 So, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We'll get this started as we know that we wanted to start with 7 shortly with the welcome and then send it out for tomorrow. And I'm going to ask the director of international education here at the college, Ambassador Eugene Versu, to bring her welcome and the introduction of her welcome. Ambassador Versu. On behalf of Dr. Rudolph Kru, president of this college, and again this college, on behalf of the Provost, Dr. Augustine O'Caraghe, on behalf of my good friend here, Dean Terence Laughland, and all the hardworking people at the head of the college, it is my pleasure to welcome each and every one of you here to this intimate conversation with our guest of honor. I am particularly pleased to welcome some people that I see in the audience here. I wish I knew everyone but I can't. I want to see a special welcome to the guys, Chancellor General, who's sitting there. Madam President. Welcome. I heard Terence referred to a lady as Madam President. I don't know what you're President at all. I welcome you to be on capacity as President. Let me say this, but it really is an honor for me to welcome Vice Chancellor Ivor Griffith here today. I'll tell you why. There's two reasons why. Sometime around 1998, the United Nations and the World Bank came up with a report on priming the Caribbean. I was astounded to see that two countries were leading the world in co-capital crime. It was Trinidad, number one, and Jamaica, number three. I decided that I'd like to do something about it by organizing a conference to look into this whole issue of priming the Caribbean. I made it clear that I didn't want the police convention. It was not about locking up people and putting them in jail. It was about trying to understand the sociology of crime in our region. It's a region of the world that is supposedly ideal, climate, the environment. Everything is ideal for relaxation and a good life. And yet we are leading the world in crime. I wanted to get to the bottom of that. I decided to organize a preparatory workshop and do it in the form of a breakfast. I decided to invite the Chancellor, sorry, the Provost of York College on a long shot. Because I really didn't know if he would accept my invitation for just a breakfast meeting. And no one would be home. Who was there? Count? I'm sitting with us as if he was one of the boys. He was. Dr. Heidler, very good. I could never forget that morning, not only the contents of what you shared with us, but the way you interacted with us as if it was no big deal for you to leave your character. So I've come here and shared with us. I really appreciate that. It's one of those things that stuck in my memory. Thank you very much. I also want to recall, and I hope that every one of you here who are Gaius would accept that with a degree of pride. Last April, the President, myself, and Dr. Maria DeLongoria visited Gaius. And on all itinerary was a well-come dinner by the Vice Chancellor. And ladies and gentlemen, let me say this to you. It was a dinner. It was first class all the week. All the week. You know, the Vice Chancellor doesn't know how to do anything. It's not first class. And so again, Vice Chancellor, I want to say thank you very much for creating these great impressions in my mind. It has reached me as a person. And so in my humble way, I'm just thrilled to be able to stand here and welcome you to have this chat with us here this evening. Thank you very much for being here. Welcome to make every stop. Thank you, Vice Chancellor. It's often, it's important when you have these things to say who the folks are. Sometimes, you know, we hear the anecdotes, but we don't often say it. And so I thought that first, in introducing our guest this evening, Professor Irolof Lawyer Griffith, I would say just a little bit about his life and actually added this to our program. But nonetheless, I think it's important to read it into the right words of the state. Professor Irolof Lawyer Griffith was appointed the 10th Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of New York in June 2016. He had been served earlier as Executive in Residence at the University of Albany in the State of New York College. And the 9th President of Fort Valley State University in Georgia. Where he sort of led the right sizing of the educational economic enterprise, focusing on growing enrollment, enhancing the academic profile, controlling spending, launching honors and undergraduate research programs, and initiating a feasibility study to establish a school of entrepreneurial business innovation. Professor Griffith is a 10-year Professor of Political Science, and he served from 2007-2013 as Provost and Senior Vice President of York College in New York. Where notable achievements included growing the full-time faculty by 30%, reorganizing academic affairs into schools of business and information systems, arts and sciences, and health sciences and professional programs, and enhancing research and scholarship by creating the Provost Lectures, the Distinguished Scholars Lectures, and the Undergraduate Research Program. Professor Griffith is a University of Vienna alumnus. He was the first person to graduate with distinction in political science. He holds a master's of arts from the Atlanta University here at New York, and who amasses a philosophy and a doctoral degree in political science from the City University of New York. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Program and Educational Leadership, and this is part of what we want to talk about tonight. And he's also a graduate of the Millennium Leadership Institute of the American Association of Schedicology at the University. Professor Griffith is an expert on Caribbean and hemispheric security, drugs and crime. He is the originator of the concept of geo-narcotics, which emerged in the early 1990s as a way to study the complex relationships between drugs and geography, power of politics, and the dispersed outlining in Canada's leading international beer scholarly magazine from the Cold War to the post-Cold War geo-narcotics. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the tourists. Professor Hyde, we'll ask Professor Griffith to speak for about 15 minutes or so, and then we will sit down and continue that conversation. So he'll give us, he'll send us a speech for us at that moment, then we'll review that conversation. So, quick. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. I've not, of course, requested that everyone at the back row to come forward. Fine as they feel in the front. If you don't want to escape before your work comes to an end, we can, you know, I used to save the students when I was out here regularly in the United States. Many of our folks struggle to find us different. Why do we want to sit at the back? There's no other argument to sit in front. We begin by thanking and applauding Dean Blackburn as well as colleagues from the alumni and friends of the University of Miami for not only organizing the session, but for also having some healthy fruits and other things to go with it. The last time I was in this room two years ago, we had the opportunity of having someone on the desk standing off for a moment of silence for George Irish. This was the past, not too long. The first time we had the Red Sox weekend, and George was one of the people who belonged with others in the room. He created my candidacy for President of this college. And I was the finalist along with Jimmy Kruse. I told him, really, everyone, that I could be George George before President of the United States. Half a month, it's going to be three years since I returned to Canada after a very, very long period of time. The start of the journey had helped me to consider which one is the special part of organizing the development. That is the University of Miami's Red Sox. That journey has been an interesting one, troubled one in many respects. But it's not a journey that I could have endured without the support, prayers, and hard work of people in this room, and not in this room. So I want to begin by thanking my wife, who is absent, for the strong support and my family, thanking people who are in this room for those friends in many decades. People will be laboring in the vineyards in helping us to do the things behind the scenes to make the success of the pursuits of human resource. It was often said that nations are a crossroads, and sometimes that term is used very clippantly. But our nation is certainly a crossroads. It's a crossroads in economic terms. It's a crossroads in political terms. It's a crossroads in sociological terms. The nation that many of us grew up in is a long-awaited nation in sociological terms that we knew were epic. It's something that has had a great abandon. I would say to someone two weeks ago in Houston, the guy needs to set the date by God, because it's only $100 every time I heard the term. This is not America. In Sonia Guiana, there's been a sort of proclamation to mediocrity, a comfort in doing things below excellence, that you see the sociological veneer of excellence that we grew up with. And so the journey that I've been on is a journey in very many aspects that are not only education, but the university. The education of the university in a broader sense and helping the society to understand that the university that you've been accustomed to the last several decades is not the university that you deserve. You need to go beyond being what has to be described by many as simply a glorified high school. You need to go beyond a place where you can just do teaching, but you can do research. Go beyond a place where it is not only an emphasis in what you can get, in what you can give. How the university deprives itself not only of prostituteness terms, but in practical terms by putting students from the center. College, my first day on the job as Vice Chancellor I was struck by the neglect of the disrespect of students with regard to something that is so fundamental and elementary, that terminates in on time. It is still about it. But if we don't pursue the journey to make right those things that we have long taken for granted and we are fallen by the wayside to the point where you think, I am doing something revolutionary. I am saying let's get the basics