Rampant firings of professors and other staff have depleted academic resources at the University of T&T (UTT), with no indication of replacements. Close to 85 members of staff-from housekeeper to vice-provost-were terminated between May 2011 and February this year.
Professors who were contracted from other countries were told they had to return home or face the Immigration Division. Some of the terminated faculty members claimed they were being victimised because they were hired by the former administration.
Several of them were contacted this week but requested anonymity as they spoke out against what they believed were unfair practices at the university. One said: "When highly qualified people in the faculties are fired...people who have high academic standings from foreign universities and proven track records, what will eventually happen is that UTT will face serious repercussions, which will lead to a collapse."
Another said research students in the MPhil, MSc and PhD programmes were in a quandary because they have no supervisors for their projects. Guild president Laura Lewis could not be reached for comment. The most recent termination was the very person who issued letters to some of the staff-vice-president of human resources Glenford Joseph.
He was axed in February by acting president Rodney Jagai, former president of state-owned oil company Petrotrin. Sunday Guardian received a copy of the internal two-sentence memo sent to staff on February 29, stating that with effect from March 1, Joseph was no longer employed with the university.
The memo was signed by Jagai and stated that all human resource matters would be handled by his office. Contacted the day after he was fired, Joseph said the situation was still developing. He said: "I don't know that I have been axed, because the matter is ongoing. "I don't want to say anything that will pre-empt the situation." Told about the memo, Joseph said, "Anything can be sent to staff."
He said a lot had not been said and "when it all unfolds, you will see." Jagai could not be reached for comment the day after Joseph's firing. All questions were referred to UTT's senior manager, corporate communications, Sandra Ganness. However, she, too, failed to clarify the situation. She asked that all questions be sent via e-mail, but never replied to an e-mail sent on March 5.
Cancelled work permits
According to his bio, Joseph was a former director of human resources, in the Ministry of Education, director of marketing and client services at Media Planners and Consultants Ltd, UTT lecturer and also a lead management consultant at Joseph and Associates.
In December last year, Joseph issued termination letters to several members of staff, some of whom are foreign professors, who came to UTT on contract. Among those terminated was Adel Sharaf, vice-provost, postgraduate studies and research and development and professor of energy systems, who was brought on by former UTT president Prof Ken Julien in 2008.
Also fired were programme professor process engineering, environment management Adel Al Taweel, Dr Andre Cooper and Prof Theodore Lewis, who is Trinidadian. According to the December 15, 2011 termination letters signed by Joseph, the UTT had embarked on an exercise to restructure and realign its operations, and to review its current arrangement with staff in the organisation in order to ensure performance optimisation and the effective streamlining of its activities.
The terminated lecturers were also asked to return their staff ID badges, mobile phones and accessories, office keys, filing cabinets and other computer equipment assigned to them during their employment on or before December 30 last year.
Sunday Guardian was also reliably informed that dismissed foreign staff were given 15 days to leave the country, since their work permits would be cancelled. However, when they challenged UTT officials, it was agreed that they would be given three months' notice, as stated in their contract.
Farewell to fired staff
Sunday Guardian understands that the names of 83 fired staff members were listed on a post on UTT's Web site on January 28 but were subsequently removed. The post bade farewell to the fired staff. A copy of the names and other documents have been obtained by the Sunday Guardian.
Some of the terminated staff held such positions as executive assistant, IT manager, office clerk, medical consultant, adviser to the president, interim provost, facilities officer, associate professors and communications and chronicles manager, vice-president finance, administration and procurement; vice-president, capital projects and physical infrastructure; professors of music, research associate, senior instructors and coaches in various sporting disciplines.
On March 13, UTT's chairman Curtis Manchoon issued a memo to staff titled Appreciation of thanks for service to UTT, in which he expressed gratitude to all "the dedicated members of staff of UTT who continue to work tirelessly in our delivery of quality tertiary education to the people of Trinidad and Tobago."
Manchoon added that the university was continuing to undergo a process of restructuring, which would bring it closer to its mission and vision of being the national institution of higher learning and research for socio-economic and technological development.
Last Sunday, the UTT placed a full-page advertisement on Page 21 of this newspaper seeking to clear the air on a series of articles published by a weekly paper. UTT's Board of Governors stated that the articles sought to bring the national university into disrepute and discredit its personnel and operations by alleging various irregularities.
