It is my great pleasure to add another welcome for the Honourable Alfred Sears, MP, Minister of Education and Attorney General, Mr. Cresswell Sturrup, Permanent Secretary, Fellow Members of Council, Members of The College Cabinet and Middle Management and all of you who have assisted the functioning of Council in some way or other during the course of 2003.

A New Council to Meet New Challenges
I would like to begin my formal remarks by saying unequivocally that being Chairman of The College of the Bahamas Council has been one of the greatest challenges of my career and, the same time, the greatest of privileges. My Council colleagues would agree that when our tenure began last year, we were surprised in several ways. While we had an appreciation for the contribution the institution has made, we realized that more was happening at COB than could be perceived from a distance.

The contribution was greater than we knew, but at the same time, to be quite candid, we were rendered almost distraught by the problems that we found here that were not being addressed and needs that were not being met. The level of collegiality and trust were certainly not at a level to generate the collaboration needed to make the leap to university status and many systems which ought to have been in place were either non-existent or dysfunctional.  Partly to help in the maintenance of objectivity, The Council retained an independent professional to review certain aspects of The College’s Administration.  The professional has concluded that “In the past 10-15 years, as the external environment has changed, COB as a whole has not kept pace with the changes”.  The professional goes on to assert that this manifests itself in various forms.  For example, in certain areas, The College is still operating… with manual practices established from its inception… with the result that “much time is spent on time consuming paper wasting practices.”

While much of this was news to the new Council, it appears to have been widely accepted within the College community as reality.

It is to the credit of this Council therefore, that it has:
(a) Resisted the temptation to simply create a perception for change, as a response to those who agitated for action and
(b) Taken the time to deepen its understanding of the Institution, in its complex totality.

Recognizing Thirty Years of Growth
With all the surprises and unexpected revelations, I am still fully persuaded that The College of the Bahamas represents one of the greatest creations of the Government and people of The Bahamas. In a relatively short time, COB has expanded beyond New Providence into several other islands, including Grand Bahama, Abaco and Exuma, with research centres in Andros and San Salvador. The latter centres have real potential to add substantially to the revenues of The College, and also to the economic well-being of the Country.  For example, with ten to fifteen thousand student nights in residences and with virtually all if not all of the students being from overseas, The Gerace Centre provides a major sector of the economy of San Salvador.  This was particularly significant during the period of closure at the Club Med Resort.
It is a wonderful example of “educational tourism”.

More than 10,000 Graduates Making a Contribution in Many Spheres
Graduates of The College of the Bahamas, who number more than 10,000, are to be found in just about every sector of the Bahamian economy, and are leaders in many spheres. I can say without fear of contradiction that College alumni are beginning to dominate the field of accounting and, indeed, the financial services sector as a whole.

Such achievements are irrefutable evidence of dedication on the part of members of faculty, staff and administration of COB over the past three decades. I acknowledge the presence of those of you here today, who helped to build the ground floor, so to speak, and continue to make a contribution.
 

Time Forge New Pathways
Wonderful though this history is, in this first decade of the new century the attainments of the past must become staging posts for the launch into an even more challenging and, quite possibly, more glorious future. The Bahamas is facing unprecedented global competition.  If we are to survive and prosper, more and more must be done in preparing an appropriately skilled, self-motivated and thoughtful workforce, and devising the systems and processes that enhance efficiency and productivity throughout the Country.  Additionally, The Prime Minister has stressed his conviction that the Governance of the Country, without regard to the Party in Power, would be improved if the formulation of public policy general were informed with more scholarship and less guess-work.

To Council’s way of thinking, The College, properly structured and provisioned is the best vehicle by which to draw the whole Bahamas into the opportunities of the 21st century. I don’t think it is coming on too strong to propose that it can be the nexus of national development in this century.

Actual Road to University Status
This year, consistent with this vision, The College of the Bahamas formally began its journey to university status, using a well-defined, three-year plan to create the necessary infrastructure. In seeking to fulfill this mission, we have the benefit of a most powerful ally – national consensus. It becomes clearer to me every day that the majority of Bahamians at best support the notion of transforming The College of The Bahamas into the University of The Bahamas or, at the very least, do not object to this change. Secondly, the Government of The Bahamas has been demonstrating strong support in favour of the transformation.

The College has acquired yet another powerful engine of development – a Council that has been totally dedicated, from its inception, to goal of doing all possible to help a great institution to resolve its challenges and fulfill yet more of its enormous potential. Most importantly, the move to university status has your support as principal investors. A meeting of minds is the most powerful engine for change and growth that the world knows.

