Some tough questions for UTT

University Professor VALERIE STOUTE

People inside and outside of The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), inside and outside of academia, inside and outside of Trinidad and Tobago are getting fed up with many things about the national University, where the institutional attitude seems to be equal parts of inertia, recalcitrance, chutzpah, arrogance, blind optimism, determination to make one mistake after the other and insistence on covering them all up. The dissatisfaction with this is rampant. The puzzlement is even more widespread.

The Sunshine took a break from UTT over Carnival on the assumption that serious matters and bacchanalian indulgence do not mix. We thought people would be distracted and interested in other things. We were wrong. In the midst of the fetes, in the midst of the breakfast parties, in the midst of J’Ouvert, in the midst of the mas bands on both days, UTT and Sunshine staff report that the same question was constantly asked of them. What is going on at UTT?

Why is Professor Valerie Stoute being punished and by whom?

Since Carnival, this newspaper resumed a very important fight – not just the broad question of what is going on at UTT but what is going on with UTT’s astonishingly punitive treatment of Professor Valerie Stoute, who seems to have been put on a path, whereby banishment from her office and from ALL campuses at UTT, seem to be the ‘go to’ Human Resource response for everything in her case- administrative leave or pre-retirement leave. One does get the feeling that UTT is always in a sentencing mode with this sterling academic. It seems as if they also want to add defamation of her character and career, embarrassment and humiliation to the list. Perhaps a better question for them may be ‘why would they want to be so rash?’ Another question of import to me is what is the position of some 25 of us PhD students who were attending her lectures twice per week and to whom our assignments had been handed? Pro Stoute is not an individual one can walk over and expect no fight back. And if one were to ask by whom she is punished? The answer will be simple - by the Chancellor’s indifference; by the Minister of Education’s abdication of his responsibility; by the UTT ageing Board of Governors (BOG) whose self-interest overrides the national interest and by the UTT administration which is in foreign hands. But more about this later!

The Public is waking up

The UTT Board of Governors may have made a big mistake in assuming there is public indifference to all that is happening at the institution, which makes it ‘safe’ to leave the status quo in place and just drift along without making important changes. It will not be ‘safe’ for them to sweep everything under the carpet and wait. They should not count on everything fizzling out. UTT’s problems are not a ‘nine-days’ wonder. They are not a Facebook challenge. They are real. They are impacting negatively on the society and on the national development. Too many people are too angry. The questions will be coming at UTT. They will be coming in court. They will be coming in Parliament. They will be coming on the election platforms. They may be coming from the Chancellor some time. They may be coming from more than one Minister sooner rather than later and not just the Minister of Education. They may be coming from the Prime Minister eventually. Maybe they will not come from all of these sources, but they will come from at least one, possibly more of them. They are coming right now from many members of the public.

No confidence in the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the UTT BOG

The Public is ready to have a vote of no confidence in the entire UTT Board of Governors but the responsibility for what is happening now lies squarely on the shoulders of two men- Chairman of the Board of Governors, Professor Kenneth Julien, and Vice Chairman and often Acting Chairman, Professor Clement Imbert. This newspaper, like all others, and probably like most Ministers and even the Prime Minister and Chancellor have afforded a certain respect to Professor Julien making him offlimits from public or even private criticism. It is possible that the GORTT has not acted because of this same respect. There must be no more of that. The University is suffering and Professor Julien is at the helm and, therefore, responsible for this. Protecting his position, respecting his reputation and legacy is too large a price to pay. Silence is not an option as we watch unethical forces try to tarnish someone else’s legacy and reputation and seeing that, at the same time, they are succeeding in dragging down the University’s reputation because of the pervasive public perception that too much is wrong there. We illustrate this in the following sections. Quite simply, Professor Julien has failed to act, leaving too much in the hands of his Vice Chairman, who unfortunately has acted TOO much. Many will argue that Clement Imbert is the defender, the protector, and the facilitator of the status quo and a lot of the University’s recent problems can be traced directly back to what he has permitted, particularly in the last almost two years. Kenneth Julien, with his unfortunate inaction, has become a co-conspirator in that perceived permissiveness. His legacy is not as bright as it was even three years ago.

Staff Credentials and Capability

Professor Stoute’s issue has become public and is alarming but there is a lot more, not yet public, which may be just as if not more alarming. Major questions are arising about the quality of UTT staff, both foreign and local. On March 31st, Professor Clement Imbert, took the unprecedented step of pronouncing on the innocence, after an investigation, of a senior UTT official in four instances of very serious allegations of academic dishonesty. It is highly unusual for some of these allegations to have warranted investigation so long into that official’s tenure at UTT, when clearly they should have been done before duty was assumed. It is also highly unusual for a Minister to announce in Parliament, as Minister Garcia did, that there was no investigation and then have the acting Chairman release a memorandum which flat out contradicts this. This begs a lot of questions. Among them could very well be the following: How does UTT vet the credentials and work history of staff, in particular foreign staff? Have there been any persons hired since 2015 who have not presented original diplomas in their own name or in any name? If so, who, when, and why were these not demanded? Have there been any persons hired whose resumes were not vetted, either superficially, for obvious inconsistencies and illogical entries or more deeply by contacting institutions listed on the work history? Have there been any work permit applications which were found, after permits were issued, to have errors in names, credentials or any other type of germane information? How did this happen and how long after permits were issued were these errors discovered? What action was taken by the University to differentiate deliberate fraud from accidental omission in cases of work permit errors? Is the University aware of any gaps between credentials/training of any recent hires and the advertised requirements for the posts they have filled? If so, why were these people hired? Has the University identified any instances of cronyism in its recent hires? Has anyone else alleged that there was cronyism?

