Prof Brid­get Br­ere­ton took guests down mem­o­ry lane at the launch of UWI's 50th An­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions at St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus prin­ci­pal of­fice, at St Au­gus­tine on Sep­tem­ber 22. The theme was Re­mem­ber­ing the Good Old Days. The theme of the event was Fifty and Forg­ing Ahead (1960 to 2010). The cel­e­bra­tions be­gin on Oc­to­ber 10 and con­tin­ue un­til Oc­to­ber 17. St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus prin­ci­pal Prof Clement Sankat and Prof Rho­da Red­dock/Deputy Cam­pus Prin­ci­pal were among the es­teemed guests. The fol­low­ing is a ver­ba­tim ac­count of the UWI's growth and de­vel­op­ment. "On Oc­to­ber 12, 1960, an im­pres­sive cer­e­mo­ny took place at the brand new Queen's Hall in Port-of-Spain: the hand­ing over of the Im­pe­r­i­al Col­lege of Trop­i­cal Agri­cul­ture (IC­TA) to the Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of the West In­dies (UCWI.) Present were a ver­i­ta­ble Who's Who of the day: the Gov­er­nor-Gen­er­al and Prime Min­is­ter of the West In­dies Fed­er­a­tion; the Gov­er­nor and Pre­mier of Trinidad & To­ba­go; min­is­ters of both the Fed­er­al and the lo­cal gov­ern­ments; and, of course, the top of­fi­cials of UCWI and IC­TA," Br­ere­ton said.

Br­ere­ton said: "The speech of the day was by Arthur Lewis, Prin­ci­pal of UCWI, the fu­ture first Vice-Chan­cel­lor of UWI (1962) and No­bel Prize win­ner. He de­scribed the 'mar­riage' be­ing cel­e­brat­ed as one be­tween a ma­ture la­dy of 40 and a 12-year-old boy, and ad­vised that the boy must be will­ing to learn and the la­dy to be tol­er­ant. This was the union which made St Au­gus­tine the sec­ond cam­pus of the re­gion­al Uni­ver­si­ty and launched 50 years of steady growth in ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion at this site. Br­ere­ton said: "IC­TA's strength lay in its in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion for high-lev­el re­search and its im­pres­sive group of re­search sci­en­tists at St Au­gus­tine. This formed the core of the first Fac­ul­ty at the new UCWI cam­pus, the Fac­ul­ty of Agri­cul­ture (1960), fol­lowed in 1961 by the Fac­ul­ty of En­gi­neer­ing. Un­der the lead­er­ship of Philip Sher­lock and Dud­ley Hug­gins in the 1960s, the fledg­ling cam­pus was trans­formed as part of the re­gion­al Uni­ver­si­ty, which gained its 'in­de­pen­dence' as UWI in 1962.

In 1963, un­der­grad­u­ate teach­ing in the arts, so­cial sci­ences and nat­ur­al sci­ences be­gan un­der the um­brel­la of a 'Col­lege of Arts and Sci­ences'. "From a to­tal stu­dent body of 67 in 1960, all in the Fac­ul­ty of Agri­cul­ture, the cam­pus had 1270 stu­dents in 1969, study­ing many dif­fer­ent sub­jects and cours­es. This was the first pe­ri­od of rapid ex­pan­sion at St Au­gus­tine, an ex­cit­ing time for those who took part–in­clud­ing me, a young Mona grad­u­ate who be­came the first PhD stu­dent in his­to­ry in 1968/69," added Br­ere­ton.

Trin­i­ty Hall in 1972

"Dur­ing the 1960s, St Au­gus­tine was still dom­i­nat­ed by the build­ings and fa­cil­i­ties in­her­it­ed from IC­TA: the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, the Frank Stock­dale Build­ing, and many oth­er struc­tures lo­cat­ed in the north­ern half of the cam­pus. But new struc­tures soon ap­peared, start­ing with the first En­gi­neer­ing Block (1962-63) and Cana­da Hall (1964), the sec­ond stu­dent res­i­dence (Mil­ner has been opened in 1927-28 as IC­TA's stu­dent hos­tel)," Br­ere­ton said. "Trin­i­ty Hall, for women, was opened in 1972. Much of the new build­ing in the 1960s was lo­cat­ed in the south­ern half of the cam­pus–the area used as the Col­lege Farm in the days of IC­TA–and the im­pres­sive, if hard­ly beau­ti­ful, struc­tures of the JFK Com­plex were erect­ed here. "By 1968-69 the Com­plex was oc­cu­pied, pro­vid­ing much-need­ed space for teach­ing in the arts, so­cial sci­ences and nat­ur­al sci­ences, along with a lec­ture the­atre, an au­di­to­ri­um, a cafe­te­ria and stu­dent ameni­ties, and–above all–a new Li­brary," added Br­ere­ton.

