Is it possible to install ctags without root privs?

"Yes.

You will need to compile it yourself and install it in your home directory.

Download ctags source: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ctags/ctags-5.8.tar.gz

In hour shell:

$ tar zxf ctags-5.8.tar.gz
$ cd ctags-5.8
$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME
$ make && make install

This will compile and install ctags in your home directory. The resulting binary will be: $HOME/bin/ctags

You will now have to modify your PATH environment variable prior to launching vim.

$ vim $HOME/.bashrc (or whichever shell you're using)

put this line in your .bashrc

export PATH=""$HOME/bin:$PATH""

You will now need to resource your .bashrc (remember that .bashrc is normally only loaded from non-interactive shells. Make sure that you source .bashrc from .bash_profile)

If you need to, modify your .bash_profile and make sure it has a line like:

. $HOME/.bashrc

or

source $HOME/.bashrc

To continue without closing your shell, simply type:

$ . $HOME/.bashrc

You can now launch vim and ctags will be working."

You should be able to do it yourself if you compile and install your own copy of the editor. You're not going to be able to install a system-wide package like the ones it's asking for without being root.

You can always install it localy, say under your home directory. After that add the directory where ctags resides to yout shell PATH environment variable.