Who is Surplus?

While looking at who was hired, it is important too to consider who was fired. How were the staff dismissed as surplus identified for retrenching? Was this model applied to all academic staff? If not, how could some be identified if all were not scored? Can UTT provide documentation to show the validity of this process? How many of the retrenched staff were nationals? How many people were hired while staff were being fired? How many of the hires were foreigners? How many people received salary increases during this period pf retrenchment? How many of those receiving increases were foreigners? Were any of the staff fired able to teach in multiple areas still instructed in the respective programmes? Was this considered at all in their retrenchment?

Appointments and Promotions

How many foreign staff were put in Programme Leader positions since August 2017? Was any national replaced as Programme Leader within his/ her appointment term by a foreigner since August 2017? If so, why? How many staff were appointed as advisors to senior administration? What were the terms of reference for these staff members? To what offices were they appointed? How thorough was the assessment of staff appointed or promoted in the recent ‘crunch’ cash-strapped environment? Have there been allegations of any ‘quid pro quo’ appointments?

Organizational Culture – Authority Structure

Many questions are arising about UTT’s Authority Structure or what some are calling its Power Structure. Does all of the power reside in the hands of very few people? How many of these attained his/her position based on competitive merit? Is there ‘cross pollination,’ whereby individuals with a title suggesting one set of activities, is able to take on powers in other areas? For example, have there been cases of students being suspended by those not really authorized (in the University’s Organizational structure) to do so, programmes evaluated by those not obviously competent to do so, academic staff investigated by non-academic amateurs, inappropriate assignments of arbiters of guilt or innocence, all without clear guidelines of who is who or what is what? Have staff complained that previous administrative clerical positions have now been imbued (how exactly no one knows) by terrorizing powers - powers to shut down or obstruct, powers to punish, powers to sully and smear? These questions pose a really frightening scenario if the answer to even one of them is YES. Is it ‘yes’ for any of them?

Organizational Culture- Investment in Vision 2030 Quality

Has the University, in its restructuring designed its new programme structure to satisfy GORTT’s Vision 2030? Are there programmes which are designed to deliver solutions to Environmental problems such as Climate Change Risk Assessments, health solutions for the very prevalent noncommunicable chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, for behavioral health issues like antibiotics resistance from overuse or improper use, for environmental health issues like dengue and chikungunya, food security solutions in the Agricultural sector, social development and family issues such as quality of life? Has too much focus been put on aviation and oil and gas and not enough on the environment, health, food security, University Professor VALERIE STOUTE and social development, including entrepreneurship? What is UTT addressing in its postgraduate research? What applied problems are being tackled by M.Phil. and Ph.D. students? Where is UTT building capacity- in which one of the Vision 2030 pillars?

Organizational Culture- Deliverables.

What structure does UTT have in place now for assessing the work deliverables - not just those of academic staff but also those of corporate staff and of academic support units? Are some areas used only for evaluation and are never themselves evaluated in terms of what they offer to the quality running and the learning environment of the University? Is any structure in place, if there is one, able to weed out fraud (use of predatory journals and conferences, padded profiles, false authorships) and focus on the tangibles of applied research developments, quality teaching, and outreach, which really goes outside of the university into public spheres? Is the University any use at all to Trinidad and Tobago? Where? How?

Organizational Culture – Complaint Resolution

With all that is going on at UTT, the big question is this. Are there fair and equitable complaint or even feedback mechanisms in place? Are there routes which staff can use to air grievances against or even give positive reports on superiors? Both are important to good industrial relations in a quality organizational culture. Are staff – all categories - allowed to air their views, outside of grievances, or is commentary stifled? Once a complaint is filed, is there a proper arbitration process in place? Are there examples of a backlash against staff who have lodged complaints against superiors? Are there examples of some staff complaints going unheard while others are magnified? Is there evidence-based decision making in the investigation of complaints? Is there a transparent process in place to dissuade people against making specious complaints, such as the censuring of such complainants? Are there examples of specious complaints being acted on without substantiation? How much interference is there from the BOG members in the internal workings of UTT? In what way is BOG input constructive? UTT should make no mistake about this. Because something is couched as a question, it will not mean that the people asking are ignorant of the truth or of the details. Glossing over the import and impact of being asked some tough questions will not be to the institution’s advantage. This institution is fully accountable to the Trinidad and Tobago public and it should prepare itself to provide complete answers. Anything else, would be a slap in the face, an insult to the people and the Government, who are vested in the national university and who want to see it be sustainable. Right now the prognosis is not good.