Hard job ahead for UWI Principal

The Editor: The arrival of Dr Bhoe Tewarie as the Principal of the University of the West Indies was greeted by this writer with much joy. However, it seems that the man who built up a reputation as a performer as a Minister of government and as the director of the IOB has now met his match. Turning around the University at St Augustine and bringing it into the new era of tertiary education is a difficult task.

As Tewarie grapples with the Univeristy he would have noted that the prime obstacle to achieving his objectives are the staff at the University. Much has been written and spoken of about the non-performance of the lecturers. The other dimension to this plethora of non-performance is the non-academic staff. Non-academic staff at the University are extensions of their cousins in the public service. The difference is that they are paid much more than their public servant cousins.

Students are therefore faced with the product of this non-performance which manifests itself in many of the poor services provided at the University. For example, the biggest disaster in the entire history of the university took place last year September when an attempt to switch registration to an online format failed miserably. The result was mass suffering for students and mass embarassment for the Principal. The culprits responsible for that disaster are all still employed with the University and still enjoy all the trappings of ofice. This too, seems to be another parallel with the public service, the inability to dismiss incompetent and inefficient workers. The CITS (Campus Information Technology Service), as they are called have long held the University and its students to ransom. In closing let me wish the Principal well. One must admit that there have been visible signs that change is on the way. The library now provides a 24-hour service and there is a shuttle system. Let’s hope that the public service parallel is corrected.

Ishmael Jan
Gordon Street
ST Augustine