Vincent Alexander responds to Cox on alleged loan non-payment

Dear Editor,
As promised, I am responding to your request re Clairmonte Cox’s letter. I will respond to his four points first, then provide some pointers based on the attachments. My response focuses on his accusation of slander and libel. Mr Cox claimed four falsehoods as his bases.
1. Whether he did a BA or cannot can hardly be categorised as libel or slander. There is nothing degrading about that.
2. He was the beneficiary of a loan by his own admission: “This sum will be in addition to the five thousand dollars … already being deducted from my salary, …, and paid to the Students’ Loan Agency for the same course”(sic) (Cox’s letter to Vice-Chancellor Rose, February 01, 2004)
3. Even if he never graduated from UG, with a BA, such a statement can hardly be intended to cause harm or have the effect of causing harm.
4. My reference to him defaulting in honouring his loan agreement is in reference to the agreement of 2000 and the agency’s refusal to grant subsequent loans during the remaining period of the programme, 2001 through to 2003. It has nothing to do with claims of payments to the agency in 2004 and beyond.
Please note that in the instance where I stated that he took a loan ‘on condition’, I clearly stated ‘that he had requested a loan to pay for the law programme and was granted the loan conditionally because of a previous default or age disqualification.’ He was required to commence repayment, immediately, by monthly instalments. For the period 2000-2001, he defaulted on that agreement. It should be noted that by his own admission, in 2004, he claimed ‘indebtedness to the University’, but simultaneously demanded that the University release his grades for courses done in 2003 and clearly not paid for as was the case as of 2001 semester one. If this response does not suffice, please let me know.
His second and fourth points are clearly sleight of hand. The first and third are clearly not libellous or slanderous and are subject to verification. Unfortunately, the University’s records are not, at the moment, available to me.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Alexander