The University of Guyana Senior Staff Association and the University of Guyana Workers’ Union yesterday said that they have no confidence in the leadership of the university’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Council, Major-General (Ret’d) Joseph Singh.
Singh led a round robin vote of the sixteen eligible members of Council, to reverse an earlier decision to send Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith on standard leave.
In a statement yesterday, the unions said that the faculty and staff of the University of Guyana (UG), are calling on the university’s council to stand by its initial decision to send the Vice-Chancellor (VC) on routine end-of-contract leave, and are asking students and staff not to cooperate with any directives given by the VC.
The UG Council had said that the round robin vote was held following a request made by Griffith, that he be obliged to forgo proceeding on leave effective May 13, and to instead be paid for “30 of the 35 days’ due to him’.
The unions’ statement yesterday said that having taken into consideration decisions made by Singh over the past few months, they have concluded that “he has guided the Council in a direction that is not in the interests of our sole national University”.
They added “Under his leadership, the welfare and interests of students, faculty and staff have been neglected and undermined”. .
The unions related that yesterday, during a meeting comprising the university’s faculty and staff who are members of the unions, they came to certain resolutions about the ongoing situation.
As a result, they have called upon the Council to stand by its decision made on April 15 to allow the VC to proceed on routine end-of-contract leave. They added that should the decision be allowed to stand, and should the Council proceed with the payment of funds in lieu of leave on the instruction of the VC, this will be interpreted as setting a precedent, and in future, the university must also pay staff members in lieu of leave at their request, and without regard to the University’s own financial situation and its own requirements.“If the University denies any such request from staff members, legal challenges will ensue,” the unions warned.
Finally, they called on staff and students to “adopt a stance of non-corporation with any policy directive, request or instruction emanating from the Vice-Chancellor” as they “consider the decision of the Council meeting of 15th April (to send the VC on end-of-term-leave) to be both proper and justified.”
