The president also proposed an expansion of the governance structure and announced a new senior management team to move the plans forward. Mrs Hodder indicated that 2007 would be devoted to putting in place the necessary policies, structures and themes to make the final push to university status.
Under the theme “Collaboration, Empowerment, Transformation: Toward University Status”, Mrs Hodder declared, as a working vision, that the University of The Bahamas would be “committed to high standards of teaching, scholarship and research and aim to prepare students to participate fully in the social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual life of their communities.” In the present organisational structure of The College, the College Council is solely responsible for governance. In its meeting of August 17, the Council passed a resolution to enable the formation of a committee of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and representatives of various sectors of the wider community, to deliberate on how to increase the involvement of academics in academic governance, including exploring the wisdom of establishing a Senate.
Effective September 11, the new administrative structure at COB will comprise six vice presidents, a registrar, and a secretary general. The latter officer will function as legal counsel and Council Secretary. The new secretary general, noted attorney Rubie Nottage, will therefore also support the governance structure. Dr Rhonda Chipman-Johnson who served as acting president for academic year 2005-2006 now assumes the mantle of executive vice-president academic affairs with the responsibility of ensuring that students have access to the courses they need and that new offerings are developed if and when they are required.
Dr Linda Davis moves into one of the new administrative positions as vice-president research, graduate programmes and international relations, where she is expected to create international university partnerships aimed at enriching the academic experience of students and the academic careers of the faculty. She will also define areas for development of both graduate programmes and research options, especially where international researchers are concerned.
Vice-President Student Affairs, Colyn Major, will eventually see his portfolio lightened when a new registrar is appointed but, in the meantime, Mr. Major will fill both roles. He is charged with expanding the current student life programmes, facilitating the construction of new residences for students and creating a full residential life programme. Building the scope and range of college athletics and expanding student aid are further aspects of Mr Major’s responsibilities. As acting registrar, Mr. Major has the substantial task of improving the registration process and resolving the system issues that plague it and he must find ways for COB to compete successfully with North American institutions for top quality students. The finance and administration portfolio continues to be carried by Vice-President Finance and Administration, Denton Brown. As such, he has oversight of the college’s finances, its capital maintenance and development projects, building a client-centred culture of service and maximizing training opportunities for his staff.
College Council Secretary, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, will now assume the new position of vice-president human resources and communications. She will bring her undoubted gifts as writer, speaker and editor to develop and implement a communications plan in support of the 2006-2007 goals, with the focus on the talents of both the faculty and the students. She also has the mandate to restructure human resources with the focus on the ‘client’, to adopt a comprehensive professional development and training plan and to ensure all collective agreements are respected. The new organisational structure is completed by the vice-president Outreach, a position that will be filled by Dr Pandora Johnson. Under the banner, ‘No Family in The Bahamas should be Left Untouched by The College’s Work’, Dr Johnson is charged with reviewing Continuing Education, expanding Family Island programmes and developing a Distance Education plan. Vice-President Johnson is also mandated to increase community, government and civic partnerships and to establish The College as ‘the’ place to go to develop made-to-measure solutions to national training needs at the college level. Reporting directly to the president, Chief Information Officer, John Collins, will, as the president notes in a current proposal, be responsible for leading “an aggressive agenda to deploy and implement a new standards based, best practices approach to information and communications technology (ICT) at The College/University of The Bahamas.
The Nassau Guardian
