Building a university and contributing to setting the foundation of a prosperous economy (Frank Owarish, Ph.D)

Building a university is a gigantic task, the more so in a developing country. Often developed countries provide needed assistance; this contribution to institution building should be noted.

I went back to developing country x after university studies and while waiting for a regular job directed a local newspaper, a very fascinating but demanding experience. I thought of applying for a job in the Central Planning Unit but then saw an advertisement for a job at the starting university and applied for the latter and later on I was glad that I did. I was called for an interview and was selected to be the counter-part head of a department in the School of Management. At the time the head of the department was an expatriate. I thus became the counterpart to someone by the name of Prof. Wyn Reilly from the University of Manchester, England. He was a very dynamic person and I learned a lot from him. He demonstrated to me that a university job was more than just teaching; there were curriculum development tasks, preparing of course material including case studies and administrative tasks. I was given the task of attending planning meetings and preparing the minutes there for; he underscored that these were very important; he also showed me how to conduct meeting either as a convener or as a chair person. There were many personalities involved in developing the School of Management and I got to meet and work with most of them; prominent among these was the head of the School itself, somebody by the name of Prof. Wade Cooper from the University of Pittsburg, USA whose services were funded by the US-AID; there were Peace Corps volunteers; I remember in particular Dave Norton. Wade Cooper was the symbol of optimism; he always had something nice to say to everyone he meets; he was very hard working and yet managed to keep a sense of cheerfulness. Wyn Reilly was a dynamo of energy also very cheerful and also very optimistic. The Vice Chancellor of the University overall was somebody by the name of Octave Wiehe who had previously headed the College of Agriculture which was the first cornerstone of the new university; he was a role model of what a leader of a great venture should be; he allowed us to participate in developing a vision of what the university should be; he was very focused. Other departments were being developed. Another corner stone was Roland Lamy, the Registrar, a nice person who was very strict on standards (yes, it is possible to reconcile nice with strict). When Prof. Reilly left a few months later he was replaced by Prof. Martin Minogue also from the University of Manchester, England, also a very dynamic and resourceful academic leader. He would always find time to sit in during my lectures and he always had constructive observations and so I kept on improving all the time; together we developed new courses and tested them out successfully. While at this university in development I met someone I had known before and who then was a constant presence at the university as well. His name is Kissoonsingh Hazareesingh. He was the Chef de Cabinet of the Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. I was very honored that he was interested in my ideas about economic development; the country was a new member stage on the international stage and he was among those deciding along with the Prime Minister what the economic course of action should be; he liked my ideas and so without having to work at the Planning Unit I was able to provide inputs for the economic development strategy. Prof. Reilly was very keen on inviting guest speakers to the university and I was able to interact with the top business leaders, prominent among these was Maurice Patureau. They were interested in my ideas about the economic development strategy and I was flattered by such an opportunity. The model I had written about was that of an open economy hinging on the free market principle with a role of spearhead by the government, with diversification among different economic sectors and cooperation with the broadest range of countries for mutual benefit (at the time even China). I gave lectures to groups of business leaders and political leaders and wrote in prominent newspapers and magazines including PROSI. The economic model proved to be a success over the years and the credit goes to the then Prime Minister and his Chef de Cabinet because they had the determining say on the matter; they were the policy makers.  All economies go through the ups and downs cycles and the country had to deal with prosperous and adverse economic conditions but has always done so with minimizing the downs and maximizing the ups. The economic model also provided for social justice.