Outgoing UG Vice Chancellor no longer interested in having contract renewed

Jun 09, 2019 News

Professor Ivelaw Griffith, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana [UG], is no longer interested in having his contract renewed. This therefore means that the university will have to soon start advertising for a replacement.

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In an statement issued Friday, the university informed that its Council had met to make a determination on the matter of the renewal or non-renewal of Griffith’s contract.
At the centre of the issue was the evaluation of Professor Griffith’s term in office as one basis for the determination of the matter.
However, during the course of the meeting, correspondence was received from the Vice Chancellor withdrawing his previous request for a renewal of his contract. It was revealed that the University Council, “accepted his [Griffith’s] withdrawal and hereby notifies the public that as of June 14, 2019, Professor Griffith, who is at present on terminal leave, shall cease to be Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana.”
The public is further advised that a Transitional Management Team has been duly approved by the University Council. The Team will be chaired by Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Engagement, Professor Michael Scott; with Deputy Vice Chancellor for Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement, Professor Paloma Mohamed serving as the Deputy Chair and Registrar. Dr. Nigel Gravesande will serve as Secretary to the Management Committee.
According to Pro Chancellor Major General (retd) Joseph Singh, “The Team has been identified to take control of the Management of the University with effect from June 14, 2019, until such time that a new Vice-Chancellor is appointed.”
He further stated, “The aforementioned notwithstanding, the University Council will continue to pursue its agenda, including the conduct of a Management Audit, the identification of a new Chancellor and the soon to commence search for a new Vice-Chancellor.”
The University Council, the statement added, “looks forward to a cessation of the recent exchanges in the media on the University’s internal processes, but in the interest of openness, will keep the University Community and the wider society informed of unfolding developments as the University seeks to continue its work and to provide for a seamless transition of leadership in the interest of its students, faculty and staff members.”
Professor Griffith was appointed the 10th Principal and Vice Chancellor of UG in June 2016.
Ahead of assuming the UG Vice Chancellor position, Professor Griffith served as Executive-in-Residence at The University at Albany, State University of New York, and the Ninth President of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, where he led the right-sizing of the educational and economic enterprise, focusing on growing enrollment, enhancing the academic profile, controlling spending, launching Honors and Undergraduate Research programs, and initiating a feasibility study to establish a School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation.
A tenured professor of political science, he served from 2007 to 2013 provost and senior vice president at York College in New York where notable achievements included growing the full-time faculty by 30 percent, re-organising Academic Affairs into Schools of Business and Information Systems, Arts & Sciences, and Health Sciences and Professional Programmes, and enhancing research and scholarship by creating the Provost Lectures, the Distinguished Scholars Lectures, and the Undergraduate Research Programme. He also established Discovery to celebrate and incentivise faculty excellence in research and service.
Earlier, he was provost at Radford University in Virginia, budget dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University (FIU), and dean of The Honours College at FIU, all while holding his professorship.
A UG alumnus, he was the first person to graduate with distinction in political science. He also holds a Master of Arts from Long Island University, New York, and both a Master’s of Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Political Science from The City University of New York Graduate School.
As well, he graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s programme in educational leadership.
An expert on Caribbean and hemispheric security, drugs and crime, he originated the concept called Geonarcotics in the early 1990s as a way to study the complex relationship involving drugs, geography, power and politics, outlining it first in Canada’s leading international affairs scholarly magazine: “From Cold War Geopolitics to Post-Cold War Geonarcotics,” International Journal Vol. 49 (Winter) 1993-94, 1-36.