PHOTO: COSTSA officials during the donation
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com.
The College of Science and Technology Student Association (COSTSA), a at the University of Liberia Fendall Campus near Monrovia over the weekend donated over 140 arm-chairs to the University of Liberia as part of a student initiative to buttress the administration’s effort.
For nearly four semesters, students of the state-owned UL continue to experience shortage of chairs, a situation which sometimes lead to protests and disruptions of classes by members of the campus-based Progressive Students Alliance (PROSA) and the Student Unification Party (SUP).
Some of the protests turned violent, leaving some people injured.
The President of COSTSA, Anthony B. Saah-Bonkie over the weekend lauded the College of Science Technology Student Association (COSTSA) for their contributions to the University of Liberia administration.
He explained that the issue of armchairs at the University of Liberia was alarming at the beginning of this year’s 2023 first academic semester which sometimes caused the slow pace of on Fendall Campus.
“We were faced with major constraints, we noticed that students were standing up to learn in various classrooms especially the Science College (SC) and former Academic Building (AB) commonly called Old Trafford. So the leadership decided that in as much as we are students of Science, we are problem solvers, we are results-oriented people; we thought it wise to engage the Science College Administrative Staff,” the President of the COSTSA noted.
“After we met them, we decided to give them the Science College Funds draft to procure chairs for the College but it was unfortunate for us. However, we were not frightened by that; we thought it wise to engage our students to enable us to raise funds. During our fundraising program, we had book sales, a dancing competition, singing competition. With these ideas, we were able to raise a little resources over LD$ 99,000 and USD$ 190 from the students who were in attendance and one of the students from the Department of Public Health donated USD$ 120. So with that, we were able to procure 140 armchairs,” Mr. Saah-Bonkie added.
According to him, their leadership was farsighted to identify some of these problems students are facing at the University of Liberia, especially the insufficiencies of armchairs which sometimes hamper students’ learning; and cause delays in their getting to their various classes.
“The shortage of chairs has been one of the major challenges, but for this semester, is on the high increase that’s the reason why we decided to engage on the issue of the chair. If the leadership had not farsighted to engage in this project, now we are writing mid-term exam; you would have experienced a massive number of students were not going to write their tests only because they do not have chairs. We want to send this message out to the President of the University of Liberia Dr. Julius Sarwolo Nelson that he and his leadership should start to work with all of the student leadership constituting the University of Liberia to curtail some of these major challenges faced at UL,” he continued.
Students hailed for challenging stereotypes
Also speaking, the Vice President of the College of Science and Technology (COSTSA) at the University of Liberia Teddy E. Seyon lauded the students of Science College for challenging the stereotype at the University of Liberia. He explained that they created the fundraising program to beef up the University of Liberia’s efforts in making sure to help students who continue to enroll at the University of Liberia, especially freshman students.
“The University of Liberia had a mass import of students that were admitted this academic year and the number increased, the logistics department did not procure as many chairs to meet the current enrollment of students; the science college is most often occupied and we were affected mostly. Currently, most students are admitted to the Thomas JR. Faulkner Science of College and Technology, and the amount of chairs can’t meet the students’ demand. So as leadership, that’s why prompted us at least to contribute to the process but before then, we engaged the University of Liberia Administration before providing these chairs,” COSTSA VP stated.
“At first, students outside of the leadership were deciding to protest and as leaders, we heard that. Even though we identified the problem, we wrote the University of Liberia, but they took time to respond. Instead of watching these students protesting, we needed to do something, and we organized a fundraising program in which we donated cash from our various departments at TJR Faulkner College and invited people to our fundraising program, some people sang and danced; some were pinned at the program. I think it’s a failure on the University’s part for not procuring chairs for students who just enrolled at the University of Liberia”, VP Seyon averted.
The Secretary General of the College of Science and Technology Student Association (COSTSA) at the University of Liberia Prince Kpadeh, Jr. said the program was mainly intended for students within the Science College. According to him, students contributed to the fundraising program. He applauded the both students and teaching staff of the Thomas JR Faulkner College of Science and Technology for their support during the program.
“It was a serious challenge because at the beginning of the semester, students came to classes and toting chairs and sometimes they stood up for an hour. And we the students of the College of Science and Technology Student Association (COSTSA) deem it necessary to seek the need to help our colleagues. Is not a bad decision to go to the University of Liberia to provide chairs for students, but we thought of involving in student initiative because if we go to the administration and demand them. But we were looking at the time frame”, Secretary General Kpadeh stressed.
He mentioned that they underscored the need to help students of the University of Liberia and minimize the scarcity of chairs in various colleges especially on the Fendall campus.
“We are asking the House of Legislature to fully fund the University of Liberia to meet International standards because if the University of is Fully Funded, we will not have a fundraising program to buy chairs for our colleagues, we will not collect money to buy stationery for our various departments. Every semester, the College of Science and Technology received 5 cartoons realm of the sheet from the UL administration which is inadequate”, he indicated.
For her part, as Coordinator of TJP Faulkner College of Science and Technology and Environment Studies and Climate Change at the University of Liberia Madam Elizabeth Kollie-Jones said that the Science College has the largest population at the University of Liberia and as such, the UL administration should work speedily to identify some of these problems students are faced with this academic semester.
“The Science College has the largest number of students at the level of the University of Liberia due to our different programs that have come within the college. So because of that, we will always find it difficult with chairs issue. At the beginning of this semester, we found out that students were dragging chairs in these corridors. I worked in consultation with the leadership of COSTSA and we formulated the idea and decided to have a fundraising program to buy chairs for our college,” The TJR Faulkner College Coordinator further stated.
At the same time, Madam Kollie-Jones has called on the UL vice president for administration to provide logistics for various departments and end the scarcity of chairs at the University of Liberia.