The Management of the University of the West Indies has outlined, following students’ effort to “stage a peaceful sit out” in protest of the campus resuming face-to-face classes on November 3, that it is aware of the dire circumstances students are facing.

The Campus Management, in a statement, expressed solidarity with the students and their families as they struggle to cope with the loss and damage suffered from Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday, October 28.

“The campus has been very agile as we reopen our operations to facilitate our students when they are ready to return to the teaching and learning process. The campus has exercised due care and sensitivity to accommodate its students and staff who are impacted by the hurricane,” the statement said.

The Mona campus detailed that their response to the recovery effort is comprehensive and far reaching, built on four pillars.

• Mona Care to support Jamaica’s recovery efforts
• Students’ solidarity
• Faculty/Staff Recovery
• Infrastructure recovery

“As part of our Mona Care programme, the campus sent out teams of students to the most affected areas to locate Mona students and deliver care packages to them. Further, the entire Management Team of The UWI, Mona was at our Western Jamaica Campus on Nov 2, 2025, delivering food supplies and toiletries to our students and staff and providing support. “

The UWI, Mona reported that it established a comprehensive and coordinated system of receiving food items and other supplies from members of their community, the private sector, alumni and the international community in order to dispatch same to affected students and the affected communities in general.

All of these details will be posted on a specially established website, www.mona.edu/hurricane-melissa in short order.

As part of UWI’s Student Solidarity programme, the Mona Campus has communicated to its students a range of initiatives to support their re-engagement.

These include, but are not limited to:

1. All affected students, who can and are in a state of mind to re-engage in the teaching and learning process, are invited to return to the Mona Campus, where we provide a safe space in terms of the physical infrastructure and also psycho-social support to facilitate their re-engagement.

2. Lecturers will post all lectures/notes/Power-Points/course material on our Learning Management System for affected students to consume when they are able.

3. The Campus is offering a 50% discount on outstanding tuition balances for Semester I for eligible students. The payment deadline for the remaining 50% will be extended up to May 2026.

4. The Campus provided a flexible space for students who are overwhelmed and feel that they are not in a mental state to engage in teaching and learning, to be further accommodated for deferral of assessment or deferral of classes to a later date.

5. Given the gravity of the situation at the Western end of the island, the Management of the Mona Campus took the decision to delay the resumption of face-to-face operations in that space and will provide further updates on the next steps to resume operations at that campus site at a later date.  

The Mona Campus noted that it has all the critical utilities required for the resumption of face-to-face classes, and the campus’s infrastructure is largely intact.

“Most other tertiary institutions were not fortunate to have their infrastructure in place to be ready for face-to-face engagement at this time. As we restart our face-to-face operations at the Mona Campus, we again would like to remind our students that their success is at the centre of our decision-making and we will do all we can to continue to be flexible in approaching their teaching and learning needs during this difficult time.  Our University will continue to play its part in assisting with the recovery process as Jamaica builds back better and more sustainably and restores hope to its people.”