UTech in limbo

Education Minister Fayval Williams says efforts are being made to appoint a permanent president of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) by August, amid concerns from key stakeholders over the near two-year wait for the position to be filled.

It’s been taking “too long” to settle on the leadership, Williams said of the government-owned institution that caters to more than 12,000 students.

The position became vacant after Professor Stephen Vasciannie stepped down in April 2020. He had chosen not to have his contract renewed following its expiration on December 31, 2019, but had stayed for a few months to help with a transition process.

Professor Colin Gyles, whose substantive post is deputy president, has been acting in the position since.

UTech also does not have a chancellor, the official head of the university whose functions are mainly ceremonial. Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga served as chancellor until his death in May 2019.

The UTech Academic Staff Union, the UTech Technical and Ancillary Staff Union and the UTech Alumni group have all expressed disappointment that the key positions have not been filled.

Joan Lawla, president of the academic staff union, said the issue has been a source of major concern, arguing that “we need to have a decision” because the current situation “is really an unfortunate circumstance”.

“Stability is important. Certainty is important. We’re in very competitive times. We need to have permanent leadership so that the organisation can settle, that we can move forward in a very direct and strategic way,” said Lawla, whose union covers the approximately 600 academics at the university, 80 per cent of whom are unionised.

Added the lecturer: “When I bleat alone in the council and ask what is the status, I’m told there is the search and select committee who’s dealing with such and such. I want the appointment; I don’t want the story each time. I want the process to be finished.”

The academic union says it is also concerned about the extent to which the acting president may be able to do his duties without the confidence that comes from being permanent.

“Acting appointments create uncertainties; it creates unsettlement in decision-making and though the acting positions have full governance and authority, challenges may lie further down in the organisation, and so as a matter of management principle, you cannot have acting going indefinitely,” Lawla argued.

She said the university leadership “can take this kind of chance because they know the academic programme and the academic people are holding the organisation together”.

HURT BY LONG WAIT

Another staff union representing over 300 technical ancillary employees believes that UTech is being “hurt” by the long wait for a permanent president.

“There are some decisions that the president would want to take but because he’s acting, his hands are tied, so, therefore, he’s not able to make those decisions,” said Bridget Johnson-Smith, the president of the technical and ancillary staff union.

She said because of his status, Acting President Gyles may not be comfortable tackling the implementation of a reclassification exercise that was approved more than a decade ago.

“He might not want to take on those political things because he’s not yet appointed; I don’t know, maybe I would want to protect myself if I were in his position as well,” she said.

The UTech Alumni Association has also expressed unease, although its president, Ronald Sutherland, said “we’re pretty satisfied” with what he said were the transparent efforts to identify a new president.

He said issues such as COVID-19, creating an attractive compensation package and finding the most “suitable” leader have been impacting the pace of the search.

“Nothing less than something that is transformative at this stage of the university is going to work and so they are taking great care to ensure that whoever it is, is not just going to come and hold things together, as we’ve pretty much been doing over the last five years or so … . That puts an additional stress on the process,” Sutherland said.

But the education minister said the process has been too dragged out, although admitting that proposing the right salary and the pandemic have been difficult to navigate.

“I’ve been in constant dialogue with the pro-chancellor and we’re hoping that before the beginning of the next school year that position will be filled,” Williams said, referring to the 2022-2023 academic year due to start in August.

Williams said interviews with potential candidates are being done by the university council, the institution’s highest decision-making body that is chaired Richard Powell, pro-chancellor.

Lawla, Johnson-Smith and Sutherland are all members of the council.

The council said the search started before Vasciannie left office but progress “has been severely inhibited by the subsequent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been very disruptive to all areas of the university’s operations, academic and administrative alike”.

“Of necessity and without warning, there had to be a shift in focus and resource allocation in all areas of the university’s operations to deal with the initial and constantly changing challenges posed by the coronavirus”, the university said in a statement to The Sunday Gleaner on January 27.

UTech said at the request of the acting president, a consultative committee comprising the pro-chancellor, the deputy chairman of council and the honorary treasurer was established by the council to provide advice and support to the management.

“The university has adroitly negotiated the difficulties encountered to date and successfully completed the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years,” the statement said.

NEW SEARCH FOR CHANCELLOR

Regarding the selection of a new chancellor, UTech said a committee is being re-engaged to start a new search process after a previously selected candidate turned out to be unavailable.

Although receiving institutional accreditation in 2018, it’s been a difficult past decade for the institution that claims the tag of being Jamaica’s national university but which has seen four presidents or acting presidents in eight years.

Respected scientist Professor Errol Morrison was transitioned out of the position in 2014 after a government report raised questions about the governance of the institution and the lack of focus on its core areas of technology.

Former Education Minister Burchell Whiteman took over as interim president and served until January 2017 when Professor Vasciannie was appointed. His departure made away for Gyles to become acting president.

Then there is the long-standing issue of its underfunding by the Government and the perceived favouritism towards The University of the West Indies (UWI), a regional institution with a campus (Mona) in Jamaica, which gets significantly more in annual taxpayer subventions.

For the current fiscal year, the Government has allocated more $9 billion to The UWI and approximately $3 billion to UTech.

UTech’s annual report for the 12-month period to March 31, 2019 – the latest available – shows that the then president was paid a basic salary of $12.1 million, with the deputy president receiving $5.6 million, all in addition to various benefits.

It also shows income at $7.3 billion and expenses of $7.1 billion, highlighting the crisis in tertiary education funding and calls for more sustainable funding.

For 2018, the head of the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) received $14 million annually, inclusive of benefits; while the top salary for the boss at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) was $12.4 million, this newspaper reported in 2019.

UWI Mona’s highest salary was $33.6 million per annum. Except for the CMU, on average UWI’s top 100 salaries were more than what was paid at UTech and NCU.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com