The American Global University of Science and Medicine has been taking a public relations pounding for the past week – as social activist Phillip "Fawda" Henry has trained has trained his tasers on the Medical School. His main line of attack has been that the school is bogus, and manifestly so because it has moved into what appears to be an empty building on the Airport Road. Today a university spokespersons finally spoke up. Vice President Peggy Allen called media houses from the USA today where she said "Fawda" has got it all wrong; they have moved from San Pedro, but she says it is a move to expand operations.
Voice of Peggy Allen, V.P./Spokesperson, Agusm Via Telephone
"Some of these allegations have been put out there about our program and people don't understand truly what our program is. So I think that is where the confusion is and as for some of these reports that have come out have been totally misconstrued. We just finished our brand new campuses in San Pedro; we have been in San Pedro since January 2011. We just moved and when I say 'move' and you know sometimes that word 'move' has been misconstrued that we've moved and it is not a good thing. No, when we decide to relocate to a new location it is because of expansion purposes- there is a process as to renovating a building and to moving a campus and the first step and stage in this is to acquire the property and we just acquired this property and so that is stage 1 of the process that has been completed, the acquisition of the property. We are just about finished with the planning and designs and I am assuming they're going to be done within the next week or two where we will begin to have construction crews coming into the campus and to begin the summer renovations to the building. There is also inquiry as to why our website indicates that we are recruiting for May of 2013 when our campus is under renovations right now? Well to answer that question - is that we are continuously recruiting because we continue to have students coming into our program."
Rowland Parks - Reporter Newspaper
"Miss Allen can you say whether or not any Belizean has completed your course and program?"
Voice of Peggy Allen
"As a matter of fact we currently have a student in Chicago, Illinois right now and she is currently almost finished up with her second full semester for Clinical Science Program in Chcago, Illinois and I believe she will be probably one of the first students that actually complete the program."
Allen says the media will be invited to an event in July – and also said that we'll be able to speak with the president of their student government.
Today, the Ministry of Education sent out a release saying that it will visit the school shortly. The Ministry of Health also plays a tangential role in this, and today CEO Peter Allen commented.
Dr. Peter Allen - CEO, Ministry of Health
" I am familiar with, I believe it's called a charter; the actual chartering falls under the Ministry of Education as you know but there is a medical school's accreditation committee and myself and other members of the Ministry of Health serve on the committee as well. I believe what these; I may be mistaken so forgive me if I am not perfectly correct on these, but I believe what the status is for these two institutions is a provisional charter where they basically made an application. They have been given a provisional charter based on a fee and a proposal document and then I think they have a twelve month period in which they are supposed to develop the full level of services that are required for a medical institution in Belize. Certainly it looks as if they haven't achieved that but I am not familiar with the details, I'm afraid."
Reporter
"There a lot of allegations out there; will the Ministry of Health be stepping in? People are saying these are just shells, this is scam to milk potential students. Will the Ministry of Health be stepping in? Is the Ministry of Health concerned at this point?"
Dr. Peter Allen
Yes, of course, and as our capacity as members of the medical schools accreditation committee, really we are just trying to find out information in the same way as you are at the moment. It's been a little difficult to actually contact the principals, so we don't want to be premature in our actions but certainly it doesn't look good at the moment and we want to protect the good name of Belize and make sure that anybody who is doing business in our country does it according to international standards."
Reporter
"If in your investigation you find that they are not credible institution, does the Ministry of Health have authority to close them down?"
Dr. Peter Allen
"Not the Ministry of Health, no , they are classed as educational institutions but the Ministry of Education through the medical schools accreditation committee, I assume, would look at the provisions of the charter documents and then enact the parts that would allow us to close down or to revoke the charter in the event that the conditions have not been met."
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