SUNDAY 3RD JULY, 2016 – UWI TODAY
7
CAMPUS BURSAR: ANDREA TAYLOR-HANNA
Her most impressive answer is the simplest.
Sitting down to be interviewed by UWI TODAY,
Mrs. Andrea Taylor-Hanna, the recently appointed
Campus Bursar at UWI St. Augustine, was asked about
her values, her outlook on life and how it will guide her
in the position.
“A dollar must be used efficiently,” she replied. “It
doesn’t matter if it is one dollar or a million dollars, the
same principle applies. You must not waste.”
Her answer is grounded, free from the unwieldy
statements you normally get in response to questions on
values. Mrs. Taylor-Hanna is, after all, an accountant and
banker. She is a numbers person, and numbers are not
swayed by rhetoric. Numbers are engaged with reality. At
present, for the University, for Trinidad and Tobago, for
the region, the reality is quite challenging.
“I was this way previously,” she says of her prudent
approach, “but it was really refined when I went to work
for Republic Bank in their Trust and Asset Management
Division. It really clarified a number of things for
me. Every dollar counts. Just because you can pay for
something doesn’t mean you should. Feel free to save
the money.”
Mrs. Taylor-Hanna was appointed Campus Bursar
in October 2015, the latest milestone in an over 35-year
career as a finance professional. She has worked in several
industries, among them banking, where she held several
senior positions at Republic Bank, including General
Manager of Internal Audit and General Manager of
Planning and Financial Control. She was also President
of the Institute of Banking and Finance, the component
of the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago that
deals with education.
“I really do feel that every single thing I have done in
my life so far has gone into preparingme for the execution
of this function at UWI,” she says.
This includes not only skills in areas like auditing,
financial management and financial planning, but also
human resources:
“A few years back I decided to do a master’s degree
in human resource development. Now, I’m a financial
person but I looked and understood that understanding
people and the way they think and figuring out how to
motivate them is very important. In the beginning of
your career and growth it is about technical skills. Once
you have acquired your technical competencies it is all
about human relationships and interactions.”
As Campus Bursar, those skills are being tested. With
a staff of approximately 100 people, the Bursary of UWI
St. Augustine is responsible for every aspect of financial
management for the main campus as well as the Medical
Sciences campus at Mt Hope. This includes the monthly
payroll for more than 4,000 people, cash management,
paying bills, creating budgets, and overseeing projects
and other investments.
“The challenge at UWI is the sheer complexity of
the different strands that come together to produce the
delivery of education,” she says, giving the example of the
different revenue streams that fund the University and
the complexity that entails.
She adds, “I thought I was coming to work at a
university but it is really a small city of about 23,000-
24,000 people, with all the dynamics of managing a city.
Recently appointed Campus Bursar at UWI St. Augustine,
Mrs. Andrea Taylor-Hanna: Feel free to save the money.
That is what makes it different. That is what makes it
interesting.”
But the most pressing challenge for the Campus
Bursar is the loss of funding that the University faces
because of the economic recession. UWI’s task is to
maintain its high standard in the education and research
opportunities it provides while receiving less funding.
The mandate is to “protect the things that are critical,”
such as original research and the many areas of study. She
also wants to ensure that students still have opportunities
for scholarships and to travel abroad. Where cuts have
to be made, they should do the least harm, especially to
the University’s core activities.
“We have to use this recession to force us to achieve
higher levels of efficiency and productivity” she says. “We
have to use it to remove what is worthy of removing and
save what is worthy of saving.”
Her approach is to work with the different units on
the campus for them to determine what needs to be cut
to meet the financial goals.
“Everybody that interacts with this University has
to share this burden, from top to bottom, from our staff
to our suppliers. Secondly, we must figure out how to
continue to deliver the best education that we can to the
students without the severe economic challenge affecting
that in a negative way,” she says.
She acknowledged, however, that tertiary-level
students in general could be affected (like the rest of
the country) by the recession, particularly because of
potential changes to the Government Assistance for
Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme. This is not
pessimism. Mrs. Taylor-Hanna believes that citizens
should recognize how privileged we have been and
continue to be, even with the conditions.
“This is an issue that we have to face, all of us. Let us
roll up our sleeves and get on with it,” she says. “Fretting
won’t make it go away, quarreling won’t make it go away
and blaming somebody else won’t make it go away. Use
your energy to figure out how to make it work in your
space and environment, and collectively we will work it
out for the country.”
She is hopeful that this can happen because it has
happened before.
“I was around for the 1980s,” she says, describing how
Trinidad and Tobago adapted to those brutal economic
circumstances. “Trinidadians came out of the 1980s
more respectful of their jobs and more entrepreneurial.
It made the individual citizenmore dependent on himself
to make a living.”
But the new Campus Bursar sees positive signs in
the present as well as the past. The representatives of the
various campus units are responding to these times.They
are stepping forward and finding ways to reduce costs.
“I’m seeing them getting down into their units and
figuring it out, and coming back with answers for doing
things differently. I am hopeful and every day is making
me more hopeful that we will face the challenge and
overcome it,” she says.
It’s a slow process but she believes it is the right
process to create the kind of shift necessary for the
university to thrive in the present environment.
Getting the numbers right is critical, but UWI is
made up of more than the numbers.
VALUING EDUCATION
B Y J O E L H E N R Y
A few years back I
decided to do a master’s
degree in human resource
development. Now, I’m
a financial person but I
looked and understood
that understanding people
and the way they think
and figuring out how to
motivate them is very
important.
