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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER, 2015
ENERGY
UWI GRADUATION CEREMONIES 2015
CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS – SIR GEORGE ALLEYNE
My colleagues and I welcome you
most warmly to this
2015 graduation ceremony of the St. Augustine Campus
of The University of the West Indies. It is a pleasure to see
so many friends and well-wishers at this major event in
our University’s academic calendar. This year this Campus
celebrates its 55th anniversary, as it was on October
12th, 1960 that with 67 students, the Imperial College of
Tropical Agriculture became the Faculty of Agriculture
for an institution that was a mere 12 years old and was still
a University College in special relationship with London
University. Professor Bridget Brereton, in recounting the
It takes
many disciplines
formal ceremony of handing over, notes that Arthur Lewis,
who was then Principal of UCWI, described the merger as
a “marriage being celebrated as one between a mature lady
of forty and a twelve-year-old boy, and advised that the boy
must be willing to learn and the lady to be tolerant.”
History has shown that age disparity has been no
impediment to marital bliss.
I wish to extend a special welcome to Sir Hilary Beckles
who is attending this ceremony in his capacity as Vice-
Chancellor for the first time. Sir Hilary is no stranger to you
but I’m sure you would like to wish him well in this new
role. We are confident in Sir Hilary’s capacity to guide the
institution aright during his term of office. I also wish to
recognize Professor Eudine Barriteau, Principal of the Cave
Hill Campus and Dr. Luz Longsworth, the acting Principal
of the Open Campus, who are here in those capacities for
the first time.
We are here to celebrate the achievements of these
students who have satisfied the requirements of the
University and will be recognized as graduates by the award
of a degree or diploma. Graduation is a happy occasion for
everyone. For the graduand there is the joy, the exaltation,
This is an excerpt from the
presentation by
Chancellor of
The UWI, Sir George A. O. Alleyne
at the Graduation Ceremonies,
St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago,
October 2015.
The full text of the Chancellor’s presentation can be
found online at