in here. It takes the students, it takes them well, certainly great things. It is that journey where you take the branches by working feet away for a while and now you've got to manage not only standards for them, standards and things that are so initially about which you might have to fight. But I want to say that there are several points of pride along the way. I think when you will have looked at the two and a half years after the 33 months of the project that I saw, there is much for which we have to be proud. Part of what the journey is all about is not only a journey that will lead a certain product, enhancement of outcomes but a journey where process is as much as important as a product. It is a cultural shift in many respects. We have been so adrift from the centerpiece of what excellence and standards have been that getting processed is just as important as a project. But if you want to identify a couple of tangible outcomes of the journey is the suits. I've brought a few copies and I'm delighted to see that you know it's a great minus thing to like but the other side of it is that we are not in the foods category. We decided to put together a little we don't have enough for everyone. A little brochure is capturing some of the physical enhancements in the last 33 months. Makes a difference. Simple things that you would take for granted I remember going to school in the University of the 70s the largest, single largest lecture hall at what is now called the George Walker lecture theater It used to be hot and dark time and the global warming is a little hotter so I decided to air condition the whole facility. You think that I'm inventing something to create a comfort in the largest classroom space to create it all to be smaller to be. So some things which are captured here as points of pride could not be a point of pride in the 19th to 21st century but it's a manifestation of the extent to which it is yet to be so significant that we can measure a good amount of many bars of the classroom last year and he was noticing by year one a scorecard of things which some of these should not be a point of pride like not having horses and sheep grow on the campus like not having all these trade-offs around Simple things that would enable the climbing, the ambiance for learning A good friend of mine who is also distinguished artists and residents near Martin's course in a Facebook message saying I'm going to ask the vice-president how he can get the role that he plays I've been trying to get my role played for a long time Paving the road, creating a car park and creating a facility that would make life seamless, understanding, useful and worthy of non-com in here So I'd be happy that we were able to significantly make a difference We have been able to solve a lot of problems and some of the problems have not been able to be fixed It's going to take a journey It's not a strength but I'm delighted that people in this room people not in this room people in the diaspora in large have been contributing to that journey in so many ways I've often used something as simple as an example of how the diaspora has been contributing to what the Renaissance journey is all about and I've used Karen Martin for the reference You would see sometimes public announcements from the Department of Public Relations That Department of Public Relations is kind of one in the diaspora where the water limitations are the PR, instead of, I will do the marketing And so the point I'm trying to make is that the value and the contribution of people in and out together is something that I take as a point of question I want to spend all of this with the people in this room So it's not going to be easy for society also It's not going to be easy for society Our nation still has a love-hate relationship with the diaspora and I've experienced that love-hate relationship with the black person always It's not only being told I'm not a real guy but also being told that I'm trying to impose so many American values and I said, I'm just as a guy and it is nothing more than having status There is absolutely nothing wrong with being not comfortable with mediocrity And so I want to express my appreciation to colleagues in the diaspora The entire diaspora not just not the black people but lots of guys are non-guys who help in us in a similar kind of ways behind the scenes So they're talking to Eugene and they're talking to Eugene He was a wonderful visitor a couple of weeks ago Minister of Natural Resources in South Africa He's coming to us as a function of someone in the diaspora albeit in a diplomatic role Can Rick Hunt Can Rick was home for Christmas? He came to my party and he's been working behind the scenes So when can Rick Hunt as a team coming together behind the scenes ensure that we will visit the University Friday How can South Africa in the area of mining help us Department of Geological and the Children of Geological Engineering Significant to which is our mining program that isn't and so we'll be getting assistance from the South Africans The point I'm trying to make colleagues is that sometimes we don't see the manifest contribution It's that product, it's process But I value all those contributions to how small they are how big they are I'll end the list now because we want to make it a conversation Some of the contributions are personally the need to be raised from the family and do things and not have the family to collect it I want to think about someone who is not here someone who is here at a very personal level I'm happy to make it with family life be a life that is not one of sad and regret and the island walkers with a very personal level come to be sure that things and the family home can happen when there are emergencies So there are various levels of which people have to be helping helping our nation and our universities with ways in which you don't have to make a big singing song about it but I value those contributions individual, institutional, personal and so on You'll see on that list of achievements in the school card year one something that was a significantly important project of mine in my first year I had a school that met we were able to do it we now have a four year of graduation we're going back up to 2021 and that for me is a signal point of pride in the years to come actually the program of our university got back on track we have a challenge with that in that not only is the entire university portfolio programs way beyond the economic cost of the university but with medicine, the dentistry, the cometary, those are our help in particular they cost much more to run than reach our university so we're going to have to make some some decisions going forward not only to write a size on Robert McIntyre's office in January but to significantly increase the tuition and to significantly increase that tuition to something that students understand because we have another credit to the medical schools in Ghana charging four times more four times more than what we charge that's a number of reasons historic and political there's no reluctance to have that different situation in the way that we have to go there we're going to have to go there with medicine we're going to have to go there with dentistry nursing with public health with law because it's just not economical to keep subsidizing the programs in a way in which given to a broad cluster of things it is no longer a chemical proposition to do I've ended this note the journey has just begun process and product have been 10 years in the university and the events of the society have been more than 3 years and so I have been very thankful for my wife's support in allowing me to say to the university community I shall be seeking a new contract now some of you have been following the notes recently already know that some people don't want me to be there for another 3 years let's see what happens people want salary increase without performance people want salary increase without doing their jobs and I say salary increases important it's necessary but it's not sufficient you've got to look at continuous improvement the university of Ghana the unions of the university of Ghana have not had a collective legal grievance since 1994 poking you in 2019 operating the basis of just guesstimate and practice without the basis for legality and I'm saying let's put on a conversation table performance in addition to salaries let's put on a conversation table a collective legal agreement we cannot predictability in what relationship shall we and so I want to pause on that note of thanks and express willingness for continued support and look forward to that continued support now I know that Terence and Addison and others have organized this we're not going to be inclined to want you to leave your accountable support for the rest of this fund for you but even though our trend is not here I'm sure that you would not be on my foot give me many substitutions if you don't want to so I'll call for it we're going to you know we're going to open this up as a conversation what I thought I would do is take the broad view of the moderator to sort of perhaps start the question so one of the things that struck me was that you've gone on the broad view you're increasing capital investment from the institution you're looking at academic advancements discussing issues of economic liability you're engaging into the Astra and there is some resistance to that and so there are two questions so one I think you just articulated in a way this resistance is a function of not being able to kind of manage or folks are not seen really understanding the importance of excellence in the project and the importance of if you're going to make an omni you have to break it in so that's one part of it but I'm wondering your catchphrase about what you're dreaming and doing I'm wondering when Tsifasa Aizawa dreams about what this university looks like 20 years ago what is it to think that your faculty and your staff the thing that they can kind of pull that thing out I'm going to answer that question in two ways the first is the offer of context what I think is the watermark of the question and the watermark of the question that I would offer is the dreaming and doing it I have introduced is not dreaming and doing