 “We enjoyed our years,” says Mrs. Sandra Yates-Corbie with a smile.
The years she is referring to are those of her undergraduate degree at UWI St. Augustine, where she and several young women were some of the pioneering students to attend the fledgling university. Among those early students was Mrs. Lyris Hodge-Christian, her classmate and lifelong friend. I sat down with both ladies to hear their story, that of young people at a young university in the young republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
“I think UWI really made a lot of things possible for us,” says Mrs. Yates-Corbie. The year was 1964, one year after the creation of the College of Arts and Science at St. Augustine. As described in an article in the November 2017 issue of UWI Today (https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/archive/november_2017/article1.asp) the College was established in 1963, joining the Faculties of Agriculture and Engineering.
Even though the College was untested and had very limited resources, it offered students who could not study abroad a chance at a quality tertiary education. And many jumped at it.
“We knew for a long time that we wanted to go to university but we didn’t have the opportunity at that time,” says Mrs. Yates-Corbie. “Fortunately for us, UWI opened just as we were graduating from secondary school.”
The UWI was growing fast. In his message in the UWI publication “Pelican Annual 1965,” Pro Vice-Chancellor Sir Dudley Huggins wrote: “The student population was 67 in 1960-61, 96 in 1961-62, 583 in 1963-64, (and) 800 in 1964-65.”
Pointing out the “strains” that the influx caused on the campus resources, he went on to say that “the driving force has been our conviction of the need for an increase in the number of our people with skills.”
Speaking to UWI students throughout the region, Vice-Chancellor Philip Sherlock said at the time that “there should be more of you here.” He pointed to university research that showed the West Indies had only 10,000 university-trained personnel according to a 1960 census, a figure that was less that 1% of the population. He compared this to Canada (8%) and the US (13%). “Outside our gates therefore stand many young West Indians who should be here.”
 Both Mrs. Yates-Corbie and Mrs. Hodge-Christian were language students. Both attended St. Joseph’s Convent in Port of Spain. They have been friends since Form One. This kind of relationship was not rare on the campus at the time. Some of the graduates have been friends since primary school. That, along with the small student body helped to forge bonds that remain tight even today.
“There was closeness,” says Mrs. Hodge-Christian, “We looked out for each other. The friends we made there are friends you keep for life.”
You can hear it in their conversation as they share stories and recall memories. Names go flying by – Shirley, Ozzie, Alva. They speak of the old Guild Hall where they ate lunch. They laugh at a crazy adventure that would not be out of place among the students on campus today. They recalled the student march against the apartheid government of Rhodesia and the annual campus calypso competition. Veteran composer Alvin Daniell, at the time a young engineering student, was a regular fixture. To varying degrees, the ladies were involved as well.
“I was the Mighty Sandy,” Mrs. Yates-Corbie says.
Mrs. Hodge-Christian shrugs, “the most I would have done was a little back-ups for people.”
But even though there was great fun on campus, the students had come to get their degrees and find a career afterwards. They were very focused in pursuit of their goal.
“Many of us came from large families so we had an innate sense of responsibility that we had to get this thing done and not ask our parents for one cent,” Says Mrs. Corbie.
Friends and classmates in the languages programme, they also were co-workers at the UWI library and the old Central Library in Port of Spain.
Mrs. Hodge-Christian says, “in order to not bother my parents for money for things like transportation I worked. During the vacation we always worked.”
By its second year, the College of Arts and Sciences was holding some of the classes at a prefabricated structure (the Arcon building) on Agostini Street. The late Robert Wallace Thompson, Chairman of the Division of Humanities, said “our college will soon have completed its second year. Its first year was one of struggle but in spite of a shortage of accommodation, staff and texts our entire centre has had the highest number of successful candidates in the qualifying examinations in 1964.”
Language students made up the largest group at the College but it was still a very small and close-knit university community. It included not only young people just out of school but also professionals who had already been working as teachers in the educational system at the primary level.
As intended, one of the major effects of the opening of university education to more Trinidadians was the creation of a new generation of educators who went on to fill posts as teachers, vice principals and principals at the secondary level. Mrs. Hodge-Christian has had a long and successful career as a teacher, trainer and human resource professional. Mrs. Yates-Corbie has been a teacher at several schools, completing her career as Vice Principal at Holy Faith Convent.
They are hard-pressed to find even one bad memory from their UWI days. “Time tends to temper bad memories,” says Mrs. Hodge-Christian. “I can’t really think of anything that was bad.”
Mrs. Corbie agreed, “in those days when you got to campus you just felt happy.”
Their sentiments bring to mind the words of Vice-Chancellor Sir Phillip Sherlock, a renowned historian and writer:
“Cherish and love this university, because despite its many imperfections, it represents those values that we hold most dear, fellowship between our peoples, freedom of inquiry, excellence in the endeavours of the mind, unselfish devotion to knowledge, and insight into the human heart.”
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