In a surprise decision, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG) Professor Ivelaw Griffith has withdrawn his request to renew his contract.
The announcement last evening by the UG Council said that a transitional management team has since been identified to run the university after June 14th, when Griffith’s tenure will officially end.
Griffith’s withdrawal of the request followed weeks of acrimonious exchanges between him and members of the two workers’ unions, the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU).
In recent weeks, the UGSSA and the UGWU had challenged the UG council on its decision to pay Griffith in lieu of leave and on how his tenure should be evaluated in relation to a possible contract renewal.
A statement from UG yesterday explained that the UG Council had convened to decide on the Griffith’s contract and the central issue was the evaluation of his term in office as one basis for the determination of the matter.
However, during the course of the meeting, correspondence was received from Griffith, who withdrew his previous request for a renewal of contract. The release said that the Council accepted his request.
It added that as of June 14th, Griffith, who is currently on end-of-contract leave, will cease to be Vice-Chancellor.
The statement also announced that the transitional team will be headed by Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Engagement, Professor Michael Scott, with Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement, Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin serving as the deputy Chair and Registrar Dr. Nigel Gravesande as the Secretary to the Management Committee.
“The team has been identified to take control of the Management of the University with effect from June 14, 2019, until such time that a new Vice-Chancellor is appointed. The aforementioned notwithstanding, the University Council will continue to pursue its agenda, including the conduct of a Management Audit, the identification of a new Chancellor and the soon to commence search for a new Vice-Chancellor,” the statement quoted Pro-Chancellor Major-General (Ret’d) Joseph Singh as saying.
The statement added that the University Council looks forward to the end of recent exchanges in the media on the university’s internal process but in the interest of openness will keep its community and the wider society informed of unfolding developments as it seeks to continue its work and to provide for a seamless transition of leadership in the interest of its students, faculty and staff members.
In an invited comment last night, head of the UGSSA Dr Jewel Thomas said that while she was speaking for herself, as the unions have not convened to form an opinion on the developments, she is grateful for Griffith’s withdrawal as it will spare the council from having to go through a testing process as a body which would’ve led to more difficulties for the Institution.
In a joint statement on Thursday night, the UGSSA and the UGWU said that the evaluation process for Griffith was “inadequate, incomplete, restrictive and wholly unsatisfactory” and not in keeping with best practices.
According to the unions, the evaluation design neglected to involve the University’s most critical stakeholders – students and staff – as part of the evaluation exercise of the Vice-Chancellor; involve qualified external reviewers; and conduct a site (physical plant) evaluation. Instead, they said the evaluation process planned to be used involved a self-evaluation by the Vice Chancellor and individual assessments by members of Council of the Vice-Chancellor.
Prior to that, the unions and Griffith had been at loggerheads for several months, dating back to late last year when Griffith had told them that the university had no monies for salary and wage increases after granting a three percent and four percent hikes for academic and non-academic staff, respectively.
The unions had said that they did not believe Griffith’s claims that the university was out of money given that monies were being spent on events and other things, without addressing serious infrastructural issues at the institution.
The dispute between the unions and the administration intensified after a round-robin decision was made last month by the UG council to overturn an earlier decision for Griffith to proceed on end-of-contract leave. The UG Council agreed instead to have Griffith be paid in lieu of leave.
However, that decision was overturned at council after the unions protested. By this time, the unions noted that Griffith would have had to be paid in excess of $1 million for the time he worked while he was supposed to be on leave.
Griffith’s three-year tenure has seen commendation from within and outside of the university community for improvements that he has made and the connections he created with other universities.
Critics had however said that there was more style than substance and that while he was behind initiatives such as the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, the wages of lecturers and the state of key infrastructure at the university remained unaddressed. Critics had also flayed Griffith for a ceremonial investiture ceremony in 2017, a planned office in Georgetown and the handing out of doctorates.
Griffith, in a response to Stabroek News on his record as Vice Chancellor, had said that the University had expended $556,845,787 million and US$822,000 for improvements in their facilities. He had said that through the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Education, it has since spent $305,085,911 on various projects, including the construction of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, a new parking lot and road rehabilitation and the new Math and Science building, among other things.
The unions had also been calling for a forensic audit to be done on the finances of the university, which the Ministry of Education had stated via press release would be done by the Audit Office of Guyana.