outside of what the academies do it is largely dreaming and doing that is not putting the portfolio of knowledge to the guy and so some people think that I'm creating these crazy ideas it is just that I'm trying to normalize within that what is normal in most universities in North America so it's helping part of the dreaming and doing is helping people to understand that it's a paradigm shift we're introducing and in the paradigm shift you've got to take your will you've got to be willing to take risks of both places you've got done before and that has not always been appreciated but let me get to the second part which is the essence of the question I outline in my values and vision statement what I call Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech right here in New York in 1962 he talked about the result of Vietnam he talked about a fierce urgency of now and I use that phrase in trying to articulate what is the necessity for the university to embrace that urgency of now the urgency of now is one in which I say and I quote to the gentleman who I've not admired for their case, that I call the vision article the vision article became famous in a variety of respects but his big fame came in 1913 when he was the first to get the Nobel Prize and he also became famous in 1919 when he repudiated the British effort to give him a knighthood had the opportunity of lecturing last year the University of India in Colgate but to go set a moment of things you can't cross the sea simply by standing at the water you've got to make some bold decisions and choices and for me the urgency of now and the trajectory of Vietnam is on requires the university to have some big dreams and big doing if you always want to take the lo-hanging fruit and become the devil I'll give you an example of where I have to invoke another gentleman I admire in the introduction you gave you mentioned what I started at Fort Valley State school of entrepreneurship the same gentleman who left that team to do the feasibility study for about half an hour I want to know where you go I brought him to the hand not again he is Jordan he left a feasibility key when it came to the governing body approving that he is in school I remember the government body said to me and she was like aren't you dreaming too big to have a business school I am sitting there saying so I said let me tell you what Michelangelo said years ago he said our greatest challenge is not aiming high and missing or old he is always aiming low and reaching them we don't have the luxury of always aiming high have big dreams and pursue them and I think in the context of what kind of dreams the university gather doesn't have the luxury of not dreaming big last year we had the first entrepreneurship conference I said something there which I did not realize that impacted so many young people until a couple of weeks ago I talked about a business school as part of the trust of the Renaissance in the context of what he called his B hags having big, hairy, audacious roles this was a couple of weeks ago a young graduate who is now a leading young woman in terms of entrepreneurship trying to get young people to save at the right amount we had a trochanity in talks looking at money matters that she was unbounded she later sent me a text she said she said I want to thank you for what you said last year so he said what he told us to have big, hairy, audacious roles I decided I want to set an example that would be in 100,000 young people and not a big young woman it can't occur to me that it is possible to have big goals until each other why not dream big so this young woman now president of a company dynamic young entrepreneur took seriously what I've been saying in the campus of the campus we have to have big goals and the big goals will mean big investments don't have to come only for the government which is part of what I've been saying we've got to broaden the revenue pipe broaden the investment pipe we've got to bring in government and ask them for more we've also got to bring in the business community and ask them to invest we've got to reach out to alumni and friends and say how can you pay forward by giving back and so having said that I would like to at the end of 20 years long after I've gone see a university that is hard to rise by these three things be the place of choice first thoughts for guineas who want to invest in the tertiary education in a variety of respects no we have degrees in a school of business we have now 130 different programs guineas should be the place where people feel so confident about the credibility of what they are that they don't use as their first choice the offshore schools if you go to the national accreditation council listed you see 17 different offshore schools and I was in texas two weeks ago two more are coming the all thing is being allowed the university of guineas strengthen what we do and how we do it to be that first place of choice but a university in the nation that guineas cannot live itself or into teaching it's got to be a cool turn around with research and my staff told me not to bring back any of these books that I brought for me to be sold here tonight well we've established the university of guineas press it's not only going to be producing books you'd better get it into the journals business there's a team headed by a professor alumnus from Florida International he's also one of those indefatigable supporters of mine heading up a project to create a new journal on the guineas shield guineas sorry, not Colombia but we've started a strange journal so we need to be the place around which research revolves we've got some outstanding features of guineas which university of guineas leverage our biodiversity we have the basis for tropical medicine that's right we're not in that game as yet we need to be accentuated with the research but the research is not only to be accentuated and supported by a lot of lecturers and sponsors we'll be having on the 10th, 11th and 12th of this coming month the third undergraduate research conference we've got to get the students involved Florida International I created an undergraduate research program York College I created it one Radisson the Radisson University Florida State the University of Guineas we've got to get the young students of their freshman year first year excited by the research and I just saw an email a couple of minutes ago saying we've got four of our students that have to present their research in Georgia and I said to the team we've got some ambassadors in Georgia we can avoid being in a hotel we've got to spend time we're hosted by these managers we have a group of four students going to Germany to present their research international conference on student research we've got to energize the students not only the masters of PhD students but the undergraduates in the spectrum of your field and for the second conference last year as we got done here I was starting this program we said look we've got to capture the whole palette of creativity and so we had a wonderful inclusion of the arts painting culture allowing the students to showcase that creativity so I think the second thing I'd like to see the university become is a beacon for research not only by lecturers by professors but by students so what we did longer conservation international and Arizona State University we're building a partnership I led a team at Arizona State University last November part of the interrelationship is that they sent the team several weeks ago we said why don't we have in addition to those students coming with their lecturers some of our students so I meant the team one of them we have four biologists never occurred to them on film this project that they were good enough to do research we got to the master's level so the excitement of our research because I would say now the second thing that I would look forward to see in the period of time I think the universities then along with universities are secretaries in the treatment limiting carry on as associate institutions but over the years as the University of Ghana moved himself to be more internal limiting it turned by the wayside this university needs to get back as an engine of agency in the region we are part of the criminal exam system as you go ahead the council, the University of Ghana Vice Chancellor needs to remember that but there are so many other entities at the regional level we should be putting our late in most significant ways we not that is a function both of one half percent of the university and what happens to the government because in our general cabinet they then notice it's being extreme don't say anything sometimes we are over and so it has to be a function of what the university does and what people beyond what the university people beyond the university what they do can enable the university to have that leveraging at the beyond Ghana level some of it is there in the architecture it is just over time we have fallen by the wayside by our own not the very long no I think well the mathematicians will say they are pretty bad the first thing is that you want this institution to be an institution of choice for Ghana the second is that you want this institution to be a place that creates knowledge that supports the Ghana's project and the third is that you want this institution to be an institution that is a player in the regionals and I think this is very important and there are a number there are a number of issues regionally that impact what happens in Ghana as Ambassador Pursue referred to in his opening remarks and perhaps maybe I can tap into your academic expertise Ambassador Pursue noted the conference of crime and I think currently we had this conversation very recently in the top 25 really terrible crime statistics a large number of Caribbean countries appear as leading in this so I wanted to sort of say how do you see it this is something we have talked about before Ghana is a country with a small population and maybe this is in some way leading to this kind of normalization of normalization of I don't want to say mediocrity but the normalization of lower standards and how do you see the university in that how do you see the university helping to be this change agent in the society you know I know