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December 2014
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First, let me welcome you to this 2014 graduation ceremony of the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies. For many of us who have visited the campus over the years, it is always comforting to come back and see the magnificent samaan trees the green spaces and the beautiful buildings, the new and the old that are so much a part of the history and lore of this place. But on this occasion there is something missing for me. It is difficult for me to appreciate that I can come to St. Augustine for our graduation and not see Norman Girvan somewhere. I did not attend any of the celebrations of his life, but as this time rolled around I could not help thinking of him, what he accomplished on so many different stages, how many people he influenced and his passionate commitment to Caribbean development. I bracket Dennis Pantin along with him in that commitment to finding and trying to articulate ways in which the Caribbean could seek genuine development of its people. I thought I would refer to three inter-related topics that would have interested them both. I thought of them especially after hearing of the results of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States which your Principal, Professor [Clement] Sankat, attended. Much of the discussion there was on the sustainable development of small island developing states and how that should be achieved. The conference was held in Samoa, one of the Pacific Islands which of course shares one common feature with us. The University of the Pacific and The University of the West Indies are the only two multi-island universities in the world and there is a particular responsibility we have for assisting in the sustainable development of our constituencies. There are several aspects that I am sure would have intrigued Norman and Dennis at this time. First they both questioned the notion of sustainable development we should embrace, and second, they would naturally be interested in the role of our university and how relate that to our students and graduates. The concept of sustainable development figures prominently in the world today, as all eyes are focused on how the world community will elaborate a set of Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for how we live and interact with our social and physical environment after the year 2015. Economists and others have debated for years what development means and what should make it sustainable and much of the emphasis has been placed on our physical environment and the need to protect it. We are stewards of this planet and its resources and should leave them in good order for generations to come. In small island states such as we are, there is natural concern for our maritime environment and climate change for us with the spectre of rising sea levels is a matter of immediate practical relevance. Your Professor John Agard is a renowned expert in this area. But there is general agreement that our concern about development should embrace not only the environmental but also the social and economic dimensions. We have an Institute of Sustainable Development in the University which does excellent work that deals predominantly with the environmental and economic aspects of sustainable development. For example, there is work on preparation for disasters and we well know the importance of preparation for hurricanes in this part of the world. But I continue to emphasize that when we speak of development it should be clear to all that the real focus of development and what makes it important is that it must have people at the centre. I have often quoted Dr. Eric Williams who said famously “Development is the face of man,” and Julius Nyerere another huge figure in the struggle for national progress in his own country, Tanzania, said pithily “Development is for man, by man and of man.” So it is human development that we are after and it can only be made sustainable by the close interlinkage of the social, economic and environmental dimensions. What is the role of a university in supporting this human development? First there is our research which over the years in our various institutions, faculties and departments has contributed to a corpus of knowledge which is sometimes taken for granted and not related directly to the improvement of the lives of our citizens. I know well the area of health, where the seminal discoveries in many areas have shaped our practices and continue to influence how we live and see ourselves. There are few areas of health in which we have not contributed and I can cite research in areas such as nutrition, and child health and recent work on dengue, for example, which gives us a basis for understanding the behavior of new viruses when they appear in our midst. One of the many recommendations from the Conference in Samoa was to emphasize teaching and the development of human capital as essential for sustainable development. The Conference made reference to the Consortium of Universities from Small Island states, of which this University is a member, and cooperates in curriculum development, and joint degree programmes relevant to the needs of small island states. But I should point out that our impact on the sustainability of the human development of our Caribbean is not only through the focused research, but also through the preparation and training of the youth of the Caribbean to appreciate that there is intertwining of these three strands – that our learning in one area should open our perception of the relevance of the others. I trust that this has been made clear