UG benefits from over $90M in support– Vice Chancellor

Jul 05, 2017 News

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The University of Guyana [UG] has been the recipient of equipment and funds amounting to millions of dollars. Based on information, the Vice Chancellor and Principal of the State University, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, shared

with this publication, the forthcoming support from various donors has amounted to some US$450,000 [G$90million].
He said that the University was the beneficiary of $15 million when it held its inaugural Education Resource Ambassadors Conference in June last year. At that forum, which was spearheaded by Professor Ivelaw Griffith shortly after he assumed the position of Vice Chancellor, some 60 local stakeholders were in attendance.
Also present at that forum were 45 Diaspora Guyanese in the fields of medicine, the academy, media and business. They came from territories including Barbados, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and 13 States within the United States.
At the Ambassadors’ Conference issues including the condition of the university and the way forward to restoring it was discussed extensively which resulted in pledges and actual donations to a Strategic Initiative Fund created by the Vice Chancellor.
Professor Ivelaw Griffith is convinced that the local University has been able to gain the various levels of support because of his laudable professional track record. He revealed during an interview with this publication that many friends and associates have been eager to lend support to UG since he accepted his appointment.
He made reference to the recent signing of two Memoranda of Understanding with Movie-Towne valued at some US$30 million [G$6 billion]. The Vice Chancellor explained that the collaboration with Movie-Towne entails the production and use of solar energy, and student housing.
Speaking of the student housing aspect of the collaboration, Professor Griffith said, “it will be a public-private partnership, they will build, they will finance a building and we will have an agreement for students to use and pay.
“That is important because so many of our students who live out of town really are taken to the cleaners by some of the proprietors around here,” related Professor Griffith.
He said that efforts are being made to help both students and staffers of the University not only on but even while off campus too. He recalled that it was with this in mind that the University decided to lend support to the 13 students and three staff members who lost all of their personal belongings during a fire in Cummings Lodge earlier this year.
The incident occurred while Professor Griffith and a UG team were engaged in Caribbean outreaches in Grenada, Antigua and St. Lucia which spanned the period January to April. “While I was in Grenada… I was kind of shocked when I got the call about the fire. I asked, ‘What do we have in the welfare fund?’ There was no welfare fund. So I turned to my fund – the Vice Chancellor Strategic Initiative Fund which I created out of some of the gifts we have received.
“I was able to give each of those students and the three staff members $100,000 to help them rebuild their lives,” said Vice Chancellor Griffith.
He explained that since assuming the position of Vice Chancellor he has seen the need to embrace a deliberate plan to improve the economic viability of the university and this has required measures to fortify the major existing revenue streams such as government subventions and tuition fees.
His vision entails expanding the revenue base through contracts, alumni and corporate giving, grants and merchandising.
In this regard Professor Griffith, since being placed at the helm of UG, has hosted several consultations. These included him reaching out to several diplomatic missions to explore collaboration and assistance. Among those that the Vice Chancellor has reached out to are: Brazil, United States, France, Canada, Argentina, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Mexico, the European Union, UNICEF, the United Nations Country Team in Guyana and the Inter-American Development Bank.
But the University has also been looking keenly at fundraising measures. The University under Professor Griffith secured the consultancy services of Mr Sumner Hutcheson III, a fundraising professional with extensive experience at the Red Cross and at several universities in the United States as part of its efforts to strengthen fundraising and alumni engagement efforts.
Added to this, moves have been made to convene a special meeting of the Academic Board to discuss the rebranding and merchandising ideas with a view of bringing into being a healthy revenue source in coming years.

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