NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, MONA CAMPUS JULY, 2010 HANDOVER OF REGUPOL TRACK VC NAMED UNICA PRESIDENT TRIBUTES TO REX NETTLEFORD INSIDE PrinciPal ’s Message THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES Mona News is a publication of the Marketing & Communications Office, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus A ROBUST Please send comments and feedback to: Message from Principal The Editor, Marketing & Communications Office UWI News 4 Gibraltar Road, Kingston 7, RESPONSE Jamaica, W.I. 5 VC Named UNICA President Tel: 876-977-5941; 876-935-8348 6 Five to Receive the Prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Fax: 876-977-6699 Award For Excellence, 2010 Email: [email protected] 8 Honorary Degrees TO CHALLENGES Website: www.mona.uwi.edu/proffice The period just ended has been MONA NEWS EDITOR 9 Research Day Awardees particularly challenging for the Mona Carroll Edwards 12 Homecoming Celebrations Campus. In February of this year, the UWI 13 Celebrating Rex Nettleford community was devastated by the passing of CONTRIBUTORS 22 Creating Maths Champions Caribbean cultural icon Professor the Hon. Rex Gwyneth Davidson 23 Earl Jarrett Receives Pelican Award Nettleford. Professor Nettleford’s career as an June Degia academic and administrator was spent entirely at Carroll Edwards 25 New Professors: Minerva Thame; Edward Ghartey; Sydonnie Pellington Claremont Kirton; Wayne McLaughlin Mona. Indeed, he always said that what he achieved Maureen Samms – Vaughan was because of UWI, which facilitated him and Patricia Valentine NEWS ROUND-UP allowed him to be who he was. UWI was his base, 29 Champion Teachers the place that centred him, and from which he drew DESIGN & LAYOUT 30 MOU with Water Resources Authority his strength. The Mona Campus is poorer for his Great House OmniMedia Ltd. 32 Physics Workshop at WJC passing and will miss him in immeasurable ways. A section of this issue of the MONA News pays PHOTOGRAPH Y NEWS PICTORIAL tribute to the memory of this extraordinary man. Bryan Cummings 33 International Reggae conference Steve McDonald Natural Products symposium We pay tribute of another kind to members of our Aston Spalding community who have been at the forefront of efforts Lennox Quallo Opening of biodiversity lab Institute of Caribbean Studies London Police Commissioner visits to assist our neighbour, Haiti which suffered the Marketing & Communications Office effects of a devastating earthquake in January. Mona FEATURES provided medical and financial assistance and 34 Medical Science – Autism mounted courses in Haitian creole designed to 36 Social Science – Saving Lives Through Enterprise bridge the language barrier between disaster relief experts and the Haitian population. Come September, In anticipation of the budget cut, the Campus had UWI'S MISSION Mona will also welcome a group of Haitian students SPORTS: already begun a programme to aggressively THE ENDURING MISSION OF THE who will complete their undergraduate studies at this 38 Mona Footballers Create History transform itself into an institution capable of greater UNIVERSITy OF THE WEST INDIES Campus, as part of an initiative to rebuild the admin- 40 Football Scholarship Festival self sufficiency. This includes: IS TO PROPEL THE ECONOMIC, 41 UWI Revolution Heads to Super League istrative capacity of that country. I am confident that SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND staff and students alike will assist them to make the 42 Handover of Regupol Track • A freeze on vacancies and a more cost-effective CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF inevitable adjustments to life in our community. manner of handling replacement of staff on WEST INDIAN SOCIETy THROUGH leave. TEACHING, RESEARCH, At another level, Mona will have to make INNOVATION, ADVISORy AND adjustments aimed at minimizing the impact of • Elimination of overtime COMMUNITy SERVICES, AND the recent cut indicated in the Budget Estimates submitted to Parliament by the Government of INTELLECTUAL LEADERSHIP. • Elimination of Sale of Leave Jamaica. The initiatives include accelerating the pace of transformation into a more agile and self-reliant No part of this publication may be reproduced • Reduction in security and utility costs without the written permission of the publisher campus, the introduction of new academic progra- mmes, an increased focus on long-term programmes or agent. • A review of the expenditure on overseas travel that would be attractive to international students, with a view to reducing this. and a focus on units that are capable of generating Cover photo: Inaugural run on the new Regupol track Mona will introduce two new academic programmes at the UWI, Mona Bowl income. Administrative reform is also high on the in Dentistry and Law at the start of the 2010-2011 Agenda of the campus. 