And we're out!
Dawn Marie De Four-Gill
Editor
Happy New Year to all our Pelican readers. And what better New Year’s gift than a spanking new issue of the magazine of The University of the West Indies.
I must thank all of you who took the time to read our debut issue and to send us your comments, congratulatory messages and suggestions. We tried to publish as many of your comments, as space would allow on pages 6 and 7. We really appreciate your feedback, so please continue to communicate with us by email, fax or mail.
As the region stands poised to welcome cricketing greats from over 16 nations for the ICC Cricket World Cup, we’ve tried to capture some of that excitement in our Pelican pages. In the midst of all our enthusiasm to present an issue dedicated to that lovely game, we’ve endeavoured to strike the right balance by including articles on research and philanthropic developments, as well as features on our alumni and faculty.
In this issue, a brief word from the VC on the relationship between West Indies Cricket and The University of the West Indies leads into a host of stirring stories on the game that we all love. Sportswriter Fazeer Mohammed compares the development of cricket in the West Indies with UWI, concluding, “If nothing else, the experience of cricket and UWI is confirmation that when it comes to their most popular sport and the quest for academic excellence, West Indians are generally prepared to overlook often fractious relationships for the sake of victory or a degree.” And Dr. Iva Gloudon, the Director of Sport & Physical Education at UWI, St. Augustine forces us to stop and look past the excitement and euphoria of World Cup Cricket as she questions our ability as a region to continue to invest in the maintenance of our sporting infrastructure and overall development of sport after the lights go down in April 2007.
In this issue we also speak with Dr. Kim Mallalieu, an innovative lecturer and researcher at our St. Augustine campus, who holds a patent in fibre optics and pioneered UWI’s first fully on-line Master’s programme in Telecommunication Regulation & Policy, which currently has students registered from over 31 countries including Lithuania and Uganda. Our research feature focuses on the newly established Caribbean Institute of Public Safety and Justice and two prolific researchers in the area of regional security – Professor Anthony Harriott from our Mona campus, and Professor Emeritus Ramesh Deosaran from the St. Augustine campus. We also get a little closer to home with an exclusive interview with President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Compton Bourne, a former Campus Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor of UWI.
In 2008, UWI will be 60 years old, and that will be our focus for the next issue. That issue will also unveil the 60th anniversary logo, the exciting year of events planned to mark our sixty years of existence, and ways in which you can participate in and contribute to the festivities.
As an institution, UWI is committed to the growth and development of the region and we are continually adapting and investing to ensure that we will meet the needs of our many stakeholders. For this reason, we have included a contribution form for those of you who may want to assist us with this development, and we are happy to meet personally with persons who may have more specific concerns that they may want to jointly address.
In ending, I’m pleased to announce the launch of the Pelican website at www.uwi.edu/pelican. This web presence will complement our print version, as well as present an opportunity for a deeper level of interaction with our loyal Pelican readers. We look forward to getting your feedback, so keep in touch and keep reading the Pelican!
