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Deliberate ploy afoot to malign University of Guyana – Vice Chancellor
“Some people actually think they are helping the university but they have been maligning the image of the University.” This is the informed observation of Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith. 
Professor Griffith said that the attempts at maligning the university have been on-going via social media and through the use of emails. “I don’t believe in public negotiations, I don’t believe in all these emails – a lot of nastiness,” said the Vice Chancellor of a situation he has been faced with at the national university.
The Vice Chancellor’s disclosure was forthcoming in response to a question about his relationship with the unions of the university – the University of Guyana Workers Union, and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association. The unions have complained about the Vice Chancellor not addressing some of their concerns.
They have also claimed that they have been subjected to Town Hall meetings which do not yield the results they anticipate.
In response to this concern, the Vice Chancellor said, “The union may not be getting the answers they are looking for [but] my job is not to give people the answers they are looking for, my job is to give people answers that are needed.”
He went on to explain that when he assumed the office of Vice Chancellor, he reached out to the heads of the two staff unions. “I gave them my cell number, I told them what my approach is and I told them I don’t believe in conflict, I believe in collaboration,” said Professor Griffith.
According to the Vice Chancellor, he introduced a monthly meeting with the union leaders during which he started to share information.
“I have tried to be inclusive, I have tried to be transparent,” said Professor Griffith. He said that he also made it unapologetically clear to the unions that they must also accept that there is a distinction between transparency and confidentiality.
“People are taking documents sending it around, so at some point I said we are going to share these documents during the meetings and take them back. We were at one Council meeting and before the meeting was done somebody took a picture right there at the meeting and sent it out. I am saying that we need to find a way to balance transparency and confidentiality,” asserted the Vice Chancellor.
“I made it clear to them I am going to be in the business of facing the reality so that we can fix it. So everything I’m going to say is not going to be nice and everything is not going to be what you want to hear.”
Professor Griffith shared too, “They have not wanted to hear that I am committed to salary adjustment but I am the Vice Chancellor who in July of last year regularised salaries. I came here and met an impasse from January 2016 and I fixed that.
“I am the Vice Chancellor when I heard that there were six women in the printing-bindery [department], some of whom have been here for over 15 years [who] were on a month to month [contract[, I regularised that.”
“I am the Vice Chancellor who went to the maintenance department and regularised those monthly contracts but I am also going to be the Vice Chancellor who says that performance is what is also going to be important,” asserted Professor Griffith.
Performance and attendance must go hand in hand, Professor Griffith added. But according to him, based on a Consultancy done at the university [by Trevor Hamilton and Associates], “You will be shocked at the absenteeism at this university.”
He said that many lecturers have been neglecting to submit students’ grades by the thousands. “My first day here I was shocked; I was given a report…this was June 2016. Thousands of grades were due from 2015. I asked the Registrar to give me a list but [the unions] don’t want to hear that. I am saying that how could the unions be at a university that have all these problems for all these years and not know,” queried the Vice Chancellor.
He is, moreover, convinced that the unions are in fact “turning a ‘blind eye’ to the infractions but [they are] saying I want salary increase. That’s not going to cut it with this Vice Chancellor.”
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