"The Chairman and the Board of Governors of UTT wish to state categorically that these irregularities which the newspaper has alluded to are indeed a reflection of governance at UTT, but under the former administration, and bear no resemblance to the current administration, under the current government in office."
However, the termination of senior professors and other staff took place under the current administration, which assumed office in May 2010. Then, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar ordered a forensic audit into the affairs and operations at the university. Only last week, Sunday Guardian reported some of the findings. However, they have not been revealed by the Government.
Questioning Jagai's qualifications
Well-placed sources have pointed out that the previous presidents of UTT have had records of distinguished academic achievement, indicated by higher degrees, books, articles and publications that are recognised internationally. Jagai's qualifications are being questioned, however.
There are some UTT staff are more capable and qualified to run the affairs of the university, sources indicated, however they stressed it was a position they did not want. One person said: "The university's standards are now lowered. "This would never happen at the regional academic university."
According to Jagai's biographical details on UTT's Web site, he holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering (first-class honours) from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and a master's in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa, North Campus, Oklahoma. He has been a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, T&T Chapter, since 1976 and belongs to several professional organisations.
Jagai held the positions of campus academic administrator, programme leader, programme head of Department for Petroleum Engineering and programme leader (ag) for Utilities Engineering at UTT. In 2010, UTT promoted him to associate professor in practice.
However, one senior staff member said the qualifications for presidency were now "watered down." Others have compared his academic standing and background with past presidents. In January, UTT issued an advertisement inviting applications for the position, but to date, Jagai is still acting president. According to the key specifications of the position, the president should be a proven leader, who:
• has a broad understanding of the new direction and current issues in higher education;
• has knowledge of best practices in higher education and must aspire to be a leading voice in the sector;
• is an excellent communicator capable of actively engaging the nation's leaders, business, citizens and all stakeholders;
• has an extensive record of leadership accomplishments and prudent management at a very senior level, preferably, but not exclusively, in higher education or public/government, including issues of strategic planning, change management and fund-raising and with a profound appreciation for the principles of good governance.
Those applying had to have:
• an earned terminal (PhD) degree in any academic or professional field (desirable but not absolutely essential);
• experience in administering a diverse, multi-campus university or organisation of comparable complexity
• and at least ten years of visionary leadership and prudent management at an executive level.
UTT presidents
Professor Emeritus Ramesh Deosaran was first appointed acting president in July 2010 on the resignation of the first president, Prof Ken Julien. Julien tendered his resignation almost three months before his contract ended, and it took effect from May 26, 2010, two days after the People's Partnership won the general election.
He was the first local engineering lecturer with a PhD and later became one of the youngest academic deans in the Commonwealth. He was named Professor Emeritus in 1997 and has a distinguished career in energy spanning almost four decades.
Deosaran served briefly after May 2010, followed by Professor Emeritus Kenneth Ramchand, whose ten-month contract ended in September last year. Ramchand is a graduate of Edinburgh University, who became the first professor of West Indian Literature at UWI. He was also the head of the Department of Liberal Arts at St Augustine. Ramchand has a PhD in literature and is well published in North America, the UK and the Caribbean.
His bio states he has been a senior Fulbright scholar affiliated to Yale University and the University of Tulsa at Oklahoma, a visiting professor at Indiana University and Colgate University, as well as a Guggenheim fellow. Ramchand's association with UTT began in 2005 and he left in 2009 as associate provost.
Deosaran's career and qualifications have a similar standing to Ramchand's. Deosaran is a graduate of the University of Toronto, having obtained his bachelor's, master's and doctorate at that university. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford University, University of Bombay, University of California at Los Angeles, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, Oxford University and Florida State University.
He is a scholar in criminology and the social sciences and is the founder of the ANSA McAL Psychological Research Centre and Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the St Augustine campus. He has over a dozen books to his name and over 200 scholarly papers.
Sources said a president was expected to bring vision to a university and inform its members of their role in fulfilling that vision. "If it is that now a UTT president does not need a PhD qualification to his name, or publications and papers, then we have reached a point where anything goes," one senior faculty member said.
Another said: "The situation involving the university's presidency is degrading the university in the eyes of the world." Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Fazal Karim could not be reached for comment.
(To be continued next week)