But beyond this broad meeting of the minds, The Council found a lack of clarity and focus on specifics and timelines.
A wiser person that I long ago advised that a “”plan” without time-lines is no plan – it is at best a wish or a dream.  So it became important in its efforts to clarify the specifics of the way ahead, for The Council to listen very carefully to all stakeholders, within and without The College and to set some time-lines.  This involved the identification of priorities.  To help develop a sense of what the priorities ought to be.  We made certain to canvas the news of all sections of The College Community, to gain insights into your thinking on the subject.  The process has brought a sharper focus to what will happen.

What has emerged from all of the research are two broad themes:
1. The need to make “autonomy” which was supposedly the fundamental concept behind amendments in 1995 to The College of The Bahamas Act, more real and
2. The need to deepen and broaden the experience of the people of The College of The Bahamas.
To achieve the foregoing aims and support The College’s evolution to university, the following specific goals, must be pursued:

Goal 1 – Increasing Autonomy through Increased Financial Independence
Making autonomy requires that the College reduce on a consistent basis the percentage of its revenue that comes directly from the Public Treasury. Consequently, one of the primary goals since the inception of the new Council has been to place The College on a path to greater financial independence.

I can report that The College has taken a significant step towards in this direction. The Council is well on the way to causing The College to institute the practice of producing, on an annual basis, a full and proper set of financial statements, including a balance sheet for the first time. This may appear to be a simple matter, but in fact it is important for reasons including the fact that it is the foundation for proper management and the foundation for effective accountability. It also creates the possibility for the College to contemplate accessing local capital markets to raise funds, independent of a specific government guarantee.

Goal 2 – Building Infrastructure
We have developed a specific plan to pursue this strategy to make dramatic changes in the physical structure at The College including but not limited to:
1. Starting construction of the new library
2. Starting the Grand Bahama campus by erecting a dedicated building;
3. Constructing on Government grant land in New Providence three buildings 1) Education; 2) Mathematics/Science/Computer complex; 3) student dormitories
4. Upgrading College properties generally
5. Creating well-appointed faculty and staff lounges
6. Upgrading existing student dormitories
7. Improving facilities for sports and recreation programmes
8. Upgrading the Auditorium to a modern, adequately equipped, appropriately furnished facility essential for The College to play a prominent role in enhancing the cultural life of the community

Goal 3 – Promoting a Culture of Giving
Independence requires more focused attention on giving to The College. There is a great need to generate, in the hearts and minds of the people of The College and the wider community, a sense of ownership, responsibility and protectiveness with regard to the national tertiary institution. In this regard, too, we are employing bold new approaches to effect the desired change. The current telethon initiative in conjunction with the United Negro College Fund is a significant development in this context.

Goal 4 – Fostering a Culture for Research
Great Universities are the Centre for meaningful research.  The University of The Bahamas can be no different.  To assist in motivating COB Faculty to this end, The College has created an Award to recognize and salute excellence in that arena.
 
Goal 5 – Creating a Truly National Institution
If The College of the Bahamas is to become a truly national university providing for needs for tertiary education throughout the archipelago, we must pay greater attention additional delivery modalities, such as distance learning.

Goal 6 – Pursuit of Visionary and Active Leadership
As important as funding is to the new vision for The College of the Bahamas, there is another element that is even more central to success. A visionary and active leadership is critical to the evolutionary process. It is important to note also that establishing such leadership is process that relates not only to people, but also and, perhaps, primarily to structure.

In confronting this issue of structure at The College of The Bahamas, the Council understood that the matter could not be properly addressed without factoring into its review the perception that the current provisions for management of The College are less functional than what would be ideal for the advancement of The College to University status and to sustain the highest levels of excellence thereafter.

 Towards a University Structure – Revised and New Senior Management Posts
 Today, the ratification of a paper on structure culminated a long and exhaustive exercise involving Council, The College Cabinet and other sources to create a framework to build and support university status. I would like to share with you the following changes:

1. The President of The College will now become the voice and face of the institution, the Chief Executive Officer of The College with a primary day-to-day focus on the growth, advancement and adaptive capacity of The College. Essentially the President is to be concerned with issues for “tomorrow” and questions like “what’s next”.
2. The Executive Vice President will now become the Chief Operating Officer of The College, with responsibility for the management of The College on a day-to-day basis with the emphasis on controls and accountability. Essentially the Executive Vice President is to be concerned with issues for “today” and questions like “what now”.