it's a tough time to talk to you maybe say a bit about the perfect they're possibly being packed on the socio-economic and the culture of well actually three things coming back to my point with the university doesn't have enough people he's got to be an institution that does research it's got to be an institution that does research that is more policy relevant and theoretical and it's in a policy relevant domain where the value of the embrace by polity polity both in the policy makers and in the broad civic society when you're comfortable that you've got credibility and work to say help me on this it is not unique to Ghana in the Caribbean and Latin America where there's a predilection to turn to the outside to get advice even though many people are the inside but that predilection will reduce over time into credibility and value last so the onus is on us not only do the research of shift the onus is on us to market the capabilities I've been on a journey to let's encounter the website let's tell people who we are you know we're fighting about the inverse of Ghana of an image and a brand that's 20 years that is not necessarily a public brand but unless we tell people the things you're doing they may be trying to hold on to that negative brand that they know of that has been a dominant narrative so the conversations are not society the renaissance let all parts of that enhancing the brand while enabling people in society to see the value of the universe open about the teaching I love people to see the importance of building the partnerships each one of those third-party talks will be having number 17 I think next month is a partnership we say private sector, government, academics the national organizations let's help your investment collectively by sponsorship let's bring your value and your talent and your expertise to conversations and the token and team talks in particular has become an expected stable I asked we had a conversation in marijuana recently so I asked the guy who manages the livestream what is our average followership except for that one we have 7,000 people how close did that have to another second hand we started the artist in residence program he's waiting long hours they've marked him to the circle they gave a performance at the back stand in December I could not be there it was wonderful to see Guyanese and Bolivia in Canada in the US in the UK two days later when I got a female from David's sister in Canada then we had the opportunity for a living for a different brother to have his talent he appreciated by a guy who loved him so the point I'm making is that those enrichment events we call it public engagement events are part of enabling the society to find the university in which that foundation was not there in a positive way allows to broader society within Guyan and outside of Guyan to see what are the connection possibilities for future research to see what are the connection possibilities for new programs we have approached the Lanz & Sibiris Commission because of things in those topics can you answer the program and ask we have now the first situation last year of a land management improvement it came out of under the term it came out of the conversation of law and society our minister Greenish I invited him to do something similar to what he did here the talk he gave he was so excited about hoping but he got undermined by just part of the entry and so when he called I'm looking forward to say I'm still stuck the room was packed I said I'm not going to turn this into an old den I pulled together a panel a battle with the colleges in Europe said really need to be this far a battle run last year with this far I said round you need to be this far Miki Kotaraka United Nations President said Miki, who can you join? it was a wonderful conversation about Guyan at the war stage if you believe in serving maybe it's a good thing we had a broader richer discourse than if you had heard just him so the collective value of those events we tried to, we've done a couple of them outside of Georgetown but you know that their challenges once you get out of Georgetown there's a wonderful local we opened it up not a place now where you can go out on a little rock a place but I've committed to do some of them and I'm rooming across the society but I'm delighted that the live streaming has been reaching a broader than Guyan at so I'll take the cross with the moderator to begin to open up for questions but I wanted to ask one more but maybe not I can't ask so we'll start with you thank you you can stand up for me this is great my question has to do with data and analytics we're going to make data with age everything is data analytics I can probably say this is 100% confidence that Exxon Noble is Guyan probably the government of Guyan because of data and analytics how do you how do you plan to introduce data science data analysis analytics into the university so that we can be more of a data driven economy a data driven country where decisions are not made by just a whim but with evidence and one last thing I'm going to put a plug in on the conversations in 2016 I'll be talking about the sovereign wealth fund so definitely stay tuned at 5pm I'm ready Paris I've been in finance and investments for about 15 years from the definition of the work of the school of business and I've worked with major companies with KB Morgan, S&P and Exxon very important information you might recall what Mark Queen said years ago said there is this thing called lies there is this thing called allies there is this thing called statistics but notwithstanding what Mark Queen said we have a collective challenge and it's no consolation it's not just a Guyan challenge we have a challenge of having the basis for every dense base decision making it's no consolation to say it is a broader than universal challenge and there are at least two ways in which and I don't know that we were tempted yet significantly enough but we've got to go there the first approach is to have the infrastructure not only to assemble but to analyze for that we don't have much of that in any cases on the financial side on the basic heuristics of decision making side so we have to be infrastructure but we also have to have an acclamation it's a kind of a paradigm shift that once the data are presented and are analyzed they will be used that is often the litmus test of the value of investing time and effort in collecting and analyzing the data for use of it and so it's going to be the wisdom of the broader society policy in both private and public sectors that we've got to invest in infrastructure some of the infrastructure is human capital some of the infrastructure is data management systems but one of the things we did when we went to Arizona State University we went to one of their data labs and we asked them to help us get down on the road at the zero cost to us so that could be part of infrastructure and human capital but you're absolutely right we're not there yet and you're also absolutely right that some entities know much more about us than we know about ourselves and sometimes some folks what does CIA does a lot of it is open sources we've got to have a willingness in the part of private and public sector officials to begin to invest confidence in the data that's in the house we had a few weeks ago the outstanding I don't know some of you followed it second CY Thomas Distinguished Lecture by Roger Hussain he amassed a variety of data in a variety of sources and it was wonderful at one hand and disconcerting on the other hand to hear him say that some of the people who we check with you that we're crushing the accuracy of your lab so if you don't have any confidence in your own data how do you expect others to have confidence so we've got a confidence issue which is a cultural issue we've got an infrastructure issue and again we don't have to building infrastructure and waiting for the confidence in the human capital you've got a little bit of each and I'm reminded now when I get back to ask the lead person on that group project when are we getting this thing from ASU go ahead so on the back so state your name and then the question can I go in? I'm just I'm concerned about the culture doing your thing trying to make things happen you have to push back you can find it in every you can find it in every little corner in every little part of the workforce and I asked this you know I'm questioning this but it's worth to do some research on land on ancestral land as you talked about you made mention of infrastructure I think one of the things that we have to do is to start training in the diversity standard to change to welcome this age of technology and the new culture training across mobilization second I can get as much information on how to do the garbage and it's so effective that I don't have to go far to get out of this and I think at the university where we have stopped more money I think we have to introduce some reorganization to be educated and hopefully deliver service to the public the other thing that I want to the other question I want to ask that was a statement and I want to ask questions why did technology transfer technology and culture transfer to Vienna we have such a hard time but the green back and the barrier I don't know I'm trying to understand what is really happening in Vienna that the diaspora is so heated that I don't know but it shows that I took the vice chancellor to the table and it was a few emancipations and I was shocked the question why what are the roots of who's doing it who's doing it and I'm not saying that what I want to say is that there's nothing more an individual from outside can come now to I don't do anything more in Vienna I'm just asking after my course but I'm asking the question what is the pushback of the blue back what's that well I would have been shocked to answer we're out at the United States without particularly part of it that's super but let me say a few things first of all what guidance experience with what I call an OK relationship is not unique to Guy what does it mean to Guy that phenomenon has existed and will exist in all societies for variety of reasons and I'm pretty much sure you have an attenuation of some of the pushback pushback will be there I've got some