En­gi­neer­ing Fac­ul­ty grows

"Af­ter the heady days of stu­dent rad­i­cal­ism at St Au­gus­tine in 1968-70, when stu­dents or re­cent grad­u­ates like Makan­dal Daa­ga were at the fore­front of na­tion­al de­vel­op­ments, the cam­pus en­tered an­oth­er pe­ri­od of ex­pan­sion, presided over by Lloyd Braith­waite, Prin­ci­pal 1969-84. "The first oil boom (1973-81), cou­pled with the de­ter­mi­na­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Er­ic Williams to cre­ate a petro­chem­i­cals and heavy in­dus­try sec­tor in Trinidad, made pos­si­ble a spec­tac­u­lar ex­pan­sion of the Fac­ul­ty of En­gi­neer­ing, fund­ed by the na­tion­al gov­ern­ment, in the late 1970s and ear­ly 1980s. This was the 'Em­pire of En­gi­neer­ing', much en­vied by less for­tu­nate sec­tions of the cam­pus," added Br­ere­ton. Br­ere­ton said: "The oil boom al­so fund­ed the huge Mount Hope Med­ical Com­plex, and drove the gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to set up a new Fac­ul­ty of Med­ical Sci­ences in Trinidad which would teach den­tistry and vet­eri­nary sci­ence as well as med­i­cine (lat­er phar­ma­cy and nurs­ing were added). This was a painful and dif­fi­cult process; but at last (long af­ter the end of the boom), in 1989, the new Fac­ul­ty based at Mount Hope opened its doors to stu­dents."

"Boom and bust" at St Au­gus­tine

Br­ere­ton said, "Just like the na­tion it­self, St Au­gus­tine has suf­fered from re­cur­rent pe­ri­ods of 'boom and bust'. Af­ter the heady years of the oil boom, from which the cam­pus ben­e­fit­ted tremen­dous­ly, a pe­ri­od of hard times set in from the mid-1980s, which last­ed more or less a decade. It fell to Prin­ci­pal GM Richards (1985-96) to bring the cam­pus through these dif­fi­cul­ties. "Many new de­vel­op­ments had to be put on hold, but the growth in stu­dent num­bers, and in pro­gramme and course of­fer­ings, nev­er stopped. By the mid-1990s, the fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion had im­proved, and a new era of build­ing and gen­er­al ex­pan­sion be­gan, fund­ed in part by mas­sive loans from the IDB, as well as sub­ven­tions and cap­i­tal grants from the na­tion­al gov­ern­ment. Im­por­tant new struc­tures went up in this pe­ri­od of re­newed ex­pan­sion, presided over by prin­ci­pals Comp­ton Bourne (1996-2001) and Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie (2001-07), such as the Learn­ing Re­source Cen­tre, the Stu­dent Ac­tiv­i­ty Cen­tre, and the Sport and Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre (SPEC)," Br­ere­ton added.

"Stu­dent num­bers in­creased steadi­ly, and dra­mat­i­cal­ly from about 2001, when the na­tion­al gov­ern­ment first pledged to pay half of all tu­ition fees for un­der­grad­u­ates, then (2004) a hun­dred per cent (GATE)." "Many new pro­grammes, un­der­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate, were in­tro­duced in this pe­ri­od and some de­part­ments or pro­grammes were se­ri­ous­ly stretched to ac­com­mo­date the rapid­ly ris­ing en­rol­ments. Some de­vel­op­ments were not uni­ver­sal­ly wel­comed, such as the move to the two-se­mes­ter sys­tem, car­ried out in the ear­ly 1990s; and the de­ci­sion in 1996 to merge the Fac­ul­ties of Arts and Ed­u­ca­tion to cre­ate the Fac­ul­ty of Hu­man­i­ties & Ed­u­ca­tion, and the Fac­ul­ties of Agri­cul­ture and Nat­ur­al Sci­ences to cre­ate what was even­tu­al­ly named the Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence & Agri­cul­ture. This last merg­er, elim­i­nat­ing the first Fac­ul­ty to be es­tab­lished at St Au­gus­tine, the in­her­i­tor of the IC­TA tra­di­tion, was es­pe­cial­ly dif­fi­cult, cre­at­ing re­ver­ber­a­tions which ex­ist to this day," added Br­ere­ton.

