Professor Clement Sankat, principal of the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) St Augustine campus, says the decision not to renew environmentalist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh’s part-time contract was not politically motivated. “The system was challenged, and it had nothing to do with politics,” Sankat reportedly told TT media last Friday.
He added that Kublalsingh was never on the permanent staff, and there were hundreds of part-time lecturers with similar contracts at the university.
Last year, Kublalsingh missed several classes when he was involved in a 21-day hunger strike over the construction of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin. Sankat said since that time, changes had been made to the teaching schedule to accommodate Kublalsingh’s absence, and those changes have continued into the new academic year. Sankat said the head of department is responsible for assigning teachers to courses.
“The head of department had to do what he had to do,” he said.
Meanwhile, in response, Kublalsingh said he had no hard feelings toward UWI for letting him go, but there could have been some discussion with him about its concerns, before the “unilateral” dismissal. “I think the university had a decision to make and they made it…They probably could have consulted with me before,” he stated. He said he did not feel disappointed, as the university had always been good to him, but felt UWI should have come to him first before a decision was made. “They never invited me to meetings about it…They made a unilateral decision,” he said. (Excerpt from TT Guardian)
