New UGSS President affirms support for improving academic resources, student funding
The University of Guyana (UG) on Monday appointed Tirishatha Semple as its new University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS) President for the term 2024/2025.
Semple who is the third female president to serve on the council has crafted an action plan that details methods to improve academic resources and student support at the prestigious institution.
Newly-elected UGSS President Tirishatha Semple taking the oath of office alongside Vice-Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin
During her remarks at the swearing in ceremony, Semple who was among three persons vying for the post, told those gathered that her mission is to ensure the university produces well-rounded students, maintain flexibility and resilience through online classes, continue to push for extracurricular activities, create a prayer room for students of all faiths, and empower every student’s voice, among others.
“Your president is very energetic, so I plan to add energy into everything we do at the University of Guyana. This vision is not mine alone it’s ours, it represents the collective voice of the student body and we are all here to serve, to be your voice and to work with you to make these goals a reality. This journey is not one I take lightly. I am standing before you because I believe in the strength of our student body, I believe in the power of unity and I believe in what we can achieve together as a team,” Semple stated.
The UGSS is a student-run organisation that represents the student body at the University of Guyana. It was established in 1973 to allow students of the University to formally voice their desires.
The University of Guyana Students’ Society is intended to foster and promote social and cultural activities among students, to attend to the welfare of any member of the student body, and to provide representation of the concrete opinion of the students of the University.
The Students’ Society has been tasked to help develop coherent values and ethical standards, forge educational partnerships, and build supportive and inclusive communities across the two campuses and four centres of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin expressed her satisfaction with the new body, which she described as dynamic, gender mutual and exemplary.
“Terry being one of a kind is never easy and you’re one of a kind. The reason why you are one of a kind is not because you’re a young woman but because you have this whole other persona and you’re coming into the University administration at a time when the government of the country is in an election period and has indicated that they want to introduce free education. And that is going to place the University in a particular set of contexts and decisions about how that is going to happen etc might have to emerge and how that affects the students. So, your ability as a leader to think and focus carefully about how this conversation is to be managed is going to be very important,” Professor Martin said.
Further, Martin thanked the outgoing President Shaquawn Gill and his executive body for serving with excellence, pointing out that the team worked diligently and steadfastly during a time when Guyana’s territorial integrity was threatened.
“The ability that they extended not only to remain calm but to work with the Government of Guyana, the media and with students to help the university stay on course and to basically face down that very terrible possibility is something that needs to go on record and I want to thank you personally for that,” she added.
During its tenure, the 2022-2023 body also launched a new website to improve the college experience of the University of Guyana’s (UG) more than 11,000 students, fostered a collaboration with One Communications to secure special data plans for students and advanced sports at the prestigious institute through various avenues.
University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS) Executive Council 2024/2025
President:
– Tirishatha Semple
College of Medical Sciences Representative:
– Nikhil Sankar
– Jonathan Lambert
Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences Representatives:
– Rahul Changa
– Canisha Primo
Faculty of Education & Humanities Representative:
– Joel Bunbury
-Amisha Gaffor
-Moses Best
Faculty of Engineering & Technology Representatives:
– Timothy Erskine
– Tashaia Leonard
