SUNDAY 5 MAY 2019 – UWI TODAY
5
CAMPUS NEWS
Sir Meredith Alister McIntyre,
a champion of Caribbean
integration, celebrated intellectual and scholar, and Vice-
Chancellor of The UWI from 1988 to 1998, passed away on
April 20 in Jamaica. Born in Grenada, Sir Alister was renowned
for his more than half century dedication to the development
of the region and his almost lifelong relationship with The
UWI. He was 87.
Chancellor of The UWI, Mr Robert Bermudez, expressed
his condolences to Sir Alister’s wife Marjorie, their children
and grandchildren.
“The region has lost a transformational leader; a giant
among men whose contributions to our development shall
continue to benefit this generation and generations into the
future,” he said.
Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor Emeritus, said“His legacy
to our University of the West Indies is enduring and the
many changes he introduced to improve its governance and
management are withstanding the test of time.”
Early in his career, Sir Alister became a lecturer in
economics at The UWI Mona Campus. He would eventually
reach the heights of his academic career, becoming Vice-
Chancellor in 1988.
“He was also instrumental in ensuring that the Heads
of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
recognised the pivotal role played by The UWI in the human
resource development of the region and enshrined The UWI
in the 1989 Grand Anse Declaration, setting the Caribbean
Single Market and economy (CSME) in motion, as a regional
institution in perpetuity,” Mr Bermudez said in his statement
on his passing.
Among his numerous career highlights is his 1974
appointment to the post of Secretary General of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM). His awards include the Order of the
Caribbean Community (OCC), national honours from Jamaica
and Guyana, and Knighthood from the Queen of England in
1992.
In a statement on the passing of Sir Alister, UWI Vice-
Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles described what he
called “The McIntyre Moment”, a new era for the university:
“A generation of academics, leaders, and administrators
was schooled in theMcIntyremodel andmentality. It is evident
today, 21 years after his term, that our strategic planning
cycle is still driven by the compelling imperative of economic
development and social transformation. His vision, and his
mission, remain robustly relevant.”
Sir Alister,
pioneering
UWI Vice-
Chancellor,
passes at 87
Toni-Marie Bobart,
a 25-year-old graduate of The UWI’s
bachelor’s programme in actuarial science, has become the
second student from the campus to earn the designation
of “Associate” with the Society of Actuaries (ASA). This
is an achievement for Toni-Marie, who has overcome
six extremely challenging exams and eight modules
while working full-time. It is also an achievement for the
Actuarial Sciences programme within the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics (DMS) of the Faculty of Science
and Technology, which has educated two associates since
the programme’s creation in 2011.
“It was quite a long journey, especially when you are
working full time,” says Toni-Marie. “It was quite a big
challenge but through determination I made it.”
Based in the US, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) is
a global professional organisation of actuarial science, a
field that combines business, math and finance to measure
and manage risk for complex financial issues. The SOA
exams are known for their great difficulty and many
prospective associates need successive attempts to achieve
the designation.
Toni-Marie’s road was made even more challenging
because the SOA introduced a new exam, predictive
analytics, for the first time:
“They changed the syllabus mid last year and I fell
under that group of students who had to sit the new exam,”
she says.
Apart from her own willpower and hardwork, she
attributes her success to her family and employer, KR
Services. She is also grateful to her lecturers in the DMS,
particularly Senior Lecturer/Subject Leader Mr Stokeley
Smart, who “went the extra mile for the students”.
Smart says that “as director of the BSc actuarial science
programme at UWI St Augustine, I am of the opinion
that if the student does not succeed the master then both
the master and the student have failed. Toni became an
associate of the SOA in fewer years than I took to attain the
designation. That is clear evidence that she has succeeded
her master.”
Speaking on UWI’s actuarial programme, Mr
Smart says it was designed to “raise the bar in terms of
TONI-MARIE BOBART
is second UWI graduate to become an
associate of the Society of Actuaries
what is expected from young professionals entering the
wider financial services sector nationally, regionally and
internationally. In fact, 72 per cent of the programme’s
entire graduate database is already employed.”
“The degree,” Smart says, “has a focus on developing
the quantitative risk management skills of its graduates
as well as preparing them to write the associate-level
examinations of the Society of Actuaries if they so choose.”
Toni-Marie believes The UWI provides an education
in actuarial science on par with anything available
internationally:
“You don’t need to spend all this money to go abroad
and study actuarial science when you can get the same
quality of education right here.”
