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JULY 2015
10
CAMPUS LEADERS
UWI COMMUNITY NEWS
FROM THE ST. AUGUSTINE CAMPUS
What it means to be Dean
ProfESSOR Aiyejina, Dr. Cateau speak on leadership at a great institution
“Change is the law of life,”
US President
John F Kennedy once said, and for the Faculty of
Humanities and Education (FHE) an important
change has come. Professor Funso Aiyejina,
who for the last six years led the faculty as
Dean, retired in August of 2014. A well-loved
lecturer with an over two-decade career at
the St Augustine Campus, Professor Aiyejina’s
tenure as Dean included numerous initiatives
to increase FHE’s public profile and spread its
influence far beyond the campus grounds.
“We want to remain central to the
intellectual, philosophical and cultural
development of the community,” Professor
Aiyejina says of his vision for the faculty. “As the
Faculty of Humanities and Education, we see
ourselves as the ethical centre of the society.”
It’s an ambitious vision. Most importantly,
it’s a vision shared by the new Dean of FHE, Dr
Heather Cateau: “At the end of it all I would like
to position this faculty to be a major player in
the development of the university, T&T and the
region.”
Dr Cateau, who has been a member of
the faculty management team (as Deputy Dean
and Head of the History Department) since
the beginning of Prof Aiyejina’s appointment,
recognises that the position has its challenges,
but she is determined to succeed.
She says, “My approach is going to
be simply – work hard. I intend to work
extremely hard. I intend to respect others
and I intend to focus on the issues and not
get side-tracked. I intend to take advice.
I have a former dean whose support is
there even though he is determined not
to interfere. I have my colleagues.”
Prof Aiyejina is confident in
the new Dean’s ability to continue
and expand on the progress that
the faculty has made under his
leadership.
“She is a very dedicated worker,
very focused and she shares the vision
that all of us have at the faculty,” he
says. “So I am positive that she is going
to take the faculty forward to greater
heights.”
One of the main concerns of FHE
is that it is not seen as a “dollars and
cents” faculty, as Prof Aiyejina phrased it.
Because of this the faculty is sometimes
challenged in finding its place alongside
some of the other faculties and in some
cases doesn’t have the necessary
resources for its mission. While Dr
Cateau and the FHE management team
intend to work hard to strengthen the
faculty, she also sees the need for
greater support from the university.
She says, “We at the faculty know what
we have to do and we accept that responsibility.
But it can’t just be up to us. The university has
to understand as well – the importance of new
positions, the importance of something like
philosophy, how these things deepen, not just
the Humanities, but every other faculty in The
UWI. The space we occupy is important. Staff
working in the humanities must feel valued.
Therefore there has to be investment in the
faculty in terms of human resources and the
nature of the space.”
It’s a challenging, time-consuming
position which can take Dr Cateau away from
her academic work; nevertheless she is fully
committed, especially because of her almost
life-long relationship with the university.
“I have literally grown up in this institution,”
she says. “I love this university. I love my faculty.
I believe in what my faculty does.”
As to Prof Aiyejina, although he is still
dedicated to the success of FHE, he is free of the
responsibilities (and stresses) that come with
command. The former Dean is looking forward
to getting back to creative writing – both his own
and as a teacher within the faculty.
In closing, he spoke about what it means to
be a dean at The University of the West Indies:
“I believe UWI is a great institution. I think
that anybody in a leadership position at UWI
must always keep that at the forefront of their
mind – this is a great institution that people
have sacrificed to build and we have to make our
own sacrifices to ensure that the future inherits
something that is greater than what exists now.”
Professor
Funso Aiyejina
Dr Heather Cateau
Dean of Faculty of
Humanities and Education