private views as to what are some of the genesis of the pushback is a lot of the thoughts here but I want to show you that there are many supportive not only looking for the green backs not only looking at campaign time to come to the disaster there are many Guyanese who are welcome one or two have publicly defended me in the media people in the Guyanese people who have returned to Guyanese so I want to not paint a broad brush of negativism of pushback on the part of all Guyanese I understand some of the reasons for and I understand the maturation that our society will be going to in the context of other societies having that same experience but let me get to my second point which is the business of customer service and again, it's no consolation to see that that is a reality of our society with large we have not appreciated as yet the customer service the customer centric element of service whether it's in the private or the public domain which I believe to be a force and greeted by the customers in integration force if you are not conscious of the reality you think that you don't want to and it is something that conscious effort need to be made within the universe of business and what we started to do with that respect and in the broad society in the hospital, in the hotels you see it sometimes it's just not there the universe of Guyan does a number of things wonderful but like many institutions, we don't do something as well the customer service is not one of those things that people don't and I'm delighted that two years ago the registrar initiated a customer service orientation workshop session for the registry registry has about almost 90 staff one Saturday is part of a phase approach phase two was to be in the registry actually Bursal was involved in that Bursal so we've got to go methodically related by unit but we also have to do some things that are not directly customer service to live morale and to have a sense of respect in the part of unvalued in the part of people who serve the records and I started that in two ways a couple of years ago we do a celebration of all mothers let the real departments identify a mother and I get the private sector to come put some money in and we celebrate the mothers we do the same thing for fathers so matter of fact this past father's day some of the private sector leaders were there including a good friend of mine one of our education resource ambassadors Jerry DeVyre not only did he contribute to some of the prizes he said I will from next year when we release a microphone I'm going to celebrate our fathers I'm going to celebrate our mothers you don't see the immediate return of that investment but just giving people a sense that we value them we believe that there is something that they can celebrate I hosted an event, an appreciation event for all the library staff the library has been going through some terrible insolvency in the common campus you see some of the modifications but the staff has helped about the influence of the library so I said just to give a party for them just to say thank you and it was remarkable what happened the other day I asked everyone to introduce themselves people who've been working with each other for 10-15 years let them do something that they want to do when the time for us to do music we dancing some of these young people were dancing and for me we've got to find a way to keep those we keep the that we can have a celebration so it is not only what I mean by reformally I'm saying here is what I mean to the people it's how do you give a sense of appreciation so that they will see themselves as ambassadors and serve once in the positive sense of the word rather than a chore they've got to go to and be with reform the chore the technology is an issue and part of the challenge is not a competition it's a challenge of university a challenge in a broader society technology has two critical components to it you want to make investment in the long term you've got to invest in not only getting the technology but in the training of the human capital to use it appropriately and there are so many cases and many of us who are part of efforts have given things to countries where it's there not being used because there is no adequate training to use the equipment and then when the equipment is broken the maintenance of parts if you invest in that part getting the front end is an answer but it's not a patient you've got to do it without using it appropriately and then you've got to find a way to enable the sustainability of what is transferred when it comes to maintenance when it comes to repairs and many of us in this room have not so much of an experience in regard to that so it's not a a simple as setting stuff it is how do you enable the training to use it you are safe going to this you're absolutely right for someone who has been working in French in terms of give back to secondary school what are universities doing to engage the leadership at the high school level at the primary school level Ministry of Education so that you can achieve this excellence change how is the university engaging at a lower level for societal change excellent question one of the things I have said for both on and off campus is that a fierce urgency of now that we have a university is not a fierce urgency of now limited to the university but I have got to be mindful of the purview of my portfolio I cancel everybody's problems I cancel people's level you need to do this yes but who's going to be mindful you need to do that so yes there are things given the connectivity with your primary, secondary and tertiary there are things that need to be done that I it is not within my portfolio to solve all those problems and I hope that we begin to build the synergies last June I think it worked I completed on the consultation on writing we have a chapter on the writing at the university something may not want me to say but that's the reality we brought in to the conversation is medication and fierce levels we brought the private sector we brought the CPC he said we don't have a collective conversation about how the university does its part of how other elements are constructed that conversation was a two day conversation that led to recommendations of next steps some of the next steps are beyond the purview of the university I have to leave those to those relevant domains some of them have to do with what we need to do with the university some of those critical to be established on the writing clinics of students give you another one last year June as we began to have the conversation with the critical out of the gaps I hosted the president of the university of Canada at the Bego we launched a program in partnership with the UCT he shows it in scientific and professional engineering so I hosted him in one forum the heads of all the technical institutes and I proposed a consortium that would link all the technical institutes and it was a learning on our part, we didn't know they had to meet at some institute together I mean they established a consortium a higher education consortium an engineering of mine they elected me as the founding president the idea is how to synergize because we know that in the oil and gas some of the skills need to be in the university skill they can be the technical institutes but we also know the technical institutes have their limitations we want people to collectively put their heads together some of what they will need is some of their lectures coming to complete their bachelor's and master's at the university how to create a seamless transition for them to come so that consortium will be having a meeting next week I think that we have to do is an expression of how given the connectivity between the university and other sectors there are things that we can do but I am not going to be in the business of trying to solve everybody's problems so we we want one on the side yeah all the student companies accepted these changes that you are I think by and large very positive and one of the interesting things about student acceptance and availability in specific examples just in the part of the event secretary on the George Bush who talked about non-nomes non-nomes non-nomes non-nomes non-nomes some of these students just did not know and they are happy to be embracing positive change some of them knew because they had gone either on visits or completed degrees above the institution to now see that what we have in Canada is really high so by and large positive I'll give you some examples when I proposed in 2017 tuition increases so we could no longer afford the business model we've gotten increased tuition we had several working groups for the proposals to make the students on the working group were upset anybody would be upset about tuition I said but why don't we have you meet with a person on the red square get to the data see what the income what the extent that it is and then you come back with a proposal the students came back with a proposal that essentially I accepted and wanted so if you allow them to be part of the process you see their investment of interest and the investment of time and energy so I'm by and large very happy with this contribution when we were planning the all the gas programs I was thinking when we were setting student who was representing the engineering students in the meeting I had on the animals with the president when I closed the idea that we are not going to be able to afford the luxury of having this snow engineering program be at the regular engineering costs the students said by chance you were correct because when we graduated engineering we didn't make a lot of money we used to pay if you bring in involved get along with us and have them to see the information get the equity yes you're going to have some pushback but by and large I will be to the student and the student response so I'll come to that in a short message I'm sorry I missed so first I'm not going to then let this work can you give me curiosity first stage of the report and projections you you report you refer to accreditation I'm not familiar with the accreditation body you use you know well I just wanted to my curiosity arises with the fact that I created the national world healthcare system program about 10, 5, 30 