Girl power

For the first time in 20 years, a female has been elected as Guild President of the University of the West Indies (UWI). She is 22 year-old Annicia Gayle.

All Woman caught up with arguably the most powerful female student on campus last week and she shared some of her personal and professional aspirations.

“The Guild over the last few years has been characterised by gross mismanagement and I want to address that by constantly evaluating its financial affairs,” she said. Elected to office late last month, she is no stranger to student leadership. Last year saw her as the Guild’s Vice President and the year before that she represented the Faculty of Social Sciences on the Guild Council.

It was during her year as Social Science representative on the Guild that the ‘Benz’ scandal erupted. At the time the 2000-2001Guild had arranged the raffle of a 2001 Mercedes Benz to raise funds for scholarships and bursaries to help needy students. Income from the sale of tickets, however, fell way below expectations and when the raffle was drawn the Guild did not have enough money to pay for the car. Though the situation was later settled through the intervention of the University Council, the Guild was severely embarrassed.

That is why, Annicia says, accountability is a major part of her plans for the Guild.

“This year I will ensure that every dollar that is spent is accounted for. We do that using a P12 form, which has the reason for the payment, the payee’s contact information, the company’s invoice and so on,” she explained. No spending is supposed to take place, she said, without the P12 being used.

According to her, she has also learnt from the mistakes of the previous Guild presidents.

“They had the proper protocol in place but they fell down on the implementation aspect of it. So that (implementation) is one area I can capitalise on,” she said.

Another major lesson for her, too, is the value of accountability.

“I have learnt the value of collective action. That must be in place – the activities of the Public Relations Officer is my business and vice versa. You have to know how the other person is managing in his role,” the soft-spoken leader said.

High on her agenda during her presidency is to increase student participation in the affairs of the Guild. Her plan is to have a workshop for the heads of the clubs, societies and associations as well as the Hall committees on campus.

“I want to involve all of the Hall committee instead of just the Hall Chairman. I also want to include the executives of the clubs and societies. That way I will get all of the student leadership on campus and the Guild will truly be representative of the students,” she said. After the ‘Benz’ scandal there had been a postponement in the Guild elections by the University Council. Student voter turnout has since been lower than normal as many students felt disenchanted with the conduct of the Guild. This year’s election had a less than 20 per cent voter turnout with Annicia winning 673 out of a student population of roughly 11,000. She was the only female of five candidates.

Those are some of the challenges facing Annicia but she seems undaunted by the task.

“My philosophy is that changes do not occur by impulses but by a series of actions. Each person has to become an agent of change in the community in which we live,” said the political science and public administration major. In her final year now she plans to do her masters in Social Policy Development. “I want to do my MPhil thesis on the disabled community. I want to see their interests put into mainstream policy making,” said Annicia, who plans to be a social activist.

Does that mean entry into Jamaican politics? She is not too sure yet. While she does not rule it out, she would rather focus more on social administration.

Another option, she is toying with is going to law school after her masters.

Whatever she does in the future, she said, she plans to give it her all as she hates mediocrity.

“I am impatient with mediocrity and complainers who don’t give of themselves to make changes,” she said.

Outside her academic and guild activities, she enjoys playing table tennis and reading. She is a devout Seventh-day Adventist as well as a runner-up in the Kingston and St Andrew Festival Queen Competition 2000-2001.

“I learnt a lot in the competition especially how rich our Jamaican culture is. For example there is so much African retention in JA – you have dances like the ettu and the dinki mini which I enjoyed learning about,” she said.

She is also a Taylorite – a boarder on Taylor Hall – an experience which she said has taught her time management.

“Taylor challenges you to balance your co-curricular activities with your academic and social life,” she explained. As the interview wound to a close her cell phone started ringing and an assistant at the Guild office poked her head in to tell her of a student who needed her help. She ran off to attend to Guild matters.