The historic truce which members of the volatile August Town signed last month is expected to last for five years. But if the University of the West Indies (UWI) has anything to do with it, peace in August Town will last forever.

Led by its principal, Professor Gordon Shirley, the UWI is planning to make August Town and the surrounding communities a university township, in which the communities benefit from the expertise of the campus, and many of the needs of the campus are met by the communities.

Now that there is peace, the plan is to begin by addressing issues of health, education and unemployment, and if they can make entrepreneurs out of the residents, then they are on their way to making August Town into this university township. One path to entrepreneurship is to facilitate persons in the community to expand their homes, so that they can have lodging to accommodate students.

All of this should help to stem crime and foster a better relationship between the university and the communities.

Professor Barry Chevannes, a member of the university committee fine-tuning this plan, told The Gleaner that it will be implemented only after the communities get the chance to discuss and contribute to it.

Two-way interactive process

"You can't just impose these things on a community like that. First of all, we have to get consensus from the university community," Chevannes said. After that, the proposal will be taken to the communities to "find out what more they think the university can do to help, so as to have it as a two-way interactive process".

Part of the university's grounds border on August Town, but the perimeter is surrounded by fortified walls, separating gown from town. However, Chevannes noted that their aim was to attack the problems which seemed to contribute to the crime in the communities, and thus prevent antisocial elements from invading the campus, rather than erecting fences to keep them out. This, he said, would help to build a special relationship with the communities, for which the university yearned.

"The walls were made when August Town broke down as a community, and the antisocial behaviour coming from that area became a threat to the campus," recalled Chevannes.

He argued, however, that the walls can only be torn down if the university community feels safe. That is when there is no threat to the university, but to get to that stage, the university population will have to be involved.

Topmost among the university's plans for August Town is education, building on the ongoing outreach activities of the halls of residence and helping to make the schools in the area institutions of excellence.

"We will be putting a system in place where we tutor high-school students, both for O'Level and A'Level, so as to carry them to a matriculation standard, that they can get a place in the university," Chevannes said.

"The UWI is looking at entrepreneurship as another tool to use in addressing the crime situation, drawing on expertise in the business school and the Management Studies Department. The aim is to move the community to a level where they don't need guns anymore."

Positive impact

Kenneth Wilson, member of August Town who acts as the liaison officer of the committee, is supporting the moves being made by the UWI. Those moves, he said, could have a positive impact on crime. "A lot can be done in the community to help," Wilson said.

Some residents, including Pollyanna Edwards, believe that the university is doing enough in the community. Others believe that it can do more. People like Sophia Young state that the university can help the residents with jobs, because unemployment causes crime to escalate.

August Town has been a hot bed for years, with gangs regularly trading bullets with one another. If the university and August Town succeed, they will be trading their bullets for books.