The University of Guyana (UG) is hoping to appoint a new Vice-Chancellor (VC) before the beginning of the 2020/2021 academic year.
This is according to Nigel Gravesande, the University Registrar who serves as Secretary of both the University Council and the search committee which was established to fill the vacancy.
Speaking with Sunday Stabroek, Gravesande explained that the search committee was established by the council on September 18, 2019 and has since drafted an advertisement for the position.
This ad is likely to be published both locally and regionally following a November 25th meeting of the committee.
He further noted that the expectation is that the ad will appear for two months to attract the widest possible variety of suitable persons from which five will be shortlisted.
According to Gravesande, the university will also be conducting a “process of due diligence” via a still to be decided mechanism to establish the suitability of the five candidates who will spend months auditioning for the role of VC.
“They will be provided with a number of documents which give background into the university’s operations [and then participate in] comprehensive activities [such as] an interactive meeting with the Council and Academic Board as well as two public lectures; one at Tain and the other at Turkeyen and a face-to-face interview with the search committee,” Gravesande explained.
He stressed that the stakeholders are intent on having the position filled before the start of the next academic year.
The committee responsible for the selection process was previously chaired by Pro-Chancellor Joseph Singh but is currently led by newly-installed Chancellor Dr. Edward Greene. It includes representatives from the unions representing workers at the university, the Academic Board, the Committee of Deans, the ministries of Education and Finance, the Private Sector, the Students Society and the Alumni Association. Additionally the committee benefits from the services of a legal counsel.
On June 7th, it was announced that VC Professor Ivelaw Griffith withdrew his request to renew his contract, which ended on June 14th. Since that time a transitional management team led by Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin has been running the university.
Griffith’s withdrawal of the request followed weeks of acrimonious exchanges between him and members of the two workers’ unions, the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU).
The UGSSA and the UGWU had challenged the UG council on its decision to pay Griffith in lieu of leave and on how his tenure should be evaluated in relation to a possible contract renewal.
A statement from the university explained that the UG Council had convened to decide on Griffith’s contract and the central issue was the evaluation of his term in office as one basis for the determination of the matter.
However, during the course of the meeting, correspondence was received from Griffith, who withdrew his previous request for a renewal of contract. The statement said that the Council accepted his request.
The statement added that the University Council looks forward to the end of recent exchanges in the media on the university’s internal process but in the interest of openness will keep its community and the wider society informed of unfolding developments as it seeks to continue its work and to provide for a seamless transition of leadership in the interest of its students, faculty and staff members.
Days earlier the UGSSA and the UGWU had said that the evaluation process for Griffith was “inadequate, incomplete, restrictive and wholly unsatisfactory” and not in keeping with best practices.
According to the unions, the evaluation design neglected to involve the University’s most critical stakeholders – students and staff – as part of the evaluation exercise of the Vice-Chancellor; involve qualified external reviewers; and conduct a site (physical plant) evaluation. Instead, they said the evaluation process planned to be used involved a self-evaluation by the Vice Chancellor and individual assessments by members of Council of the Vice-Chancellor.
Prior to that, the unions and Griffith had been at loggerheads for several months, dating back to late last year when Griffith had told them that the university had no monies for salary and wage increases after arbitrarily granting a three per cent and four per cent hikes for academic and non-academic staff, respectively.
The unions had said that they did not believe Griffith’s claims that the university was out of money given that monies were being spent on events and other things, without addressing serious infrastructural issues at the institution.
Griffith’s three-year tenure has seen commendation from within and outside of the university community for improvements that he had made and the connections he created with other universities.
Critics had, however, said that there was more style than substance and that while he was behind initiatives such as the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, the wages of lecturers and the state of key infrastructure at the university remained unaddressed. Critics had also flayed Griffith for a ceremonial investiture ceremony in 2017, a planned office in Georgetown and the handing out of doctorates.
Griffith, in a response to Stabroek News on his record as Vice Chancellor, had said that the University had expended $556,845,787 million and US$822,000 for improvements in their facilities. He had said that through the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Education, it has since spent $305,085,911 on various projects, including the construction of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, a new parking lot and road rehabilitation and the new Math and Science building, among other things.
The unions had also been calling for a forensic audit to be done on the finances of the university, which the Ministry of Education had stated via press release would be done by the Audit Office of Guyana.
