SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER, 2014 – UWI TODAY
7
I meet
Professor Harris
during the lull between ceremonies. It’s graduation season at The University of theWest Indies, and he is
on his graduation ceremony tour. As Vice-Chancellor of The UWI it’s been his duty to jet across the region, sitting on the stage at
the Open Campus in St. Lucia, then to two ceremonies at Cave Hill in Barbados. He’d already attended a ceremony this Saturday
morning at St. Augustine, with another to come that afternoon. And there was still the Mona Campus in Jamaica ahead of him. It
was no wonder he seemed intensely cloistered and comfortable in the secluded room at the Office of the Campus Principal for
our interview, away for a few moments from the ocean of blue gowns and expectant faces.
There are exceptional people that
I have come to knowwithin the
University, very talented people,
creative people, that I certainly was
not fully aware of living in the US.
JH:
Why have you demitted office?
ENH:
I have been Vice-Chancellor for 10 years and
for me they have been 10 really rewarding
years. I really have reached a stage where
most of what I wanted to get started has
happened, and although they may not by any
means be completed (it’s always a work in
progress) I think this is the moment for me to
step back and allow someone else to come in
for there to be a refreshing of the university’s
leadership. Every organisation should be like
that. Ten years is enough for anyone within an
organisation to do what he has set out to do.
At that point it’s a good idea to step aside.
JH:
What’s your next step?
ENH:
My next step is enjoying my retirement. I am
moving to St. Lucia. My wife and I have had a
home in St. Lucia that precedes my coming to
The UWI. We lived in the US, wanted to return
to the Caribbean and we visited St. Lucia,
where my wife has family, and we loved the
place. So we returned within a few months and
built a house.
In a weird sort of way, that is how I came to
seek this job, because with the house, there
was the commitment to come back to the
Caribbean. And then this opportunity arose. I
suspect that if we hadn’t made the decision to
come to St. Lucia then I would have continued
where I was in the US.
JH:
So you finally get to live in the home
you built?
ENH:
Yes and it is brilliant. I could not have
come back in any better way, in any better
circumstance than has happened. I have been
able to interact with a broad variety of movers
and shakers within the University and without
the University. There are exceptional people
that I have come to know within the University,
very talented people, creative people, that I
certainly was not fully aware of living in the US.
JH:
What was your first graduation like
and where did it take place?
ENH:
My very first graduation was at Howard
University in 1968. It was very unlike anything
here. It’s a two-hour ceremony with hundreds
and hundreds of graduating students but only
the people getting doctorate degrees actually
get to go on stage and shake hands. We hear
from the honorary graduates. And basically,
at some point they tell the whole class to rise
and everybody turns and puts a hood on each
other. So I remember it, but it didn’t have the
pomp and circumstance that graduations here
have.
I confess that I never went to any other
(laughter) and I got three more degrees. I
think graduation is about family. Because I was
away from Guyana, I was away from home for
much of my life. So for graduation you need
family. My children now, when they graduated,
we were all there in numbers to cheer them
on. I didn’t get that opportunity. I considered
myself living in a form of exile when I was a
student. Going to graduation would have
meant nothing to me.
JH:
You think that pomp and ceremony
is a good thing?
ENH:
Students are central players at graduations
– students and their families. That is what it’s
about. Every one of those engaged parties
must feel a sense of accomplishment and joy.
And so it is appropriate that there be pomp
and circumstance because for many students
they are the first in their family who are
actually getting degrees. I understand the sort
of excitement that takes place for graduation.
JH:
But it can’t be easy for you to attend
all these ceremonies.
ENH:
From my side of it, it’s a lot. We do 13
graduation ceremonies. I attend all. I fly
from place to place. It can be tedious. It is a
challenge for anybody. It occupies four full
weeks of your life. Your work has to come
to a standstill. But, if one understands that
universities are primarily about students and
about students as contributors to societies,
then this particular mark at which they
transition for the first time from a learning
mode to hopefully a working mode, it is really
an important moment. And in that context,
if you are a university administrator, it’s an
obligation. You have to be there to help
celebrate the event.
JH:
I’m sure you have listened to and
given many graduation speeches,
taught many students, and been
a student. If you had to distil the
advice you give a new graduate,
really true advice, what would you
tell them?
ENH:
At the graduation ceremony, usually a lot of
advice is given. The honorary graduand does
it, the Chancellor does it, plus the valedictorian
does it. It’s not easy to say something original
after all of that. But what I would tell students
is to make the most of one’s life on this first
phase of advanced learning. What do I mean
by make the most of one’s life? I believe that
the critical part of where one is going to go
really doesn’t depend on the facts one has
learned. Because many of those facts become
obsolete quite quickly. It is the other parts of
your life that become important. It is learning
to learn that is important. It is learning how to
interact with people and work with people. It
is the ability to communicate. It is the ability
to motivate people to achieve. It is the ability
to be a loving parent and even if you are not a
parent just a loving person to one’s family and
people with whom one interacts. It is about
being ethical, understanding right from wrong
and doing the right thing.
To me, those are the key attributes and we
speak to them, by the way, when we define
the ideal UWI graduate. The so-called “soft
skills” are what I believe are most important
in carrying oneself forward in life. In my
time I have met so many people, very bright
people, but they are offensive. They just never
developed skills of interaction. Some of them
will do very well in their own little fields but
when you often assess lives like that you
wonder how fulfilled they can become.
I remember when I was younger with my
children; I wanted them to do brilliantly in
school. But as I matured, I set a standard that
they could find a fulfilling and enjoyable way
to earn a living and still become part of loving
relationships with their families and children.
It’s a minimum quality. I would certainly be
happy if they went on and did great things but
for me it isn’t the great things that you do, it’s
really who you are as a person that I think is
most important.