3.To assist the President in this role, the Office of Vice President, Institutional Advancement and Alumni Affairs and post of Chief Information Officer have been created. The former is to find more and more resources for the colleges from more and more varied sources, especially the alumni. The latter is to more fully position the University in the information age where the concept of a “Management Information Systems” Department is challenged to recognize that information is essential through-out the organization for reasons other than “management”, how-ever broadly defined.

4. The post of Vice President – Research, Planning and Development, previously too broad in its mandate, has been abolished to facilitate the creation of other positions, each with a sharper focus.

5. Among its replacement is the position of Vice President of Research and Continuing Education has come into being.  This portfolio will be responsible for helping to ensure that the full resources of The College are accessed with increasing frequency by individuals, organizations, the Government and private corporations, through strategies outside of the normal academic programs, which are designed to lead to a specific degree.

6. In recognition of the importance of The College of The Bahamas to the development of the Family Islands and vice versa, the position of Assistant Vice President Family Island Affairs has been instituted with the specific mandate of increasing dramatically the presence of COB in the archipelago.

7. The position of Vice President for Student Services will be strengthened to advance the goal of broadening and deepening the overall College experience for students.  In this regard the position of Director of Recreation and Athletic Affairs has been created to support national human development objectives, such as promoting good health and well-being.

8. The position of Vice President of Human Resources is also new.   A focus of this office shall be to provide support to help increase the percentage of the Faculty with terminal degrees.

9. The positions of Vice President of Academic Affairs with increased resources to ensure the maintenance of rigor and high standards and Vice President of Finance with increased resources to improve standards of financial management and reporting will remain.

10. The Office of Vice President of Plant has been abolished and is to be replaced by an Estates Officer, at the level of Assistant Vice President.
 
11. The Office of Internal Auditor will not only help to ensure compliance with policies of The College but to constantly be evaluating procedures and practices so as to minimize waste and insufficiencies.

12. The post of General Counsel has been added at the director level to address the complex legal issues The College of the Bahamas now faces and new ones that are likely to arise.

13. Another very special, senior management post has been created to begin to address some persistent problems. From its inception Council has made special note of the imbalance in the ratio of males to females in The College and that this pattern is increasingly evident in other important national institutions. Council deemed this matter to be of sufficient importance to College and the Commonwealth to appoint a suitably qualified individual with the specific mandate to investigate this harmful trend. The individual so appointed will also function as liaison between The College and the Ministry of Education for the specific purpose of advising on how greater harmony may be achieved between the curricula of the high schools and the matriculation requirements of COB.

Naming the Team to Take COB to University Status
You will be aware that the process has been engaged to select the team that will lead the drive to university status. Some posts have already been advertised, and the changes and new posts will be reflected in additional advertising very shortly.  This has not been an easy exercise, or one that anyone connected with Council has wanted or relished. We are fully alive to the fact that we are dealing with human beings, who each have feelings and concerns. This is important to Council, and we are fully committed to bringing a dignified resolution to this matter before the first quarter of 2004.

To accomplish this, Council has appointed three selection committees. Each Council member will sit on at least one of them, but nobody will sit on all three, as the desire is to have the greatest degree of objectivity. Furthermore, I now invite you and members of the general public to participate in this exercise that is so important to the future of the institution. You may do so by sending specific comments and recommendations to the Acting Council Secretary. You have my assurance and that of the Secretary that all will be treated with respect and utmost confidentiality. It is pointless to send any anonymous correspondence; this matter is too sensitive and too important to people’s careers, so you must have the courage of your convictions.

This year has been characterized by great change. You can see for yourselves that the new buildings on this campus are nearing completion and will begin the planned alleviation of some of the space problems. The installation of an electronic campus management system has been engaged, and so has the beautification of the campus. And, as indicated throughout this presentation, much effort has been expended on creating or modernizing policy. You have my assurance that it has all been intended for the good of the institution to which so many of you are committed.

I hasten now to thank the College Cabinet for its support and patience through these challenging passages. Council has deeply appreciated your contributions to the present developments.

I thank the Middle Management team most sincerely; you are what some may call the foot soldiers who are always in the trenches on the front line. Please know that you have the gratitude of the governing body of The College.

There is no further to be said on my part than to wish everyone happy holidays and a New Year of great and positive yield for the institution, as well as each individual member of The College of the Bahamas.