2 3 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES academic year. These programmes are highly suppor- student intake and to support income generating tive of national development, but there is also a activities. Some, like the expansion of the UWI School strong unfilled demand for them. The programmes of Nursing and the establishment of the Western Vice Chancellor will be offered in combination with a number of Jamaica Campus are already complete. Projects existing areas of academic focus to enhance the underway or yet to be started include: Named UNICA President relevance of existing programme offerings. • The Basic Medical Sciences Complex (which will Vice Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel The Campus has also been reviewing the management enable the release of facilities currently used in Harris has been appointed as the new President of self-funded programmes in order to streamline the delivery of the MBBS programme) of the Association of Universities and Research these offerings and bring them into a more formal Institutions of the Caribbean (UNICA). The structure. We will be looking more closely at a • New student housing facilities to accommodate announcement was made following UNICA’s annual number of units which have income-generating 800 undergraduate and 200 graduate students. general meeting on March 16, 2010. capabilities such as the Mona Institute of Medical These will be entirely self-financing Sciences (MIMS), Mona Geoinformatics Services In a post-AGM media briefing at the Trinidad Hilton L-R: Professor E. Nigel Harris, UWI Vice Chancellor and newly (MGIS), Caribbean Institute of Genetics (CARIGEN), • A multi-purpose Sport facility capable of seating Hotel, Professor Harris presented the UNICA elected President of UNICA stands with Professor Nivia Fernandez Communiqué which outlined the Association’s Hernandez of the University of Puerto Rico and Professor Wilson the Mona School of Business (MSB), the Business 6000 persons and which will be used for Laleau Vice Rector, Academic Affairs, Université d’Etat d’Haiti Development Office (BDO) and the Mona Institute of Convocation exercises as well as an Examination recommitment to the development of the tertiary Applied Sciences. Other units such as the Caribbean Centre. The Facility will also be used for the education sector in Haiti through advocacy in Puerto Rico who represented outgoing UNICA Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC), staging of major sporting and entertainment national, regional and international fora for financial president Dr. Ramon de la Torre; and Dr. Matthew Laboratories in the Faculties of Medical Sciences events on an income generating basis. support for higher education; the development of Smith of the Department of History and Archaeology, (such as Pathology, Microbiology and Haematology) practical interventions to assist affected Haitian UWI Mona, who was appointed Head of the UNICA- and Pure and Applied Sciences, as well as the There is much more to be done but I am confident students and faculty; support for capacity-building Haiti Response taskforce. Language Unit in the Faculty of Humanities & that we will overcome these challenges, as we have interventions to facilitate sustainable development; Education, all have income earning potential that so many others in the past, and that we will emerge and the provision of expertise and experience for The declaration on Haiti was the culmination of the needs to be explored. even stronger, and true to our mission of ‘Inspiring reconstruction and development efforts based on the two days of UNICA meetings, hosted by The Excellence and Producing Leaders for our country, needs articulated by the people of Haiti. The new University of the West Indies. The UNICA conference, In this respect, the Campus will be moving to take the region and beyond. UNICA president also stated that a task force “Partnering for Sustainability” was held on March 15 advantage of the income generating potential and consisting of representatives of members of UNICA 2010 at the UWI Institute of Critical Thinking, St. intellectual property right opportunities of path was established to identify, rationalize and prioritize Augustine and focused specifically on mobilizing breaking projects developed by academic staff of the interventions proposed by participants during the Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes to Campus such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) Conference, and develop an action agenda for partner with Haiti in the rebuilding effort, with an developed by Mona GeoInformatics, and the Cardiac presentation to national, regional and international emphasis on its tertiary sector. The conference and Simulator developed by academics in the Departments organizations.