Focus on UG - September Edition

THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC YEAR 2008/2009 - Registration and Lectures

University of Guyana activities have already commenced for the start of the Academic Year 2008/2009. These have been taking place in the temporary quarters at the Dennis Irvine Hall of Residence, Goedverwagting, and at other locations as announced from time to time.

The full routine of registration, classes and all other matters will resume as soon as normal business returns to the Turkeyen Campus. The exact date of this is not yet known. Although the work on the buildings has been done, the University has to await the completion of exercises now in progress to sanitise the campus. The sanitisation process is of utmost importance because of concern for the health and safety of students, staff and visitors to the campus.

As soon as the institution is assured that the air quality is satisfactory the campus will be reoccupied. A tentative calendar of activities beginning in mid-October, 2008, has already been drawn up and this will be publicised and the time-table announced as soon as the date for return to Turkeyen is confirmed. That calendar provides for the commencement of classes twenty-one days after the University’s presence is re-established on the Turkeyen Campus.

The 2008 Convocation
The University graduation exercises are time-tabled in the normal Academic Calendar to take place at the end of the second week in November. The graduands and the public will be advised in good time of any variation in this scheduling caused by the institution’s late return to the Turkeyen Campus.

Admission and Registration 2008/2009
The University Registry advises that the Admission and Registration process for New Students and the Registration process for all students are already in progress. The procedure is as follows.

New Students

• Obtain Place Offer letters
• Obtain Tuition Invoice from University Bursary
• Either pay fees at the bank or apply for loan
• Await announcement of dates for Registration

Continuing Students

• Obtain tuition invoice from Bursary (present student ID card or Leave of Absence Letter)
• Either Pay fees at the bank or apply for Loan
• Await announcement of date for registration

Students moving from Certificate/Diploma to Degree programmes are processed as “New Students”

Registration
The Registration process (i.e. Meeting with Department Heads and registering for specific courses) will continue as soon as the University returns to the Turkeyen Campus. “Sponsored students” will present letters of sponsorship for registration at that time.

Berbice Campus
Matters pertaining to the normal academic and administrative time-table at the Berbice Campus proceeded as scheduled for the new Academic Year 2008/2009 as this Campus has been unaffected by the asbestos removal exercises at Turkeyen. Lectures in various programmes started on schedule at the beginning of September.

Berbice Campus Highlights

Directorship of UGBC
Dr Rishee Thakur has been appointed to act as Director of the Berbice Campus from September 1, 2008 until further notice. Dr Thakur, who is the most senior academic at UGBC, has served the University as a lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the Turkeyen Campus, then in the Division of Social Sciences at UGBC. He has also served the Tain Campus as Assistant Director for many years until July, 2008.

The Assistant Director for 2008/2009 is Marlyn Ramjeet Samad who has been a lecturer in the Division of Natural Sciences. She also served as Coordinator of that Division from 2004 to 2006.

2008/2009 Student Orientation
The annual Orientation Exercises for New Students took place at UGBC on September 10, 2009 in the Main Auditorium. The Opening of the programme was addressed by Acting Director Rishee Thakur, Assistant Director Marlyn Ramjeet-Samad and the Coordinators of Divisions. The Freshmen were taken on guided tours of the Campus Library and the Computer Centre.

UGBC Staff on Academic Scholarships
Ms Ida Sealey Adams of the Division of Science and Agriculture earned a scholarship to pursue post-graduate studies in Agriculture Business and Marketing at the St Augustine Campus of UWI.

Mr Michael Hackett, lecturer in Physics in the Division of Natural Sciences, earned a scholarship for post-graduate studies in Coastal Engineering at the University of Southampton in England.

Caribbean Linguistics Conference
Lecturers Alim Hosein, Coreen Jacobs-Chester and Elsa Cromarty, along with two final year students, Linguistics majors Kizzy Flue and Oslyn Campbell, from the Department of Language and Cultural Studies participated in the 17th Biennial Conference on Pidgin and Creole Linguistics sponsored by the Society for Caribbean Languages (SCL) in collaboration with the Society for Pidgin and Creole Languages (SPCL) in Cayenne, French Guiana, from July 26-31, 2008.

