By Hayden McKenna
There is a rich legacy planted in the soil of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean by the presence, work and contributions of numerous graduates of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) and all of its ancestral institutional predecessors – ECTS, CTC and CUC. In the Leewards, like everywhere else on this terrestrial ball where the USCian diaspora can be found, the quality of character and work of its members have been extraordinary; so much so that their beloved alma mater routinely punches above its weight wherever its standard is lifted.
The Leeward USCian community has at times given leadership to our university and to our church in the Caribbean Union (CARU), the Inter American Division (IAD) and further afield. The late Pastor Belgrove N. Josiah of Antigua was the fifteenth President of Caribbean Union College from 1977 to 1980. Dr. Jansen Trotman of St. Kitts and Dr. Eugene Daniel of Antigua served in consecutive order as Presidents of CARU between 1999 and 2011 and in that esteemed capacity chaired the Board of Trustees of CUC/USC. Centenarian, Dr. George W. Brown, at the apogee of his illustrious denominational career served as President of the IAD from 1980 to 1983, and had he given his consent, would have been elevated to the presidency of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (in 1990), though he was born in the Dominican Republic, amenably associates himself with his Antiguan ancestral heritage. These are just a few named “for-instances” among many other outstanding Leeward USCians.
When the University of the Southern Caribbean began to plant extension campuses and satellite sites in strategic locations across the Caribbean, there was a compelling case for a branch in the Leeward Islands. The CUC/USC support system there, abetted the feasibility of a start-up. Antigua was seen as the ideal location to plant a USC satellite site. In 2007, USC-Antigua became a brick-and-mortar reality. Operations began under the leadership of Site Co-Ordinator, Dr. Eulalie Semper. There were four members of faculty – Pastor Carson Green, (now Dr. Carson Green, President of the South Leeward Conference), Pastor James Gore, Mrs. Susanna Gore and Juanita George. There were twelve students, most of them being Education majors.
The part-time leadership of USC-Antigua changed hands quite frequently. From Dr. Semper it was passed to Pastor Carson Green, then to Pastor Chalvar Henry then back to Dr. Semper before it eventually rested with Mrs. Susanna Gore who has held the position – the first person to do so in a full-time capacity – since 2015. With a full-time, Site Co-Ordinator finally in place, pushing for the graduation of students who had been in their programmes for a long time became a major priority. According to Mrs. Gore, of the twelve students who began their studies in 2007, seven of them were pushed to graduation having done their full programmes in Antigua. Two of the original twelve sadly died before they could graduate and others unfortunately dropped out.
The limitations imposed by sharing a location with the Antigua Seventh-day Adventist School also had to be addressed. Under Dr. Semper’s leadership USC-Antigua had been re-located to a building in Belmont on the outskirts of St. John’s. This first experiment with spatial independence was however short-lived and there was a return to the Antigua Seventh- day Adventist School and the operational restrictions endemic to that situation. With Mrs. Gore as a full-time Site Co-Ordinator and with aspirations to improve service delivery, the urgency for another location was undeniable. Students and prospective students were not enthused by the idea of the return to the Antigua Seventh-day Adventist School either. A new location had to be found. USC-Antigua was relocated to Upper St. Mary’s Street in St. John’s – the present home of USC-Antigua. The building was retrofitted with an office space and four classrooms. It walls bear witness to seasons of growth but also the sadness occasioned by unfulfilled opportunities.
Central to USC-Antigua’s growth strategy has been the cultivation of a strong working relationship with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in order to understand national needs and priorities so that the education products that are offered are relevant to local market conditions. To increase enrollment a USC delegation comprised of Dr. Sylvan Lashley President, Dr. Wanda Chesney VP for Academic Administration, Dr. Genevieve Boucaud, Dean of Distance Education and Mrs. Susanna Gore Antigua Site Coordinator met with the Minister of Education of Antigua and Barbuda Dr. Michael Browne to discuss national priorities in education and areas in which USC could collaborate with the government to meet education and training targets. At the end of the meetings and discussions, fifty teachers were given government-funded scholarships to pursue the Bachelor’s Degree in Special Activities with an Emphasis in Special Education. Shortly after another need was sighted. Dr. Claudette Mitchell Chair of Family and Consumer Science and Mrs. Gore met with Mrs. Gumbs, Education Officer of Home Economics in Antigua to finalize a much-needed programme. The government agreed to offer scholarships to a cohort of twenty-three teachers to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Family and Consumer Science.
The government also expressed an interest in partnering with USC-Antigua in for the training of STEM educators. Unfortunately, that fell through. The Government of Antigua and Barbuda also proposed to make public land available to USC for the construction of a campus. Mrs. Gore tells the story of a meeting with the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, where he candidly shared that he would not be interested in being a student of a university that was renting a lodging from a landlord. The offer of public land perhaps has not always been pursued to fruition with the warranted vigour, however, according to Mrs. Gore, “USC’s present administration under the leadership of Dr. Colwick Wilson is working on the way forward”.
In 2019 The University of the West Indies (UWI) opened its Five Island Campus in Antigua. With the coming of the UWI, the focus of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in providing opportunities for citizens to pursue higher education in keeping with national priorities has shifted to the UWI, which it heavily subsidizes – as governments of “UWI-campus-countries” typically do – in keeping with the established model for funding regional public tertiary education.
Although the larger share of the business that once flowed in the direction of USC-Antigua has now been diverted to the UWI and the UWI has been swift to take up opportunities that `USC was unhurried to do; USC-Antigua though challenged is undaunted. USC has and continues to co-exist and thrive in markets where larger, more well-resourced public universities also compete. Competition on a national, regional and a global scale, constrains the courageous producers of value to refine and polish their unique value proposition. USC is called to do that here. There are somethings uniquely USC that this region and this world need.
On the brighter side, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda continues to express an interest in partnering with USC-Antigua to provide training opportunities for a range of specialized fields in the discipline of nursing. USC’s stellar reputation as a leading provider of nurse education in the Caribbean, positions it to transplant another success story of a 97-year-old legacy of offering transformative education that equips our graduates to go beyond excellence!
Mrs. Gore continues to dream, pray and labour for a well-appointed, built-for-purpose USC Campus in Antigua. She is also intentional about teasing out market niches that USC-Antigua can enter with unique offerings. She indicates that students are asking for the offer of degrees in psychology and business. Although these programmes are on offer by the UWI, there still appears to be an appetite for a USC alternative.
USC still enjoys the confidence of many influential people in the marketplace in Antigua and Barbuda and by extension the Leeward Islands. According to Mrs. Gore:
USC/CUC has a history, and if you come to Antigua, in nearly every office you walk
into, there’s a past CUCian or USCian. There’s someone who has been to USC.
There’s someone who is doing well, who went to USC. So, when you talk about
USC/CUC, people know that we have a good quality, a good product.
The positive profile of the Seventh day Adventist Church in Antigua and Barbuda is a helpful accomplice to USC’s reputation and image in the land that professes to have a beach for every day of the year. Recently the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Sir. Steadroy Benjamin expressed high commendation in the nation’s Parliament for the positive work the Adventist church is doing with the nation’s youth (see video at this link: https://fb.watch/uNlQmZY3DN/).
As our university approaches its centennial, we find in USC-Antigua an unquenchable determination to advance the rectitude of our mission to transform ordinary people into extraordinary servants of God to humanity!
