The question of a new role for former Acting President Dr. Rhonda Chipman-Johnson has been answered, for one thing, as well as delineation of new duties for Drs. Pandora Johnson and Linda Davis and former Council Secretary Patricia Glinton-Meicholas.
Dr. Chipman-Johnsonﾒs responsibilities as the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs now include an analysis of the rate of graduation and time to completion data, the planning and support of faculty recruitment and development, and the stabilization of existing programmes and identification of needed innovations.
Dr. Pandora Johnson, the other local candidate for the job Ms. Hodder eventually got, is now the Vice President of Outreach, responsible for expansion of Family Island programming and the development of a distance education plan.
Holding a new post, former VP of Academic Affairs Dr. Linda Davis must now “seek and create international university partnerships to enrich the academic experience of students and the academic careers of faculty,” according to Ms. Hodder. The new president explained the value of the new post.
“Becoming a university is not only decided by us, but (also) by whether other universities recognize us as such, whether they carry out student exchanges with us, whether they take our graduate students, whether theyﾒll accord us the privileges of membership in international organizations,” she said.
“Becoming a university is also decided by the volume of research we do. We also know that we want to develop our graduate programmes, and that international partnerships can be helpful ﾖ indeed, will be essential, in this respect.”
“Finally,” she added, “if we are to attract the best students in The Bahamas, we must be able to offer them some kind of international experience, because a frequent reason for them to leave home is their desire to be exposed to other worlds.”
Dr. Davis, as Vice President of Research, Graduate Programmes and International Relations, is also called on to define areas for graduate programme development over the next academic year.
Former Council secretary Patricia Glinton-Meicholas has been bumped up to the Vice President of Human Resources and Communications. According to President Hodder, Mrs. Glinton-Meicholas must shift the focus of communications from within the college from political issues to “the talent of faculty and students.”
Also, a Secretary-General has been added to the College Council, in the person of Rubie Nottage, who will also serve as COBﾒs Chief Counsel.
Despite the fact that the College of The Bahamas Act 1995 makes no provision for the representation of staff on the College Council, Ms. Hodder invited a Staff Representative to sit on the Council as an observer, “having voice but no vote in the deliberations of the council.”
“This council considers it important at this stage of envisioning the move of the college to university status that internal stakeholders of the college be given an opportunity to participate in the deliberations concerning the college at the level of council,” the president explained.
And the College Council has created an ad hoc advisory committee “to advise the council on matters of academic governance including the wisdom of establishing a University Senate.” This Council will be headed by COB President Emeritus Dr. Keva Bethel, and consist of 20 people including college faculty, staff, students and alumni.
That ad hoc board, according to Ms. Hodder, will report its findings on the wisdom of establishing a University Senate to the College Council by December 31.
Ms. Hodder has taken under her wing the responsibility for development of institutional benchmarks and indicators on matters key to university status and reputation, the definition and adoption of best practices in university information technology and the engagement of the community to build support for the institution, among other responsibilities.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
