 To be beast and man
Having served two terms as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr Hamid Ghany has demitted office as required by University Statutes. His successor will be Mr Errol Simms. The popular social commentator spoke with UWI Today about his tenure, his plans, and the state of independence in Trinidad and Tobago.
You are acknowledged as an expert on constitutional matters, when you were a child, did you imagine this for yourself? What were your dreams?
As a child I always envisaged following some aspect of my father’s career and life. I never imagined becoming recognised as someone who could speak with some knowledge on constitutional matters, but my lifetime influences took me there.
What was your childhood like?
My father was a barrister-at-law and I grew up in an environment where legal and political matters were always discussed. My mother is originally from Philadelphia, USA. TIME Magazine and the BBC World news were part of my teenage diet of interests alongside the other things that teenagers enjoy such as parties, sports and friends. I grew up in Maraval and my formative years at Holy Name Preparatory School in Cascade in the 1960s followed by Queen’s Royal College and the Sixth Form Secondary (Polytechnic) in St. James provided me with the kind of diversity that allowed me to appreciate life from many angles.
My father served as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1976 and was heavily involved, behind the scenes, in the process surrounding the amendment of the constitution that led us to republicanism in 1976. I was absorbed in following the debates surrounding the amendment of the independence constitution throughout the lifetime of that Parliament. I saw politics being operated first hand and that had a tremendous impact on me.
How long have you been at The UWI?
After I returned from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a PhD in Constitutional Law and Government in June 1987, I started teaching on a part-time basis at the UWI. In September 1992, I was appointed to a full-time position as a Lecturer in the then Department of Government. In 1997, I was appointed Deputy Dean (Distance Education and Outreach) in the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) and the year before I had been asked to serve as the academic coordinator for the infant Summer Programme of the FSS by Dean Dr Patrick Watson.
In 1999, I was appointed Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences and also made Senior Lecturer that year. In 2002, I was re-appointed Head of Behavioural Sciences. In 2003, when Dean Watson became Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), I was appointed to act as Dean of the Faculty until July 31, 2004. I was then appointed to the substantive post of Dean from August that year and was reappointed for a second term in August 2008. The Statutes of the University do not permit a Dean to serve more than two consecutive terms and so my service as Dean ended on July 31, 2012.
The Social Sciences Faculty is UWI’s largest, with over 5,000 students; what accounts for its popularity?
The undergraduate programmes in Management and Psychology are very popular with students. However, the Faculty has also expanded its graduate studies options in the area of taught Masters and Postgraduate Diploma programmes during my tenure as Dean, since 2003, in Social Work, Mediation Studies, Criminology, Aviation Management, Strategic Leadership and Management, Public Sector Management, Sports Management and Tourism Management.
Additionally, I made a bold decision in 2004 for the FSS to embrace the introduction of the Evening University. That allowed a revolution in tertiary education by creating a rate of progress for students that was neither full-time nor part-time, but rather allowed working adults the opportunity to continue working and to pursue their dreams of acquiring a good quality education at a pace that they could choose.
That decision allowed the Faculty to respond to the demands for expansion of access in the Strategic Plans of 2002-2007 and 2007-2012 and the Faculty met all its enrolment targets to the extent that we are satisfied now to arrive at a plateau that will allow us to consolidate our position.
What was the FSS like when you became Dean?
When I became Dean we were on the edge of transferring to the GPA system as well as the Banner electronic system. After 2003, both systems had to be implemented and I drove that process on a hands-on basis with the Administrative and Technical Support Staff. I saw that we could handle the growth that the Strategic Plan asked of us once we were able to embrace the electronic systems. There were always going to be issues of administrative transformation and a new culture that would follow such a transformation.
The bottom line is that a Dean must get the job done and cannot allow the Faculty to be controlled by administrators who will direct him or her about what to do. If you have to take responsibility for what is signed by you, then you have to make sure that you can direct it and lead in such a way that your staff will be motivated to get the job done.
The Faculty is a very different place now. We have electronic workflow processes, a Grade Point Average, and we are the only Faculty that offers counter service until 10pm Monday to Friday and on Saturdays from 8.30am to 4.30pm.
Our administrative transformation has been accomplished by the use of teams instead of individuals on a hierarchical basis. My decision to eliminate silos and create a flatter organization in the Faculty has met disagreement in some quarters, but if you want to ensure service across the board, teams who can handle a broad range of matters is the only way to go once your signature on a document makes you personally liable for the service that is provided.
What goals did you set yourself for FSS?
“Therefore, you must know that there are two modes of fighting: one in accordance with the laws, the other with force. The first is proper to man, the second to beasts. But because the first, in many cases is not sufficient, it becomes necessary to have recourse to the second: therefore a prince must know how to make good use of the natures of both the beast and the man.” (Machiavelli, The Prince, Ch. XVIII)
This quotation from “The Prince” epitomizes the manner in which I have had to approach the job of Dean at various times during my tenure. Ensuring the best for my Faculty and defending its honour against various attempts to weaken the FSS, while seeking to advance its development, is a task that every Dean will have to face.
My vision and philosophy was to engage in expansion of access to the Faculty in accordance with the Strategic Plans of 2002-2007 and 2007-2012. I was keenly interested in promoting the values of internationalization, academic entrepreneurship, strengthening regionalism and wealth creation.