years ago and have already followed up well there is my accreditation body for the entire Caribbean, English speaking, Spanish speaking French speaking for chemistry Caribbean Association of Allied Health and it started with accreditation of medicine is going beyond medicine now it's gone to dentistry institutions that graduate students that are not accredited are limited in the geographic local in which you're able to practice unless there are any respective other jurisdictions or in the case of the United States they pass the board after the federal wrestling we were able to use school of medicine to accredited the philosophy of accreditation in 2012 we were able to get it back in 2017 it's for 4 years it's an annual review we decided to go beyond medicine to test our method the dentistry we were not successful in the first out and what is true of medicine and it is true of dentistry is that the years of improvement are both on the university side and the government side the primary clinical facilities of medicine and the dentistry of government institutions are being reviewed by the Ministry of Public Health to ask for the broadened institutions where clinical attachments can be held beyond the DPHC and so on the principal clinical facility for the dentistry is the chair both the university and the ministry made an instance but we have not met the bar the bar has to do with essentially infrastructure enhancements that still need to be done but also faculty specializations they've got about 70 specializations in dentistry we're not there yet but we've got another year we can't go back up until 2 years so we're going to use it in the leading period to get ourselves ready so as we go back up we can not only meet the scale of our cabbage feed is a regional wide application so I think we have Leslie Stewart and someone else and then we'll come to you I'm going to stick up the subject I was more so in the physical department what are your plans for technology to assist development of dentistry so water roads electricity and also water research programs in technology we are going to use material technology but we have to let it go another question I don't know if it still exists at the Venice Air Station professional engineers what is their association with the Great Engineering Department of Banana and what are the safety requirements we've taught in technology we're not sure that we should focus properly on the problems used for the future and the longevity of where you live good questions I want to start with the last aspect first November last year we graduated a similar group of civilian environmental engineers including a group of almost 30 people and I met the group early in the year and I said to them the onus is on you not only to be technically competent but to have integrity I've been preaching the values of respect integrity and excellence and the more I see reports about corruption including the professional zone the more I see reports about sloppy work done in the famous case of the people schooling that can be used to do it we've got to reinforce the value of doing it right right to the right piece of technology I cannot speak with confidence about what the curriculum design is but it is something that I would be arguing for as the common denominator throughout all four years my worry and I've seen it in other universities including the United States we know that once the all money comes there's a need to spend it on infrastructure minister Patterson minister Gaskin minister Gatti Hughes myself and I review a part of the team and use them and it is a fact that is so eloquently about the government's plan for investment in infrastructure that will put the pressure on the university not only to have and we really don't produce enough civil, electrical, mechanical engineering but once that money begins to flow in the investment in infrastructure begins to happen we are not able to make we need to keep the trajectory addressed my 2016 values and vision statement which may not be actualized one and five thousand percent we need to have a new campus focusing on energy and mining I've named Linden as a place to be appropriate which is the best you know Turkmen I look at it has a lot of manpower moving beyond Turkmen not only you're crunching so much into that hundred and fifteen acres but we are along the coast which is sitting at the edge of a planet change precipice and I've said build a new part of my big dream build a new campus focusing on energy and mining engineering Linden so right now I think next week we'll be having another Schlumberger something with us with technology and the investments are coming small but they're not significant enough to make the kind of things like Linden sometimes people fault me for trying to dream too much dream too big we've got to be asking for big investments in engineering if you want to have sustainable return to the investment and we're not there yet one of the things that is a regret of mine regarding the October December 2021 is that it has slowed a lot of things down and it has put a cloud on a lot of things we had a proposal and had a first meeting with the director of energy, Dr. Marfino about a request we had made to invest in engineering first meeting second meeting second meeting hasn't gone very much far but your concern is recognized we need to do more to invest not only in engineering and technology but in the sciences I was disappointed that one of the things that came out when I visited India last year I asked a number of institutions to help us on a critical shortage here that we have that is physics physics teachers in the high schools are not there math teachers, science teachers and I commissioned in India, Dr. Paolo that I would fight out the spine dynamic young physicists ready to come together you got to get out of Switzerland but we still have that journey the point I make is that engineering has also got to be in those high light areas physics in the math, in the chemistry and biology and so that journey is still good I'll take my part because I've been going to Longford first and we haven't had so usual work out there and then I work and that's fine I want to congratulate you that they've run some and I know right now whenever I go to the animals I go there and visit and we try to out there one of the institutions that I visit that you have to get directed or reconstructed is the library that's the sole purpose of my visit to the question of that paper especially the research and the homework having said that the question I want to ask is how can the students do research now that the infrastructure is how can students do the research if you have your publication or if you make publications and energy and science business how can this help in putting those research in the library so that students have the library to do research and homework because they're not the library we are the students and we know that a lot of students use the internet to do the research and not enough to sit there collecting these obviously different in the library it's meant to help learning, expression and all of this so my question is how can the world help and not only how can you go there how can you help the library do whatever you want to do for instance mining just me and engineering all of those things do you mean the library or those students study them very good question slash observations three points actually one of my points and physical therapy not only in regard to physical enhancements last May I went along with minister Jordan and the president of CDB through the CDB annual meeting in Grenada signed an agreement for five million US dollars investment in an library well the design stage will be so in an hour of life but in preparation for that I sent a team to look at modern life we went to Georgia as we speak the emphasis has not been only in a physical facility the emphasis has been also in making the technology mediation and it connects to something instead of not coming back that is the online disaster role I mentioned the name Professor Percy Jensen graduate of the university he's now a Florida international he's been one of the champions of an evening Florida international university he and another member of FIU he came down not only are they helping us with equipment they're helping us to train two members of our staff are going to Florida instead of money they're going to post it entirely all I've got to do is find a fair they're going to give you everything regardless of if they're living there for that month to enable them to have their training capabilities to use part of what Florida international benefits from is some high speed technology like Brazil exploring whether you can leave Diana into that portal so that the technology is key to balance it and are easy to use the realities at libraries are critical for physical but they're also increasingly technology-mediated online so I would say in response to the direct question about how that's where I can help that's where I can subscribe to online journal subscriptions and we have that in the case of one of our medical graduates who has been paying for the online subscription for a particular journal that is one practical way you can do it a lot of practical ways you can do it yourself with some of the equipment that I need what you want to know is when you graduate from Maryland computers Bahamas, Shahabadi, and Sun also use these graduates for a lot significant donation of equipment and books so there are a variety of ways in which we can make their contributions the the CDB effort is going forward slower than a procurement move kind of create a certain amount of lethargy but the library is one of our areas of business. We have an expansion of the Burby's Library in we don't have enough for everyone but you see a little portion of the Burby's Library expansion because my thinking is that in the context of the one university channel we focus on the library and so we can do things with hands which is a critical area and not only for instruction but also for research as you push, as you push on a little bit of research you're going to have to create the opportunity for the basics for research being available in the library or accessible to the library, portals