…VC announces major shake-up in leadership

The Finance and General Purpose Committee (F&GPC) of the University of Guyana has endorsed the Vice Chancellor’s bold and all-time-high budget request to the Government of Guyana of $5.2 billion for financial year 2017, even as it announces major changes in its leadership structure. The Vice Chancellor – Ivelaw Griffith received the committee’s endorsement during a late night meeting on Monday, the university said in a statement on Thursday. According to the university it needs GUY$3.0 for recurrent expenditure and GUY$2.2 billion for capital works. “The priorities of the administration focused on increased salaries for academic and non-academic staff, the provision of basic supplies and facilities that have been undermining efficiency and morale for years, campus security, and improving several of the facilities that negatively impact health and safety as well as security,” the statement said.
The new buildings proposed by the Griffith administration include a new library and an academic complex to house the Business School, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the School of Graduate Studies and Research, and the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Also approved at the Monday night meeting was the purchase of a badly-needed student center, using existing resources from the Learning Resource funds. The Vice-Chancellor plans to have the student center operational during the upcoming semester. The F&GPC, which is the second highest policy making body after the University Council, also approved a proposal by Vice-Chancellor to comprehensively restructure the university’s leadership.
The university explained that the “re-organisation plan, which reassigns a few existing officials, promotes one individual and establishes a few new positions, aims to create greater levels of efficiency and effectiveness and set the stage for innovation in academic and non-academic areas.”
In alluding to the 2013 Hamilton Consultant Report on the university, which called for “the university to undergo a major restructuring…to make it a high performance institution”, Vice-Chancellor Griffith, who is in his first three months at the university said, “I am of the strong view that greater levels of effectiveness and efficiency can only be achieved through the immediate reorganisation of the administration of the university through realignment of functions and roles.”
The changes, which become effective from October 1 this year, entail having Dr Michael Scott, until recently Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, become Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Engagement.
In addition to the Faculties within his portfolio, Dr Scott will have oversight over several new units: the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; the School of Graduate Studies and Research; and the Office of Undergraduate Research, the latter two of which will get some initial leadership guidance from the Vice-Chancellor because of his expertise and experience in those areas.
The current Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academics, Dr Barbara Reynolds, has been reassigned as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Planning and International Engagement, a new entity intended to streamline and extend UG’s international relationships and build new grant, research, and other relationships with other universities and with international organisations.
Dr Paloma Mohamed, a former Director of the Center for Communication Studies and a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, will occupy the newly created position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement. Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Planning and Development, Dr Elizabeth Ramlal, has been invited to become Executive Director of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE), to lead the realignment of the Institute to strengthen its service delivery across the country and realise it entrepreneurial potential.
The new administrative team, the statement said, will be further strengthened with the establishment of an Office of Strategic Initiatives as an adjunct to the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, to undertake institutional strengthening, project management, and allied services.
The current Programme Officer in the Office of the Vice Chancellor, Karen Wishart, has been promoted to become the first occupant of the newly established position of Chief of Staff in the Vice-Chancellery.
This promotion coincides with the renaming of the Senior Administrative Group to the Vice-Chancellor’s Cabinet, which would include the Deputy Vice Chancellors, Registrar, Bursar, Human Resources Director, Director of the Berbice Campus, the Legal Officer—a new position—the Director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives and the Chief of Staff. Another notable aspect of the Griffith Plan is the re-designation of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences as a full-fledged Faculty with a Dean. Vice-Chancellor Griffith observed that in addition to the superior teaching and research already being done by that unit, elevating it to a Faculty enhances its respectability and the prospects for more grants and consulting contracts by the academic staff there.