Genève Phillip Breaking the mould of stuffy academic

“I’m not sure I can fully express it in words,” she gushes about her appointment as Dean, continuing that she is delighted she doesn’t fit the “archetype” of a Dean. “That means that my employers have seen something in me that they think is worth more than greying hair and a grey beard,” she elaborates playfully, highlighting the changing face of education with modern influences having greater bearing on students and staff alike. She believes students want things instantaneously, through various technological advancements such as tablets and laptops in the classroom, blackboard systems, and e-learning (electronic learning) systems. While she does not believe years of experience are a disadvantage to anyone pursuing a career in academia, she comments, “Sometimes it helps to have someone … who is closer to the contemporary experience as it applies to the tertiary education sector.” She also does not view her appointment in terms of having her work cut out for her as this implies negative connotations and uphill battles, but does acknowledge there is work that must be done. She says her main priorities are currently short-term goals that can enhance the student and faculty experience “in ways that are consistent with what is taking place in the higher education arena on a global level.” She is also confident that these shortterm goals will bleed into long-term solutions for the USM.

Although her academic r?sum? teems with over ten years of tertiary study, Gen?ve admits that when she first started UWI, “my aim was to get in and get out.” A PhD was never an ambition of hers until her final undergraduate year when she took a class with Professor Ann Marie Bissessar, now the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. She credits Bissessar for her persuasion in pursuing a postgraduate diploma which, to date, remains the most difficult academic degree she has pursued – even more so than her current PhD. The mother-daughter relationship that developed between Gen?ve and Bissessar helped with her encouragement to continue until she obtained her PhD.

“I still wasn’t thinking about it,” she says of the current path her life has taken, “but I returned to UWI once again to obtain my Master’s and the rest is history. I owe much credit to her for the role she has played in channeling my academic ambitions or lack thereof in this direction.” Gen?ve is also an advocate for the education of men in our Caribbean context. She understands that the marginalisation of women in the arena of education is a global problem but does not necessarily think that reach extends to our region or nation.

“If you take a walk in UWI today, you’d probably think you were in an all girls’ secondary school with a co-ed sixth form,” she says of the demographics studying at UWI, St. Augustine. She adds that in the postgraduate world, the ratio of male to female students is “even scarier”. She relates this to our backdrop of communities plagued by crime, with young men being high among the list of perpetrators.

“What that suggests to me is that crime seems more attractive than sitting in a classroom and that perception has to be changed as a matter of urgency.

“My immediate concern in the context of TT, therefore, is less about the oppression of women but more about what appears to be the structural oppression of our young men.” She thinks institutionalised education across the Anglophone Caribbean has made considerable strides, maintaining “robust education structures” at both primary and secondary school levels, ensuring a well-prepared student population for tertiary education. However, one of her concerns is the weight our institutions still appropriate on written exams and modes of evaluation.

“I think we are tricking our children from a very young age into believing they are high achievers once they can pass an exam with an A. If we want students to develop holistically, I think it’s time we make our departure from these rigorous testing systems.” She hopes in the future, students will be taught how to solve problems and think critically and strategically, not simply put their time and energies into passing examinations.

She also believes such a shift, away from the heavy-handed examination structures of regional educational institutions, can help foster improved student/staff relations, and by extension an improved regional society. She sees volunteerism as a shining example of how this cohesion can be brought about, and says educators must lead by example.

“When staff and students collectively become more service-oriented toward their own communities, then that can be extended to making advancements in improving the broader Caribbean community.” Given her academic foundation in political science and international relations, she says she is always happy to explore different topics in these fields. It is important that her work has a global appeal and she is adamant that international relations is “more than what takes place in the western or developed world.” She sees the Caribbean as part of the global system and believes our efforts should be focused on research and learning more about our own region and sharing that on global platforms.

“I am a scholar of international relations so I will always want to be attuned to what is happening globally, but I also want to always be able to simultaneously address what is taking place in my region, while getting the rest of the world to pay attention to that.” It has always been an important goal of hers to increase her knowledge and awareness of the spaces she occupies, including her country and region. She has presented at global conferences, “so I have tried to familiarise myself as much as possible in order to be able to represent my region with confidence wherever I go.” On the flipside, she comments that as a region we can sometimes be conservative, close-minded and highly averse to differing facets of culture that are inconsistent with our norm and thus, she tries to maintain a level of cultural intelligence so as not to be impolite or intolerant to others.

As for her overarching hope as the new Dean of Academics at USM and the University’s continued growth, she hopes to contribute to the stemming of “brain drain” on the island of Sint Maarten. Although she says the Sint Maarten community upholds values such as nationalism and patriotism, these displays do not translate into practice when it comes to the USM.

“So many youngsters are inclined to go abroad for their studies and never return,” she bemoans, and hopes to contribute to sustaining a University in which students “have the confidence to come and pursue their degrees; USM must be seen as a formidable alternative to universities in Holland and the US.” She hopes the passion of Sint Maarten’s people can be transferred to a passion surrounding USM.

She would also like to increase the publication record of the University, dispelling complacent and comfortable attitudes in our insular Caribbean settings, and opening the doors for academic recognition on an international level. “People don’t care how good you are in Trinidad or Sint Maarten; in fact, you’re lucky if they even know where that is! “People have to be familiar with hearing your name, seeing your face at conferences, and reading our work. That’s how an institution is built and that is a major part of my vision for the USM and my role as Dean of Academics.”