The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Mona Campus thanked Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles for his 40 years of unbroken service to the regional University at a long service awards ceremony on Thursday, January 30, 2020.
The ceremony was held at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge & Conference Centre.
Vice-Chancellor Beckles joined the Mona Campus in 1979 as a temporary lecturer at age 24. At the time he was just out of graduate school in the UK, where he completed a doctorate in Economic History at Hull University.
At age 36 he was appointed to a personal professorship in Economic and Social History, becoming the youngest person then, to achieve that academic title in the history of The UWI.
He served as Head of the campus’ History Department, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies, as well as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal at The UWI Cave Hill Campus for 15 years before his appointment as Vice-Chancellor in 2015.
He is the first Vice-Chancellor to have served at all levels of The UWI administration over 30 years.
Vice-Chancellor Beckles was among 115 UWI staff members who received 15, 21, 30 and 40-year long service awards, including Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal of The UWI Mona, Professor Dale Webber.
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Congrats to him. I enjoyed the response he gave to the UPP haterz (especially Gisele Isaac) at the opening ceremony of the Five Islands campus.
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! Have Mercy!
LEST WE REMEMBER!
The Sagicor High Performance Centre, cricket academy and training centre, created, nurtured and given a seat of Quality and Excellence, never before developed in the English speaking Caribbean! Many young “WI” Cricketers were counselled and denied valuable educational, psychological and excellent physical coaching, teaching and training opportunities at the Centre by the unvarnished supremacist hatreds of an Englishman brought to our shores by hapless and sorry folks incapable of freeing themselves from subjugation and mental slavery! Such were the psychological dislocations, black disorientation, decenteredness, and lack of agency the institution of slavery have exacted on the the descendants of the enslaved which Beckles the Visionary Academic and Administrator sought to overcome!
We must remain vigilant on the look for misguided politicos such as the past Barbadian PM, The Hon Freundel Stuart, who accused Professor Dr. Hilary Beckles, of a “singular exhibition of bad, bad manners” claiming that “we have had a principal of a university descending from Mount Olympus, as he sees it, and deciding that he presides over an institution that is not just an institution of learning but that is an alternative government”! We in Antigua and Barbuda must encourage GoAB and The UWI Five Islands Campus Administration to develop and work cooperatively to engender the best there is in “Town and Gown” Collaborations! I am quite sure that the Hon Maria Browne and Professor Hiram Forde are working towards a collaborative solution to assist “De Vendors at Da Market” before it festers like a sore, runs and becomes like stinking like rotten meat or explodes!
In this the International Decade for People of African descent 2015 -2024, this mere voice in the wilderness will once more echo the sagacious words of this Eminent Academic and Administrator which caused Stuart and other Caribbean Politicos so much anguish with some of my own emphases: “There is, in Barbados, (Antigua and Barbuda) a division of labour which says that the black community will occupy and control the politics and the white (Arab and Chinese) elite will control the economy…All of us as citizens of Barbados (Antigua and Barbuda) have to examine this model and transform it. It has to be transformed in order to fulfil the vision if our ancestors in General Bussa’s (King Court) time, General Greene(Hannibal) and Clement Payne (VC Bird),” – Prof. Dr. Hilary Beckles, Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) and Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI)!
As a Historian, may this great Caribbean Cultural Analyst, Academic and Icon continue with fair Trade Winds at his back to provide us with his “Ancestral Conduction” during this most stressful and debilitating period which he identified, beginning with the Active Forces of Rule Britannia from Elizabeth at CHOGM15 and the Don’s supremacist ascension in 2016, with the Resultant Force of Boris Brexit, that “To forgive was irrelevant, but to forget was death.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Water Dancer!
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! Congrats! Congrats! Congrats!
“Pushing ahead with a self-emancipatory agenda is critical, but we must do so fully conscious of this broader context of our development efforts.” – Dr. Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, UWI!
Warmest Caribbean Congrats to the Good Professor, a World Class Scholar Par Excellence and a Quality Administrator who has made an exceptional contribution in Academic Leadership towards building A Solid Caribbean Education Institution and A Caribbean Civilization!
“Whenever a person delineates a cultural boundary around a particular cultural space in human time, this is called MARKING. It might be done with the announcement of a certain symbol, the creation of a special bonding, or the citing of personal heroes of African Caribbean history and culture. … , we must be prepared to act upon our interpretation of what is in the best interest of black people, that is, black people as an historically oppressed population. This is the fundamental necessity for advancing the political process.” Dr. Molefi Asante: Afrocentricity The Theory of Social Change!
De Bust at Da Bridge concedes the Excellent Academic Professorship and Quality Administrative Abilities of this true Caribbean Visionary! Give Praise and Thanks! Beckles has shown throughout his academic journey that cognition and structural decisions go hand in glove to create best in class functions! Clearly he has linked theory to practical actions and created an innovative and incubation Centre of Excellence at UWI! That is his autobiographical legacy!
“In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.” ― Frantz Fanon!
Jaysus!
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