The students of Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies are demanding that their voices be heard as the public consultation for the construction of the Curepe Interchange started. This demand comes as students stormed the public consultation on Thursday night at the auditorium of the college in Valsayn. Police were called in and before the meeting was finished, heavily-armed police officers were seen at the entrance of the auditorium.
Project manager of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure Navin Ramsingh was giving the visual presentation on what the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway would look like when the Curepe Interchange project is completed, when loud shouting began and college students started to enter with protest placards strung around their necks. Students were heard shouting: “We need to be heard. A walkover needs to be built to prevent students from being killed.”
Ramsingh then shouted to the students: “But I met with Cipriani College management twice.” He shouted to the students that they should have “respect” for the proceedings and that they should make their contributions during the question-and-answer segment of the programme. Some of the protesting students then shouted to Ramsingh that he met the college’s management but he did not meet with them.
President of the Student Guild Stephen Mathison told the T&T Guardian during the protest the college’s management was not listening to the concerns of the students. “This is just one example of how the college disregards the purpose of the students. We are protesting actions taken by the board of governors and their disrespect to students,” he said.
Mathison said one of the major problems is that the traffic lights were removed and there is no way students can cross the highway during the middle of the day as the college’s shuttle works only on mornings and nights. “Students could get killed on the highway when trying to cross,” he said. He called the Ministry of Works’ proposal for students to stop off at the Valsayn traffic lights and walk westward to the College as “madness.”
“For them to even suggest that now is a disrespect. Before they moved the traffic lights they should have made provisions for students to cross the highway. Last week two students almost got killed,” he said.