to you graduates. I know that many of you will contend that the difficulty in mastering the essentials of one discipline makes it difficult to embrace another. But I trust that at least the discipline of critical thinking and of reading will impel you to at least understand the implications of findings in other areas. I do not wish you to be dilettantes, but I hope that if not now, in the not too distant future you will come to appreciate the richness that other disciplines have to offer. I know from experience that this idea of being involved in areas beside one’s own was important in the early days of the University and one can see the result in many of our graduates. But it is even more important today as the chances that you will remain in any narrow discipline which now appears to be the one for your life choice is remote. I know that each of you came here focused on one area and perhaps with a plan for a life career in that field. I know that in some circles the view is that because knowledge expands so rapidly, it is important for the young to be channeled early and make life-shaping decisions early. My own experience and observation teaches me otherwise. When I was at your stage, I was firmly convinced that I would follow a standard programme of training to become a specialist in Internal Medicine, I would return to my native Barbados, enter specialist practice there and in the fullness of time enter politics. Through a series of accidental turns and twists, what I did subsequently and I was taken by this year’s commencement speech by the President of Johns Hopkins University who addressed a similar theme. I quote an excerpt: “For perpetual over achievers, people who always knew the path ahead, this is a moment of great anxiety. What if the choices you make now aren’t the right ones? What options are you foreclosing? How do your choices impact your grand plan? Obviously choices are necessary. But no one choice ever defines a life or a career. Indeed you will find the greatest careers – and the greatest lives – are often forged through a series of seemingly discordant decisions, driven by interests and passions and woven, thread-by-thread into a coherent tapestry more colorful, more bold than you could possible imagine today.” I would say Amen to that. The second topic to which I wish to refer is your contribution to our Caribbean. Caribbean integration was dear to Norman Girvan’s heart and few were as committed as he was to the idea and ideal of a Caribbean oneness – that there is in our history and culture something that serves to bind Caribbean people together both in and outside the Caribbean. Of course like all good disciples he would be critical at times of some aspects of that ideal and how it was being translated into practice. The image of that ideal and what it means comes home to me frequently as over the past 10 years I have sat here and listened to successive valedictorians express faith in the Caribbean and on many occasions be passionately eloquent as valedictorians are wont to be in elevating Caribbeanness to a level and plane that evoked in me perpetual benedictions. I sometimes contrast that passion with the pronouncements of doom that I hear sometimes – the dirges that the Caribbean people have lost their way – that the regional flame is flickering if indeed it has not been extinguished. I think it is understandable that some of us older ones are thinking of the Utopia of Caribbean regionalism that I too embraced in my youth. I am all for Utopia, for as Oscar Wilde said: “any map of the world that does not have Utopia on it is not worth glancing at.” But much of that Utopia was predicated essentially on the notion of Caribbean political and economic integration. As one Prime Minister would say famously “CARICOM is about trade and aid.” That Utopia also envisaged the movement of all people throughout the region without let or hindrance. But one of Norman’s seminal contributions was to advance the notion of functionalism as being not a pillar of the Caribbean integration but being central to a Caribbean community. Some of us have pointed out that we sell Caribbean integration short if we focus only on deficiencies and ignore those aspects of functional cooperation which we contend affect the Caribbean people most deeply where they live, love and labor. It is cooperation in several of these areas of functional cooperation that will ensure the sustainability of our development. Let me cite only a few examples. First is one which must be dear to your hearts and it is your University. There is an American advertisement for doughnuts which says “America runs on Dunkin.” The Caribbean runs on the products of your University. Over the past five years your university has produced 46,000 graduates. I will not dilate on the research output that deals with Caribbean problems and seeks to provide solutions. The Caribbean Examinations Council which essentially determines the content of Caribbean secondary education is fundamental to creating the Caribbean consciousness which so often comes through in the addresses of your valedictorians who come from all parts of the Caribbean. I could speak volumes about Caribbean collective action in health and tell you how it was the Caribbean countries which through collective action galvanized the world to convene a United Nations Assembly to consider the problem of chronic diseases-only the second time in the history of that body that such a meeting was convened. I could speak of the Caribbean collective action that led to this region being the first in the Americas to be rid of poliomyelitis. Next week the CARICOM Heads of government will convene to address a