from the library so what's the critical of the library? it's available, it's available I want to publicly thank the library staff that has been working on a very frank vision of the library for several years is there a list or something that you have that as far as research just for research and as far as the knowledge that you need to know about the library? I don't have a list, but I can have a list if our financial and alumni engagement office there by Professor Mohammed manages those lists and we can tell you what's needed from technology, what's needed from the library it's part of that is allowed by you to say we would help you with this, we would help you with that that's a good question that list can be provided as a take away from this, we will actually ground that as the 7th of the course of the year it's a work and we can go for it I'll see you with the children's over the box so I have a question that has three sort of parts one, you may know that a number of us are working on a new movement that will be long shortly and in preparation for that you have extensive consultation and surveys throughout the country and we've come up with a charge of charge of which I'm sure will be engaged will be engaging you shortly there are three things in the charter that I'm happy to hear I can ask about one is one of the recommendations coming from the charter is the abolition of tuition at UG and as you know, that is the Constitution of Rights in Diane, abolished by the PPP it's going to be a hot topic in the county now, I would like to know what your thoughts are with regard to that and second, another recommendation coming out of in the charter would be there's significant concern about the capacity of the University to kids for courses that are trained that will be relevant in the emerging economy within them within the campus as well and Ph.D. programs, master's and certain areas that impact and emerge in what in college in Diane and then the third thing is which is most popular as the abolition of tuition is the establishment of a community college system in Diane to be managed by the University of Diane and to that extent they propose to have you spoke of the concern they propose the merging of Critchell, Burroughs, D.S.Galen and so on to form a college community college of arts president's college to become college for science and so on and GITC, GNIC, GTI and Gaisuko to become a college engineering and those occasional such things so I mean I think we don't think of that when I look at the proposals that they have made and I'm pretty sure it's going to inspire the whole population and in the backs of that coming out I want to know your talk could be pre-centered important issues the business of university pre-education which is enshrined about the use of the library set of one of those realities in societies of managing contradictions and what the constitution postulates in pre-education is not the only contradiction a society has been managing or some would say not managing but I want to offer a cautionary note about free tuition if free tuition is defined only as the absence of payment by students of tuition or whether primary or secondary especially this case university without looking to make the investments in those critical elements to make the university function to be a sad reality for that investment has got to be made in the infrastructure investment has got to be made in the equipment investment has got to be made in research in better salaries and in monuments overall academic and unacademic but I would also caution the rush to free tuition by asking let's take a look at societies where the recent agency has been that model let's see what happened for those models I referenced earlier that the wonderful and hopefully some people have seen it see why Thomas distinguished lecture by Roger B. Sain his whole lecture have to do with what are some of the issues that Guyana will have to manage with this oil money and he addressed the issue of free tuition and cited Trinidad the experience that is a lesson for Guyana not to follow in giving free tuition and I would say all the proponents of it need to pause and look at lessons learned from other jurisdictions for example the University of Guyana student society had a series of debates recently I would give a total of a second one the subject of debate was that same free university tuition and it was remarkable to hear some of the students who went in thinking that is a good thing once they had a chance to hear the other side after they said all the other here the other side once you are able to hear the other side of the ball and not so realistic so the jury is still out as together there is not so much utility but necessity for free tuition in managing this contradiction the jury is a lot to me I am one of 70 people here in the group who benefit from free university tuition all the others here but then the free tuition by itself if you look at the return on the investment by the people who beneficially is unless you have controls you can have a recurrence of what happened in the 80s and 90s where the human capital goes when you get it and they go but everything else what is likely to happen I have said more than once I had an interesting experience in 1907 when I was doing a series of book launches at a book written called drugs and security when we were in Aruba the head of the prisons in Aruba said to me this drug trafficking thing is giving my prison warden a wonderful education so what do you mean in countries that don't exist once the oil becomes a building guidance there will be people coming to the guidance in countries that never existed and the question will be are they also entitled to free the proposal addresses that good so there are a number of elements that have to be factored in how are you saying to a family that comes with the young children some of whom are teenagers how do you preclude them from this constitutional right of those citizens so I will leave that one there you're absolutely right and this is one I think we began to look at the universe what might be looking at a trajectory of a society what might we need to begin to introduce as new programs is that that let us establish a school of entrepreneurship an accepted visibility team as we do visibility in the school of business we need to see what our connectivity is with the oil that's coming we know that once oil and gas come hot areas are going to be logistics and supply chain management so one of the new degrees we introduced not only for oil and gas but because there was that link with the logistics and supply chain management and last October the kind of 50 days back we launched an institution for food and nutrition security the worry given the experience of that here we are and it's made up it's a trend that all come if you don't have a studied approach you'll have a neglect of agriculture so we said we need to be among the places that have a voice in saying we can neglect agriculture we have a new degree starting this semester food science we have a new degree in curriculum engineering biologists and associate degree and associate level so we've got to find a way to ask the question what's on the horizon what in response to the society's constituencies we need to do we launched a new degree this semester in youth development because we found the response of the society's been not only are a number of youth in need of skills and aspirants but a number of people working young people they themselves need to be adequately skilled in that and it was wonderful we had a launching symposium for a youth degree in development degree and one for the food science and one for the engineering and after the engineering we brought a private principal and drove by a charter in synagustin he was happy I got an email from a friend in jamaica saying hello how are you going to be able to come to your campus on the same day that won't happen to you so I got the rivet ladies Hilary is a good friend of way back and he came to delivered in the one many years lecture and Brian no reason to talk about again some of what I need to do is not do what I did let me come to your third area I think you'll be glad to have a community college network but not managed by the university you need to create an independence of the university a relationship with but not a management by the community college even in times of conflict in the resource competition and if you set up the university as the arbitrator for the resource of that university college network you set up the stage for conflict that accentuates beyond conflict beyond collaboration so it should be some either independent entity that manages that or the ministry of education but I think there's not even that network not only establishing but resourcing it I want to follow up I want to follow up and I just I'm slipping away the major concern that's led to that also which is very popular is we because of this we should be related work from the university how society is going to deal with that because we've already struck a lot of problems and I'll give it two responses to that but that is not just the veracity of what you say I mentioned earlier that they are 17 offshore schools you know what they're serving the enemies will pay two three times the tuition to go there so the pocketbook availability is not a compelling argument we look at the evidence here's the other thing what is that from people who have the ability to win change yes what about the second thing those who don't have a loan facility for them to apply again and I remember the same the government the government published a list of defaulters some of them big lawyers big doctors some of them were mad at me I love how you I said I'm not a woman not like you you have nothing to do with that loan agency we just the beneficiaries so there's a low specificity of generous proportion that's significantly has been appealed it's taken it's a grant and people just don't pay back the government tried to impose some controls but that low specificity creates an access by people who would otherwise not be able to access so the low specificity what I think would be helpful for a necessary investment in education is the problem that not simply to make free tuition