KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) has welcomed, “with optimism,” the advent of a Faculty of Sport at the University of West Indies, Mona campus.

JOA President, Christopher Samuda, issued a statement on behalf of the organisation today saying: “The governance and business of sport as well as athletic excellence demand a faculty of expert knowledge, research competencies and technical expertise which not only equips the present generation of sport but which prepares effectively and makes fertile the ground upon which future generations will be founded”.

The UWI has named Dr Akshai Mansingh, current director of the Division of Sports Medicine, to serve in the capacity of dean of the newly created Faculty of Sport, effective August 1.

Samuda urged Dr Mansingh, and his faculty colleagues, to author a text in which sport — as an educational tool, a vehicle for self-actualisation, a social instrument of change and transformation and a commercial enterprise — provides an enabling context for economic growth, national development and nationhood.

 “It is imperative that we encourage scholarship in the study of sport that will massage the intellect, giving muscle to new and improved thinking, proven methodologies and life-changing discoveries. I have no doubt that the Faculty will fulfil this mandate admirably,” he said. 

JOA has pledged its support of the faculty and said it looks forward to partnering with the UWI as the two seek, jointly and with other stakeholders, to construct an educated and a very skilled and viable sport industry.