SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY, 2018 – UWI TODAY
11
“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/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 “PelicanAnnual 1965,” ProVice-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 youngWest 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.
MEMORIES
Days of Wonder
B Y J O E L H E N R Y
“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
c ampu s t od ay.
The y re c a l l e d
t h e s t u d e n t
march against
the apartheid
government of
Rhodesia and
t h e a n nu a l
c a m p u s
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.
Pioneers: From left, Anne McIntosh-Ottley, Sandra Yates-Corbie, Shirley Jackman-
Worrell, and Maureen Eccles-Hill, UWI St. Augustine students, star in a 1966
newspaper shoot in front of the main building (now the Administration Building)
of the young campus.
PHOTOS COURTESY SANDRA YATES-CORBIE
Mrs. Hodge-Christian says, “in order to not bothermy 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 tomind the words of Vice-Chancellor
Sir Philip 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.”
What a caption!
