~ Johnson had resigned, but board wanted her to stay on ~
PHILIPSBURG--The supervisory board of directors of University of St. Martin (USM) will be calling a press conference in about two weeks to shed light on recent developments at the institution and the challenges it faces.
The board will also uncork its plans to keep USM on stream. The press conference will be called when member of the board Danny Ramchandani returns to St. Maarten.
Underscoring the tireless volunteer hours board members have spent in the interest of USM, Vice Chairperson of the board Valerie Giterson-Pantophlet told The Daily Herald that Chairperson Dr. Lockie Johnson had tendered her resignation in January, but the board had asked her to stay on.
She said Johnson had been an asset to the board and when she resigned from her volunteer position, members asked her to take a leave of absence to dedicate to her paid job.
In a letter to this newspaper, Johnson said she had exited the board in January and wished its members success in its endeavours.
Giterson-Pantophlet said board members, in particular Johnson, had been working tirelessly during the construction of the second phase.
Speaking about the challenges currently being faced by USM, Giterson-Pantophlet acknowledged that USM was being mismanaged at the administrative level, an allegation made on several occasions by Worker's Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL).
Giterson-Pantophlet said USM was St. Maarten's sole tertiary institution and as such everyone should have its best interest at heart. She said the board was not pleased with the negative press the institution had been receiving, but noted that the truth had to be told, which was what the board intended to do at its upcoming press conference.
She said it was not nice that private matters were being raised in the press about the top brass at the university. In a press release on Wednesday evening WIFOL listed the salaries paid to, among others, the university's Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Nolan, and alleged that while he had been hired to turn around USM's financial situation, it had only gotten worse.
Giterson-Pantophlet said contrary to this statement, the board had seen the positive efforts of Nolan's work. She said Nolan had been hired on a two-year contract and it was unfair for him to be graded before he had had a chance to complete his work and his contract. She said too that since he had been at USM, Nolan had made concerted efforts in cutting down certain expenses. He also worked on clearing off the backlog in financial statements and bringing them up to date. USM had also managed to keep up to date with its creditors.
She said USM had been battling financial issues for a long time, but this had been exasperated by mismanagement, and the board had had to play a pivotal supervisory role. She said several persons had been unable to address USM's financial statements in the past. "Many people came before him [Nolan] and never cleaned up the mess."
The reports being made about USM in the press, she said, were not addressing the "core" issues. "A lot of things were being done at USM in the past with no structure," she said.
