7 News Belize

Hon. Faber Vs. President Fraser
posted (November 21, 2013)
Good evening, and welcome to an early edition of 7news. We apologize for the early start but we're doing it so that we can have live football coverage for you from the FFB stadium in Belmopan at 7:00. Tonight the junior jaguars are taking on regional powerhouse, HONDURAS.

In the headlines tonight is UB President, Dr. Cary Fraser. He announced his resignation to the Board of Trustees two weeks ago, and now rumours have surfaced saying that he's abruptly left office. And we don't mean "left" as in stepped out for a cup of coffee; we mean "left" as in "gone"! Those reports contradicted statements made by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees last week. He said that although Frazer had effectively tendered his resignation, he would remain on as President until the end of this current school year in mid-2014. Well, the Office of Public Information at the University circulated a notification amongst the faculty and staff that Frazer hadn't left office, he was simply on leave. Again, the circumstances surrounding that sudden leave has not been provided, and it has been interpreted by some at the university as the upper management quietly forcing Frazer out of office, given that he has already publicly accused them of micromanagement and undermining his office. Yes, it seems to have gotten quite ugly.

Today, 7News spoke with the Director of the Office of Public Information about the circumstances surround the President's leave, and he told us that he only knows what was given to him to disseminate this morning:

Selwyn King - UB Public Relations Officer
"We sent out a communication this morning to the faculty and staff indicating that to them that the President Dr. Cary Fraser is on leave and during his absence the interim Provost Dr. Wilma Wright will hold over and that was the extent of the information that was communicated to the faculty and staff this morning."

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you explain to us the nature of that leave? Was there any particular given why the leave was requested or required?"

Selwyn King - UB Public Relations Officer
"No, in terms of instructions of the nature of the leave, leave is leave and basically that's what we did. We notified according to rules and regulations of the University that once the President is on leave and who will be holding over at all times. This is a normal process that we have been engaged in all the time."

Daniel Ortiz
"Even the nature of circumstances of his sudden decision to announced his leaving the University - it comes a bit sudden and there is the perception that something underlying has taken place. Can you reasonably assure the public and the stakeholders of UB that no such thing has taken place and it's just a simple matter of procedure as you have indicated."

Selwyn King - UB Public Relations Officer
"I cannot speak to perception. All I can speak to is that the President is on leave and once additional information is made available, I will make that information available I will make that information available to the community and I am sure by extension the media will be informed as well as you normally appears to be well informed and well in tuned. At this point in time the communication is being circulated to the faculty and staff; the President is on leave and Dr. Wilma Wright, the interim Provost is holding over. Once information becomes available we will inform the community."

So, that's the situation this time, the interim provost takes over and assumes the responsibilities of the President, and no one seems to know when the leave will end and when Dr. Frazer will resume his duties until his tenure ends.

Today, we also got an opportunity to speak with the Minister of Education Patrick Faber, who attended the 2013 CXC Award Ceremony held at the UB Gymnasium in Belmopan. We'll have more on that ceremony later on, but when it was done we asked Faber to comment on the accusations that Fraser made against his ministry.

As we told you, Dr. Frazer wrote that the Ministry's debts to the University has crippled his efforts to bring realistic changes which he believes will better equip the institution to meet the needs of the country. He also added that the budget negotiations for the 2013-2014 does not give him confidence that the Government will place a higher priority on UB. Today, Faber totally rejected those accusations when he spoke to us:

Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"I wouldn't want to start a quarrel with the President, but I reject in write off the notion that the Ministry of Education has not been trying to deal with the issue of the debt with the University of Belize. All Belizeans were listening and I am sure can remember when it was that I said that we did owe UB's outstanding amounts of monies 4.5 million dollars I think and today it stands just a little bit over 2 million. All Belizeans were as well aware when I decided that we were not going to continue to subsidize those students' fees that were started in 2006. In fact starting with the crop that came in January of this year of 2013 we would not continue to pay those monies - all in an effort to bring down the debt to the University of Belize."

"When the President says that he does not see (in his letter to the Prime Minister) that the Ministry is making any effort, I reject that completely. As I am saying I don't wish to start a quarrel with the President (he is still the President of the University). When that kind of false statement has been made and of course no recognition of the efforts of this ministry to bring down that bill. A bill that was not really racked up by efforts of this administration especially, then I must come out and say something about that."

According to Faber, both he and Dr. Frazer are waiting until Prime Minister Dean Barrow is well enough to grant a meeting on the current issues that Frazer has raised in that letter.

In other news related to the UB, the evening classes at the Belmopan Campus had to be cancelled because a bomb threat was called in. Selywn King told us that this is the 3rd or 4th time this month that mischief-makers have disrupted classes knowing that the University has to treat all threats with a high level of credibility.

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