities such as hijacking of vehicles, harassment and physical
assault of other students, and illegal takeover of entrances to and from
campus to cease such behaviour as it borders on criminality and is
unbecoming of students who are pursuing professional qualifications and
will one day be expected to be leaders”.
 
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