UWI to open school of business Sept 2
THE University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus on Tuesday announced that it will be opening its largest academic building and new state-of-the-art Mona School of Business on September 2.
“The classrooms are designed for executives and will allow for transmission of electronic data anywhere around the world,” principal and pro-vice chancellor Professor Kenneth Hall told journalists at a media breakfast on the campus.
“It will be completed in three phases and will be the home of gender studies, law and so on,” he said.
Professor Gordon Shirley, executive director of the Mona School of Business, elaborated on some of the features of the new building.
“It will allow for a lot of e-data such as tele-conferencing, video streaming from anywhere in the world. The classes will also have wireless interconnection to allow the students to use their computers freely,” Shirley said.
He added that the school’s long-term plan was to have web supported courses which would allow students to access their course loads, schedules and lecture notes from the Internet.
“We are not there yet because we have to work on things like training staff in the delivery of computer assisted learning but that is where we want to go,” Shirley said.
According to Professor Hall, 471 staff members have been trained over the last three years in computer-assisted learning.
He also said that the Mona School of Business would be named for former vice-chancellor of the University, Sir Alister MacIntyre.
“Through the School of Business, persons will be able to do their MBA. The facility will be named after Sir Alister in recognition of his contribution to this area,” he said. “We will also be launching a research programme in his honour. It will examine a range of issues that will contribute to regional development.”
A trained economist, McIntyre served as vice-chancellor at the UWI for 10 years before leaving office in 1998.
Hall also announced that the UWI would be having its Mona Academic Conference on Friday, August 30 to Sunday, September 1. The speakers for the event are prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves; prime minister of St Lucia, Kenny Anthony and chancellor of the UWI, Sir Shridath Ramphal.
“The chancellor will be here for two weeks. During that time, we also plan to have the inaugural Chancellor’s Forum where students on campus and the public will get to hear him speak on a variety of topics such as globalisation and Caribbean external negotiations,” Hall said.
The chancellor will also be speaking at public sessions in Montego Bay, Mandeville and Ocho Rios.