but I've seen it in other parts of Asia and we experience it in the ages of nitrogen gas you make something completely free the valuation of it is not as high as it was when you're putting something I started doing something when we have two minutes I would say let them pay for at least one let them pay for the transportation because it didn't everything free and it became important after the second experience where we had pay for the travel pay for the hotels and the day before the agreement I can't look at more why some frivolous things well we couldn't get the money pay for the hotel get back to the hotel so I started helping them sign a contract that says here is how much and you're going to pay for at least one something and so I would say make the loan facility available for a product believe me there are people who pay two, three, four times what the U.G. charges the most private schools and I was laughing at them I was laughing at them see one of the offshore schools boasting about their their top respected private medical school I didn't say anything that says not accredited University of Ghana Medical School is the only accredited medical school but there are many people who come Guyanese and I have a group of Guyanese Guyanese and Nigerians I just told him he came to see me he wanted to transfer it was such thing as transfer I don't want to be accused of poaching they explained the litany of complaints so I said well we are free and open to application none of those students met for basic requirements I said we have the money it's not about the money they want to graduate the doctor is going to be healthy people are hurting them they are just being a man how can you be adopted so it is the evidence is different there are some institutions they are not as judicious about standards as they are judicious about income and people are paid but you don't want to be accused just one you get the last question thank you so my question is we've been reading about the conflict between the administration and the union so did you give us an update on radio art with them and what are some of them and how do you see getting over or around their own very good question very important issue the update requires me to step back a little bit 2017 when the negotiations began I said we can talk only about salaries we have to talk about performance union is not interested in talking about performance I said I am not understanding the agreement therefore we talk about the salaries so those negotiations were solved all that three months actually two unions for me the litmus test and the performance had to be great submission so the union that is not in the academics career that don't happen in lectures is the review side the other union reluctantly signed we are sure that no one who had enough salary got salary given until December 1 30th it is a sad commentary on our disrespect for professionalism and our students with great spending for a semester in some cases I hear and I said I will not sign any agreement to give people who do not do their jobs salary increase when people do their job can accept it 28th that might be great again we cannot talk only about salaries because that is part of the performance that is part of the collective value agreement that is part of the workload negotiations solved on that and on the union's insistence on my changing two members of this administration's negotiating team I said I will tell you to put in your team you will tell me to put in my team my team is my team all up until November if I recognize and we have been setting aside some money to do something for the workers so I took a proposal to the finance and general purpose committee November to say even though these negotiations have solved I still want to give it the offer the work of something the use of principle of affordability cannot offer what we cannot afford that proposal is endorsed by that committee including a yes vote by one of the union presidents who was on the committee so after the meeting when you go back to his folks how dare you side with the administration he was beginning to run in our place he could not be the only person and it was a unanimous vote and that did not that did not get the K&M polls he voted for it and his name is Bruce Haynes the writer shows in polls now the position is that the water comes from the university high school and body delivery comes from December and it comes to say this is what we can afford here is where the north part is every time we do a base salary increase the housing allowance goes up 20% so we got to worry not only what we can afford in the base salary but what is triggered in those allowances the person can have housing allowance transportation allowance all possible allowances the council endorsed what the finance and general purpose committee said but the finance and general purpose committee said we endorse it without prejudice to any continuing negotiation so we said let's continue to talk they said I want to see the books even though the data show we can't afford they asked for a 9 in the 10% so we can't afford 9 in the 10% all we can afford is 3, 4% I'm so sorry to the protest you met with the ministry of labor the ministry of labor said well in the context if you are not having a collective agreement you got to follow the laws of the guy that says if you have an industrial dispute he's got to be bilateral conciliation in arbitration and while you're doing that you can't have any strikes and protests they want that they had 12 people were picking even though the ministry of labor sent them a letter yesterday saying that you are precluded from industrial action you have to talk so where it starts right now is that after January of this year when we show that the books instead there is no possibility the fiscal space is not there for 9 in the 10% let's talk about 2019 my worry is that transnational have to build on 2018 if we can't afford anything of 3, 4% how are we going to find 9 in the 10% when the composition comes you got to want 10% so the pro chancellor the general director of the state established a panel union administration one collective meeting where he proposed a joint statement they said they want a joint statement that has fallen apart so the pro chancellor put out a statement yesterday he said that efforts on his part will bring some consensus upon the part and they are now supporting the vice chancellor's approach for consignation I hope that good sense reveals and people recognize that it is not helping you to go protesting you got to sit down when you go protest the protest doesn't give you the 9% even 1% you got to come back and have the conversation the article shows we don't have the ability for a 9 in 10% so where it stands right now is we've turned the matter over to the administration of labor consignation we'll see what the ministry is able to do but I'm hoping that good sense reveals but here's the reality I am a fan of those who stand academic and administrative hard to engage on with the pretend membership most of the people see the wisdom of the progress we're making and see the wisdom of only being able to offer something that you can afford here's the reality of 2019 the budget from the government of Canada to the university of Canada is 42% less than the request so we're right now trying to marriage 42% less than the request you're going to have to ask for 8% and 9% for last year in the context of a fiscal scale for this year which we already know I hope the wisdom prevails of course my contract comes to an end in a few months there's a campaign out to get a little grip on it it's part of it today but um I've expressed my interest in a little contract we shall see what happens but I would not be like well we've talked about that right so what I want to do is to offer the opportunity for putting this program together the organization which is headed by Alison Steed the alumni and friends of the university the quite instrumental in getting the right chance for the year with this conversation and so I think Alison I wanted to give Alison the opportunity to say a few closing words and perhaps come to the Vice Chancellor in some way so Alison Steed I wanted to say thank you to the Vice Chancellor for being here tonight and for sharing some of the information that you did it's very reassuring to hear your say that you are going to a new contract so we're going to be looking to we are going to stand by you but you will need your advice on how to proceed continue supporting it we support you at least now and we will continue to do so we support the team whether it be financial leadership giving our time giving equipment as was mentioned earlier we intend to continue to do so and within the next few months we look forward to being able to make some more further contributions to you we thank you again for being here tonight some of our members are here if you're interested in finding out a little bit more about who we are and possibly joining us we'll be able to talk to the new people they're going to be here Karen Wartman DeStuart Phillip the photographer are all members of the group we also have some other education resources and ambassadors here tell them comments Mr. Burke if you're interested in finding out what we do again thank you for coming and I thank you for your time I'm glad I'm back there to say that I much appreciate the questions and comments and I'll say something that I said when we had the first education resource and ambassadors conference but guitar is bad and I would love to have the guitar being played in sweet melodies in your tangible expression of what the Mozart says one way to do it is to as my staff said to me don't let them bring back any of these books one way to do it is to support the second last for mountains in July how do we do it actively in the alumni and friends of the University of Ghana you don't have to be a relative of these you don't even have to be a gynees to be quite with the alumni I want to thank you all for being here I won't say what's more of a thank you and be sure to take all of the key tickets before you go I want to say a few words on the main tickets of the University of Ghana I would say I want to say I want to say I want to say I want to say I want to say