It was once a space for UWI St Augustine staff to meet, mingle, debate, and engage supervisors and students. Now, more than a decade later, the campus’s Senior Common Room (SCR) will again become a hub for Academic, Senior Administrative, and Professional (ASAP) staff.

On Friday 8th November, 2024, Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine signed a memo on behalf of Campus Management with the co-chairs of the SCR committee representing ASAP staff, formalising the return of the common room. The co-chairs were Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor Bheshem Ramlal, and Dr Indira Rampersad, President of the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT).

“This is indeed a momentous occasion,” said Dr Rampersad at the signing, “as once again we stand at the crossroads of history, celebrating a defining moment of our union’s struggle.” Speaking at the gathering, which was also the Annual Welcome Ceremony for new members of WIGUT, the union president said the SCR was shuttered for refurbishment in 2012. Instead, it was converted into a conference centre. Since that year, WIGUT has been representing ASAP staff in the effort to reclaim the common room.

At her induction ceremony in 2023, Principal Antoine promised to return the SCR. Speaking at the Annual Welcome Ceremony, she reiterated the importance of an SCR in an academic space, saying she was a child of the SCR at The UWI Cave Hill campus. She forged lifelong friendships with colleagues, created scholarly works with others, and found mentors. She said an SCR is a “powerful space, an intellectual space” where all are equal.

Since she came to St Augustine in 2014, Professor Antoine has been advocating and advising on the return of the SCR to staff.

Remarks were also shared on behalf of UWI Vice- Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who said that “no fine university can serve its community well without a dedicated social space, specifically designed to harness collegiality”.

Guest speaker Dr Kusha Haraksingh, a former WIGUT president and highly regarded academic, administrator and member of the university community, recalled the SCR as a place where all were free to express views and say what they wanted without retribution.

Dr Rampersad told those in attendance that the “struggle for the SCR is an extension of the campaign for improved salaries and a better remuneration package and benefits for members [of WIGUT].” In February of this year, the union accepted an agreement with the government for a 3 percent salary increase for each triennium.

The SCR Committee is currently in the process of working out the details of the new arrangement for the common room and is seeking input from ASAP staff. So far, they have agreed on a paid private members’ club, a return to what existed before the facility was taken. The committee sees the SCR as a place for seminars, conferences, and parties. The grand reopening is planned for later this year.

Apart from the co-chairs Prof Ramlal and Dr Rampersad, the members of the SCR Committee are Dr Karen Eccles (SCR Secretary and WIGUT Secretary), Dr Marlene Attz (Lecturer at the Dept of Economics), Dr Priya Maharaj (Lecturer at the Dept of Political Science), Ms Camille Ramcharan (Head of the Campus Legal Dept), Mr Randolph Cadiz (Accountant at the Bursary), and Ms Shelley Patrick-Harper (Coordinator of The UWI Inn and Conference Centre), who served as facilitator to the committee.