UWI Council to pick new Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor

BRIDGETOWN ú The Council of the University of the West Indies top decision-making body, the region’s premier educational institution, will this week meet to consider recommendations on a new Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.

The favoured candidate to succeed retiring Chancellor Sir Shridath Ramphal, who vacates the post at the end of this month, is Sir George Alleyne, the distinguished Barbados-born former Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), according to reliable UWI sources.

The Council will also have for its scheduled meeting on Friday, recommendations from a sub-committee on who should succeed current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rex Nettleford, whose term ends in August 2004

Some two years ago, Sir George was himself involved in the “search process” to find a suitable candidate to succeed Professor Nettleford whose term was at the time extended to 2004.

Among a reported list of some four potential candidates are the Principals of the Mona Campus, Jamaica-born Professor Kenneth Hall, and the Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, Professor Hilary Beckles, who last year succeeded the retired Sir Keith Hunte in that post.

It was however, pointed out to informed officials familiar with the functioning of the UWI, that it would be “highly unusual, if not unprecedented” for two nationals of the same country to be Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the region’s university.

In any case, said one official source, the report of the Council’s sub-committee dealing with the choice of a new Vice-Chancellor is not likely to be “fully ready” in time for a decision this week.

No school for hundreds of students

PORT-OF-SPAIN ú Hundreds of students attending private secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago are faced with dilemma today of being denied attendance for an indefinite period.

The problem has to do with the failure by the Patrick Manning administration to make outstanding payments for these students whose attendance at private secondary schools is normally paid for by the government.

Rev Errol Joseph, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Private Schools Association (TTPSA), said the government had been warned about the unresolved fees problem and has until today to come up with the payments.

Fees range from TT$1,000 to some TT$1,900 at various A-level schools. Some schools with A-level students have not been paid since February this year.

The problem first hit public attention last Thursday when St Bede’s vocational school at Mount St Benedict excluded some 100 students until fees outstanding since November 2002, were paid.

An official at the Ministry of Education has indicated that new releases of funds for government-sponsored students at private secondary schools will be made by month end.

Health Ministers meet today in Washington

WASHINGTON ú Health Ministers of the Caribbean and the rest of the Western Hemisphere will gather this morning at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) for an annual “Directing Council Meeting” .

They will be focusing on a range of important areas of health care in the Caribbean-Latin American region and receive updates on critical communicable diseases such as SARS, West Nile Virus, cholera, BSE and ‘monkey pox’.

A statement from the PAHO office said the work agenda for the meeting will be addressed by new Director, Mirta Roses, and US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson

There is to be briefing session tomorrow on the critical communicable diseases followed by a round table exercise Wednesday on “Primary Health Care in the Americas: Lessons Learned over 25 years, and Future Challenges”.

Keep campus ‘drug-free’ ú says UWI Principal

PORT-OF-SPAIN ú Principal of the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies, Dr Bhoendratt Tewarie, has made a spirited plea for the university to be a “drug-free zone”.

Urging that all at the campus had a role to play in this respect, Principal Tewarie warned that the instiution was ready to “deal severely” drug pushers and users.

The Principal told the Trinidad Express also of his concerns about students consuming alcoholic beverages from time to time on and off-campus.

He said that while he was not “a prude” to think that you shouldn’t take an occasional drink, his concern had to do with students coming to that campus moving from alcoholic consumption to use of illegal drugs, including cocaine.

It was out of that concern, said Principal Tewarie, that he took his message to a recent “orientation ceremony” for students for 2003, for a “drug-free campus”.