NMMU PETITION: Unlawful Protests violating our Right to Education


Guest

/ #71

2016-09-27 09:32

I feel that there isn't an opportunity to have our position heard. Those who have an opinion that is not in 100% keeping with the protesters are not able to safely have our voices heard. It's not clear safe to be in open opposition at mass meetings etc. And you're just shouted down and verbally abused on every other forum. I believe the majority actually want university opened but there has not been any opportunity to officially convey this. When a march in opposition to the shut down is considered, people won't commit despite their support of the opposition march's cause because they're afraid. NMMU needs to have an official vote. There has been no effort on NMMU's part to find out what the majority wants. The SRC that was elected by the majority is being disregarded and there are movements to disband it and nothing is being done to protect it. Four memorandums were submitted, those are not majority elected organisations that submitted the others, we can't have the official majority elected src undermined.
We're third year students who've paid for a full year of study. Some of us won't have the opportunity to stay on another year in the hopes that we can finish our degrees. Our entire degree could be wasted. University needs to also start letting us know if our assignments will be postponed. Some of our assignments can only be completed with library access which we have no access to but because of the uncertainty lecturers are not communicating with their students because they don't know what to tell them. They need to inform us if the assignments will be postponed. They also need to start making a plan for alternate methods of learning. Overseas many universities use online forums. Lecturers need to compile slides with voice recordings. For subjects for which that is not suitable, police need to secure the safety of lecturers to get on campus and they should do video lectures. NMMU you has video lecture technology as it was offered to students with disabilities recently.