Mr Hosein presented a paper entitled “Attenuating Agency: The Use of Apology Strategies in Face-Threatening Situations in Guyana” in a panel which focused on Post Colonial Pragmatics. This is an interesting new area of development in Caribbean linguistics, which has historically focused on aspects of history, grammar and theory of Creole languages and has not paid attention to how language is actually used in our societies.

School of Earth and Environmental sciences hosts EDULINK meeting
The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) hosted the Guyana EDULINK meeting to discuss curriculum development and Institutional collaboration last September 9-11, 2008. The meeting was a further development in the EDULINK Programme on Capacity Building in Urban and Land Management in the Southern Caribbean and was held for the benefit of Guyana and other partners in the project UWI, University of Amsterdam, and Anton de Kom University of Suriname. Led by Project Manager Dr Asad Mohamed of UWI, the meeting reviewed the outputs of the institutional and sector assessment and outlined the definition of the programme in urban planning and management.

Other key stakeholder institutions taking part included the Central Housing and Planning, Guyana Land and Surveys Commission, Mayor and City Councils of Georgetown and of the Corriverton, Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Language and Linguistics Summer School
Kencil Banwarie, Assistant Lecturer in Use of English in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies, School of Education and Humanities, attended the Caribbean Language and Linguistics Institute (CCCI) at University of the West Indies, Mona during June 30–July 25, 2008. He took a post-graduate course in quantative sociolinguistic variation taught by Prof. John Rickford. The institute was attended by professors, post graduate and undergraduate students from the United States and several Caribbean and European countries.

CLLI was primarily orchestrated for students enrolled in the UWI campuses across the Caribbean. But the Inaugural Linguistics Summer Institute was attended by persons from several countries around the world including Germany, Puerto Rico, and the USA. Many persons took the course for credits to supplement their undergraduate programme, whilst others enrolled as a matter of research and for a refresher. The programme ran for four weeks and included workshops, seminars, public lectures, field trips, and cultural presentations. Most of the courses included special focus on the Caribbean’s rich linguistic environment. Facilitators and tutors included specialists in their respective fields ranging from several Guyanese including Prof. Hubert Devonish, Prof. Ian Robertson, and Prof. John Rickford.

Linguistics Summer School at UG?
Following the participation of Mr Kencil Banwarie of University of Guyana and discussions that took place during the programme held at UWI, Mona last summer, it has been proposed that the next CLLI Summer School in June – July 2009 should be held in Guyana. Working through the UG-UWI Collaboration, the Department of Language and Cultural Studies and the School of Education & Humanities are taking steps to make this proposal a reality.

UG’s Participation consultations on the CARIFORUM/EU EPA
The Senior Administrative Group as well as other Academics from the University of Guyana attended and participated in the national consultation on the CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on Friday, September 5 at the Guyana International Convention Centre, Georgetown.

Scholarly and other Activities
Dr Victorine Solomon, Head of the Department of Research and Graduate Studies attended the Regional Literacy Preparatory Conference in Latin America and the Caribbean, during the period September 9 to 12 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Dr Paulette Bynoe, Acting Director of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, attended a meeting of the Caribbean Risk management Initiative (CRMI) Gender Advisory Committee, where the research in progress on Gender and Climate Risk Management in the Caribbean region was reviewed. The meeting was held on September 13 in Kingston, Jamaica.

Dr Brij Tewari, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mr John Caesar, Head of Department of Biology and Mr Melvyn Sankies, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, were invited to participate in a series of activities being hosted by CARISCIENCE, on September 29 and 30 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The activities include the 2008 CARICOM Science Award and CARISCIENCE 10th Anniversary Celebration, the launching of the Caribbean Diaspora Association and a one-day Conference on the Role of the Diaspora in Caribbean Development.