common approach to the problem of Ebola and they will be informed by the Caribbean’s own Public Health Agency. Of course our union is not perfect. I referred here once to the Preamble of the US Constitution which says, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union” and pointed out the struggles that country has gone through – even civil war – to keep the union – and it is still not perfect. Our, your sacred task is to keep trying to perfect the union that we have. That is a charge I wish to lay on you graduates. We will perhaps never see the perfect union, but we must never stop trying to perfect it. I have no doubt that you will do well. You come from good stock and if history is any guide, you will do very well. The sheer numbers of you are some indication of the impact you will have on human development in the Caribbean. This year there are 3,899 graduates with 305 at the post-graduate level. 273 of you have been awarded First Class Honours or distinctions with the highest number being in the medical sciences. There are approximately 18,000 students enrolled here and although 92% are from Trinidad and Tobago, there are students from 16 CARICOM countries and 42 other nationalities are represented here – students from as far afield as Samoa and Fiji. Please note that over the past 10 years, this Campus has produced 26,406 graduates. I wish to congratulate the students of the new Faculty of Law who won the “best new team” prize at the 55th Philip Jessup International moot competition – the world’s largest moot court competition. The presence of so many students on Campus must mean that there are many and varied needs – the academic, the financial, the emotional, the physical, etc. This need for the academic and physical support came home to me very forcibly as I met recently with some of the disabled students who are being supported by the Academic Support/Disabilities Liaison Unit headed by Ms. Jacqueline Huggins. The objectives of that unit are:
It was a pleasure to meet with those students with a range of disabilities and hear no word or notion of self-pity but the firm determination that there would be no obstacle that would stand in their way of completing the course and continuing to serve their varied communities. I wish to congratulate these strong people, the Unit that supports them and its coordinator, Ms. Jacqueline Huggins. I have often noted but not commented in any detail on the female-male ratio in the graduating class. This year, as in past years, the female predominance persists, with males exceeding females only in engineering. But this year it struck me that the ratio among the graduates was not the same as among the enrolled students. Over the past three years the ratio of percentage of males to females enrolling has been steady at 36% males and 63% females. It is interesting that in none of these years and indeed in none of the past five years has the percentage of graduating males risen above 32%. The impression therefore must be that the attrition rate is higher for males than for females. If this small sample is representative of a longer time series it should engage our attention in the sense of both investigating why this occurs and finding approaches to assist males in completing their course of study. This preponderance of females is also seen in the results of the CAPE examinations for Trinidad and Tobago according to the CXC Deputy Registrar. In 2009 the female-male percentage pass ratio was 62% female and 38% male. However in 2014 this was 59% female and 41% male. I am told that this increase in male passes might have been due to the introduction of subjects that were more interesting to males and perhaps more in tune with male attitudes and personalities. Perhaps the University in addressing the differential might also examine the nature of the course offerings or their form of presentation. Our University is not unique in regard to gender balance. I found data from the US Department of Education for the graduating class of 2013 which showed women earning 56.7 % of all bachelor’s degrees, 59% of all master’s and 51% of all doctoral degrees. Parenthetically, over the past 10 years, 66% of our postgraduate degrees have been awarded to females. There is ongoing debate to why this should be so, why is the gap apparently increasing, if indeed it does represent a societal problem and if so, what should be the solution. The list of externally funded projects is impressive, totaling $TT 72.4 million; and it is gratifying to see so many grants from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. The two largest grants are from the EU for 2.8 and 2.6 million Euros respectively. We are grateful to all our donors. There are several capital projects on stream, and I am pleased to note that the Penal-Debe South St. Augustine Campus should be ready for occupancy in 2015. I should also note with pleasure the formal launching of the first Diplomatic Academy by the Institute of International Relations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is a vibrant campus, fulfilling its mandate of teaching, service and research and its Principal and his staff should be congratulated for a good year. I trust you graduates are proud of it and I also hope that this pride lasts long after you leave the shade of the samaan trees and you will show your Pelican pride in many ways. But most importantly, please show it by giving back something to your alma mater and the society that has supported you. I am confident that the University will be as proud of you as it has been of your illustrious predecessors. And to your loved ones, I say thanks and hope that they are pleased with our product. |
