Editorial | UWI hearings need a reset

This newspaper shan’t say we told you so. Nonetheless, it would have been better not to have convened that shambolic January 26 meeting of Parliament’s Human Resources and Social Development Committee to review the report on governance at The University of the West Indies (UWI), and avoid the embarrassment and indignity of the exercise.

The valiant effort of Morais Guy and Tova Hamilton notwithstanding, it was clear that the members were largely ill-prepared for the session, to the point that there was no, or little, participation from anyone else. Significantly also, which probably served as a metaphor for the session, Angela Brown Burke, the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP) shadow minister of education, and Phillip Henriques of the governing Jamaica Labour Party, were no-shows. They apparently sent apologies. George Wright, the nominally independent member of the House, also was not there. We noticed because it was mentioned.

The tone of the meeting was further in a fashion expected from the committee’s chairman, Heroy Clarke. As part of his opening remarks, the UWI’s registrar, Maurice Smith, mentioned that the report, commissioned by the UWI’s vice-chancellor and done by a commission chaired by former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Sir Dennis Byron, was not about the Mona, Jamaica campus. It was a review of governance of the entire university system – five campuses.

Said Mr Clarke: “While many of us would have thought it was on Mona … that one question would have cleared the air on many, many areas.”

We cannot imagine what those questions are that befuddled Mr Clarke, or why anyone, even after the most cursory reading of the document, could have concluded that the report may have been confined to Mona. Neither ought there to have been confusion about the number of campuses in the UWI system, or where they are.

SCRAPS OF USEFUL INFORMATION

There were, though, scraps of useful information from Dr Smith, especially for people unaware of the structure and its operation:

• That there are around 50,000 students registered across the UWI system, and that the institution employs approximately 9,000 staff, including its professors and lecturers.

• Its governing council comprises 59 members, including, as Dr Smith puts it, 29 who are “external to the UWI”, of whom 17 represented the shareholder governments.

• The governance review now at issue was the third done on the institution – the first in 1994; the second in 2006; and the one by Sir Dennis, commissioned in late 2018 and delivered in the summer of 2020.

We were told, too, that the University Council is now finalising a date for a meeting at which it will decide on which recommendations in the Byron Report will be endorsed for implementation.

But Dr Smith was in an invidious position and clearly the wrong person to have appeared before the committee at this stage of Parliament’s review. Indeed, he was saved by the possibility of serious blushes because of the ill-preparedness of his questioners, and the fact that they did not command the details and context of the report which was laid in the House seven months ago.

But more to the point, the format of the hearing was wrong. The committee was wrong. Dr Smith was the wrong person to be interrogated at this stage of the exercise. As the registrar, Dr Smith leads the secretariat that services the council. He is also a senior member of the executive management of the UWI, which, perforce, would have been under scrutiny by the commission. He apparently coordinates a group determining which recommendation makes sense and has consensus in the UWI fraternity. He understandably attempted to tiptoe between the raindrops. But he also claimed that 92 per cent of the commission’s recommendations were implemented, starting in 2019 – even before Sir Dennis delivered his report.

PROCESS SHOULD BE STARTED OVER

This brings this newspaper back to its previously proffered ideas on how Jamaica’s Parliament should handle the Byron Report. The process should be started over. Which means totally scrapping the exercise that commenced last week.

A joint select committee of the House and the Senate should be appointed to review the document, to which Dr Guy and Ms Hamilton, having demonstrated effort, and some grasp of the issues, should be appointed. The other members should reflect Parliament’s appreciation of the seriousness of, and respect for, the institution involved. Thereafter, the process demands an understanding of the context of the report, including the fact that Dr Smith was compelled to clarify: it isn’t about Mona, but of an important regional institution of which Jamaicans have shared ownership.

The Byron Report came to two primary conclusions about the UWI: that it has an archaic management structure that is not sufficiently transparent and accountable; and that it faces an existential financial crisis. The commission had one view of how to deal with the fiscal problems; the university management has another. The commission made several recommendations for dealing with the institution’s perceived governance failures; same in its management, which see their proposals as a power grab by the chancellor, and an attempt at the diminution of the vice-chancellor, who heads the UWI’s day-to-day operations.

Our view is that this demands a full reading and clear understanding of the report, including context and nuances. Any review of the document from which Jamaica can make a viable contribution to the debate must start with the interrogation of the report’s authors, two of whom reside in Jamaica. Sir Dennis should also be heard from. So, too, should the vice-chancellor, Sir Hilary Beckles, and, if he wishes, the chancellor, Mr Robert Bermudez. The committee should also invite participation from UWI stakeholders around the Caribbean and in the diaspora.

The University of the West Indies is one of the outstanding achievements of our Caribbean civilisation. It deserves a respectful dialogue and debate concerning the future. That is why, as the Jamaican parlance goes, Parliament should wheel and come again.