I had seen the desire to undertake so many viable projects stymied by the inability to finance them, while at the same time I was aware that the University, as an institution, was not only about teaching, learning and research, but rather could be leveraged through those core components of its very existence to play a wider role in national and regional engagement.
My vision of internationalization is based on the fact that I recognize that what we do is valuable on a global scale and I reject the desire of others to limit it to an inward-looking approach which borders on xenophobia. We are valuable in the world and others will engage us if have the ability and strategy to engage them.
My vision of strengthening regionalism is based on my personal philosophy as a Caribbean regionalist. We are too small to want to engage the world without trying to cross the bridges of insularity and separation. Strong engagement with our partners in the Caribbean must be encouraged to create economic space for mutual development which will benefit all of us as part of an inter-connected region.
My vision of academic entrepreneurship is based on recognizing that the Faculty can offer leadership to engage in profitable business ventures that make use of its talent, intellectual capital and resourceful support staff who can develop business plans that will reduce the dependence of the University on regional governments for its funding.
Do you feel you have accomplished these goals?
I feel that I have accomplished most of my goals.
I set about the task of wealth creation with vigour as the key driver to financing everything that I wanted to accomplish for my Faculty as I was fully aware that I was not going to depend upon the process of biennial estimates to provide the kind of financial sustenance that a Faculty like Social Sciences needs to conduct its affairs in a credible manner. Needless to say, this approach created different emotional responses in different quarters and tested the core value systems of the University about the role of the Dean as a Budget Holder. The FSS came to be regarded as a wealthy Faculty.
The internationalization of the Faculty has seen us engaging in relationships with Florida State University, the University of Miami, Barry University, Kalamazoo College, the University of Denver, the University of KwaZulu Natal, the University of Huddersfield, the University of Portsmouth, to name a few.
Strengthening of regionalism happened through our dedicated engagement with our stakeholders in St Kitts, St Lucia and St Vincent on a regualr semester basis over the last nine years to service our academic programmes. Out of this, the University has earned goodwill in the Eastern Caribbean and remains poised to really be the first choice for Caribbean nationals.
Academic entrepreneurship efforts have ranged from training programmes for the public to the customized offering of academic programmes to corporate and State entities.
My main disappointment is that Faculties do not have the final say on all of their student matters which means that students have to wait on another approving authority to give them final and firm responses. This delay in an electronic age does cause student dissatifaction in not knowing the outcome of their requests in a short time frame. Advances have been made and it is apparent that we will get there, but the road is a winding one.
Where would you like to see it go?
I would like to see the Faculty build on the accomplishments of the last nine years. Nothing is ever perfect and all tasks take on new dimensions in our changing world. I engaged in a very close transition process with my successor, Mr. Errol Simms, whereby I converted my powers as Dean into ceremonial powers of acting on his advice in critical areas of staff reassignments and key appointments that would take effect after I had demitted office.
In this way, I facilitated him in making the appointments and reassignmensts of duties that he wanted so that he would not have to burden himself with that upon assuming duties as Dean, but rather would have his structure in place from day one.
I held a special meeting of our Faculty Board on July 24 to present my Exit Report on my stewardship as Dean and proceeded on Study Leave the day after, thereby permitting him the opportunity to take over the Faculty as Acting Dean and then start his substantive tenure of office on August 1.
What role for you now that your tenure as Dean has ended?
I committed myself to support Mr. Simms in his transition for the coming academic year and I propose to proceed on a sabbatical year in 2013-2014. I will continue to teach with a heavier load now that I am no longer Dean as I never gave up teaching, which is a deep passion of mine. I shall have more time to devote to research now that I no longer have a heavy administrative load and the responsibilities that go with it. My active public service role will continue and I will always continue to serve my University in whatever capacity I may be called upon to serve in the future.
The fiftieth anniversary of the country’s independence is a special one; you have been very vocal on governance and constitutional matters, how would you assess Trinidad and Tobago at 50?
A functioning democracy that is gradually dismantling the iron grip of divisive two-party politics and is tasting the potential of coalitions of views that are freer now to be heard than ever before without the levels of fear that corralled the public expression of such diverse political views before.
The key to all of this is whether the desire to share power will become a natural part of our democratic evolution as we move forward into the next 50 years. The traditional political culture until a few years ago was to construct and support monolithic single parties that would win alone and lose alone and not be prepared to share power.
The culture of power sharing must not be seen as a panacea for all the political ills of the society, because there is always the suspicion that political parties only enter into these arrangements to seek further political advantage.
Additionally, those who are opposed to coalitions usually try to label them on the basis of the dominant party in the coalition as a means of embarrassing the other parties in the coalition into feeling a sense of inferiority.
Holding a coalition together takes a different set of political skills. There is no room for triumphalism as that can alienate political allies, while influential participation in policy decisions by smaller parties can cause internal problems for dominant parties in coalitions.
Whichever way we want to look at the last 50 years, it appears that we have seen the rise of other political parties to challenge the dominance of the People’s National Movement (PNM) over the last 25 years. This period coincides with the demise of Dr. Eric Williams and saw the opening up of new political spaces in a manner that did not threaten our democracy, but rather strengthened it.
The next 50 years will probably be the era of the coalition of interests as political support for dominant single parties will be difficult to ensure the representation of all interests in the society.
The fact that we have held together where others with diverse populations such as ours have faced dire challenges is a credit to our functioning democracy. |