Ex­cit­ing times

Br­ere­ton said, "Yet, un­ques­tion­ably, the last few years have been an ex­cit­ing time of ex­pan­sion–in stu­dent num­bers, staff, build­ings, pro­grammes, sup­port ser­vices, cen­tres or in­sti­tutes–with the cam­pus en­joy­ing an­oth­er boom pe­ri­od up to the on­set of the world-wide de­pres­sion in 2008. Stress­es and strains there in­evitably were (and are) but the sense of for­ward move­ment was pal­pa­ble. "Im­pres­sive new build­ings went up, such as the Lloyd Braith­waite Stu­dent Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, the Daa­ga Au­di­to­ri­um, the Sir Arthur Lewis Hall of Res­i­dence on St John's Road, En­gi­neer­ing Block 13, and the still in­com­plete six-storey Teach­ing and Learn­ing Com­plex," added Br­ere­ton. Br­ere­ton said, "Stu­dent num­bers soared, reach­ing well over 17,000 in the last aca­d­e­m­ic year. While the present fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion is again dif­fi­cult, the for­ward move­ment is not like­ly to be re­versed, with the con­tin­u­ing sup­port of the na­tion­al gov­ern­ment de­spite its own chal­lenges, and un­der the lead­er­ship of prin­ci­pal Clement Sankat (2008) and his team."

Br­ere­ton added, "As we walk around the Cam­pus to­day, we can read its his­to­ry in the build­ings, trees, green spaces and roads. IC­TA's lega­cy is strong on the north­ern side, with the grand old Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing (reded­i­cat­ed ear­li­er this year af­ter a thor­ough re­fur­bish­ing in­side and out) still pre­sid­ing ma­jes­ti­cal­ly over the land­scape. "To the south the JFK Com­plex and the Main Li­brary, the cre­ation of the 1960s, along with the many and mas­sive En­gi­neer­ing build­ings, dom­i­nate. The new­er struc­tures, erect­ed in the 1990s or lat­er, are to be found every­where, with the Daa­ga Au­di­to­ri­um per­haps stand­ing out par­tic­u­lar­ly. Its name re­calls our his­to­ry: On its site, in 1927, the IC­TA Din­ing Hall was opened, a two-storey build­ing with din­ing fa­cil­i­ties and kitchens down­stairs, club and recre­ation rooms up­stairs.

"When St Au­gus­tine be­came a UWI cam­pus, this struc­ture be­came the Guild Hall, the cen­tre of stu­dent ac­tiv­i­ties. In the pe­ri­od of stu­dent ac­tivism of 1969-70, it was re­named Daa­ga Hall af­ter an African ex-slave sol­dier who led a mutiny at St Joseph in 1837," added Br­ere­ton. "The build­ing was de­stroyed by fire in 1980, and the present au­di­to­ri­um stands on the same site. And the his­to­ry of our cam­pus go­ing back even be­fore the cre­ation of IC­TA is re­called by our old­est build­ing: the Prin­ci­pal's Of­fice, up to 1996 the Prin­ci­pal's res­i­dence, is the orig­i­nal Great House of the St Au­gus­tine sug­ar es­tate, built in the mid­dle of the 19 cen­tu­ry. "All this re­minds us of the past, the 'Good Old Days', the lega­cy on which we build; but the fu­ture of our cam­pus and Uni­ver­si­ty is sure to be every bit as ex­cit­ing and re­ward­ing as its past," added Br­ere­ton.

Ju­bilee events

Oc­to­ber 10–In­ter­faith Thanks­giv­ing Ser­vice, JFK Au­di­to­ri­um, UWI St Au­gus­tine

Oc­to­ber 11–Pan­el Dis­cus­sion '50 and Forg­ing Ahead", UWI, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

Oc­to­ber 12–Book launch "From Im­pe­r­i­al Col­lege to Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies" –A His­to­ry of the St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus, Trinidad and To­ba­go, Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um

Oc­to­ber 13–Re­cep­tion by Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards

Oc­to­ber 14–Staff and Stu­dent Con­cert, UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

Oc­to­ber 15–Re­tirees Recog­ni­tion Func­tion, Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre

Oc­to­ber 17–The Gath­er­ing All In­clu­sive Fete, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus (Roy Cape, Kar­ma, Gay­a­tones, Black Stal­in)

Sat­ur­day 21 to No­vem­ber 27–Alum­ni Week and Alum­ni Recog­ni­tion, UWI, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

De­cem­ber 17–Staff Ap­pre­ci­a­tion, UWI, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

To be con­firmed

No­vem­ber

Dis­tin­guished lec­ture–Pres­i­dent and Vice Chan­cel­lor Dr Ed­dy Camp­bell, Uni­ver­si­ty of New Brunswick, UWI, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

Pan­el dis­cus­sion on Lead­er­ship for UWI Stu­dents, spon­sored by AC­CA, UWI, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus