Vice Chancellor issues “no comment” response to UG concerns

Aug 06, 2013 News

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“We are not going to run the University through the media,” said a relatively calm sounding Professor Jacob Opadeyi yesterday in response to a series of question posed to him by this publication concerning the operation of the University of Guyana.
In a telephone conversation yesterday several attempts were made to solicit comments from the Vice Chancellor as it relates to the outcome of reported meetings between him, the University’s unions and its senior staffers as it relates to concerns about the institution, including its financial state. However, Professor Opadeyi’s only response was “no

comment.”
He also refused to comment on the non-appointment of the University’s Council, whose life came to an end on June 30, last, a state of affairs which the unions have directed much concern.
“I don’t see it as a concern,” said the Vice Chancellor who related that “we are currently on vacation and we are going to enjoy our vacation.”
Both the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU) have been expressing concern ever since the life of the Council came to an end. In fact, both union bodies have been agitated by the fact that although the start of the upcoming semester looms, a new Council was not appointed by the Minister of Education.
The state of affairs, they disclosed, has had a negative impact on the functioning of the University.
A daunting impact highlighted is that the UG Negotiating Team cannot be convened without at least two Council members. Moreover, the Unions have highlighted that the recommencement of salary negotiations is dependent upon the appointment of the Council or the extension of the life of the old Council.
Additionally, it was revealed that a recently scheduled Appointment Committee was cancelled because of the lack of needful Council members. This means that new appointments, renewals, and extensions of contracts are still to be completed.
As such, the Unions in a recent statement said that they “remain concerned over the fact that the new academic year is scheduled to commence, but there still is need to repeat an appeal for the Education Minister to appoint persons to the Council.”
President of the UGSSA, Dr Pat Francis, recently told this publication that the unions were in fact awaiting the return of the Vice Chancellor, who was at the time out of the jurisdiction, to further discuss their concerns. She disclosed that the unions have been seeking the support of various stakeholders, including the Ministries of Finance and Education, as well as the Vice Chancellor.
“The VC is one of our stakeholders, so we have to engage him on quality assurance, infrastructure among other things…so when he gets back that is what we will talk about,” Dr Francis said.
The Vice Chancellor, who recently returned, disclosed that he has plans to again leave the jurisdiction in a matter of days and was also in no mood yesterday to even comment on allegations levelled against him by outgoing Director of the University’s Berbice Campus, Professor Daizal Samad.
Professor Samad, who resigned in early July, claimed that the Berbice Campus “is in a financial meltdown and the campus’s budget is in tatters while the institution is operating in a deficit.”
In fact he has alleged that the Turkeyen Campus is ultimately responsible for the destruction of the Berbice Campus, a dilemma he believes requires Government intervention.
He has alleged too that relations between himself and the Nigerian-born Vice Chancellor, who accepted his appointment earlier this year have become “distant and tumultuous” over the past months. Even as he listed instances of what can be described as financial mismanagement within the university structure, Professor Samad said that he believes that with prudent financial management, the Berbice Campus can keep the student tuition to $127,000.
Moreover, he has rejected the Vice Chancellor’s call for a hike in tuition fee.
“We don’t want the Government to be giving us money ad infinitum; we can fund plans here, easily, and make Berbice financially self-sufficient in seven to eight years. We can do that. Let other people talk about increasing tuition, not us!” exclaimed Professor Samad.
“Turkeyen …is a broken place, but we are coming under the broken place. It’s distressing when you have people who are foreigners, coming here and treating our citizens in Berbice as if we’re third class citizens- -We are not slaves!” Professor Samad said.
He added that the situation exists where you have a “failed enterprise like Turkeyen dictating to a successful enterprise. What will they teach us? How to fail?”
But despite a few nudges from this publication to comment on the allegations levelled by Professor Samad, the Vice Chancellor’s only responses were several calm “no comment.”

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