Page 7 - IB May 2018 Edition

We say

own right, having paying students
dedicated 44 years have to be dropped,
of her entire teach- and contracts of all
ing career at the teaching and ad-
university. ministration staff
Better known to have to be renego-
many of her stu- tiated. Other costly
dents and read- activities like a uni-
ers of her writings versity dining hall
and poems as Ko- were replaced with
nai Thaman, Pro- a food hall manned
fessor Konaihol- by outside food
eva Helu Thaman vendors. Employ-
is originally from ing Pacific Island
Tonga and joined staff is also not a
the university in cheap exercise. In
1974 to teach ge- 2017, staff sala-
ography and later USP Graduates Photo: USP ries alone make up
education. She is about 43 per cent
currently the Professor of Pacific education and culture at the of total university expenditures.
School of Education but has served as head of school, pro vice Be that as it may, the question posed by Professor Konai re-
chancellor and director of the Institute of Education of USP. mains, “if we do not focus, teach, research our own spaces and
For someone who did her undergraduate studies in New places, who will?” Around the world, there is only one univer-
Zealand where she “felt lost and alone in a sea of white/pakeha sity that is named after and belongs to the nations of the South
students,” the Pacific nature of the USP is to her, one of its main Pacific. Even the university charter of 1970 espouses the ideals
alluring features. Reclaiming its Pacific-ness for Professor Ko- of a university that maintains, advance and disseminate knowl-
nai means focusing “more on Pasifika things – Pacific cultures, edge by “teaching, consultancy and research and otherwise and
peoples, languages and knowledge systems.” For she added, for the provision at appropriate levels of education and training
“after all, if we do not focus, teach, research our own spaces and responsive to the well-being and needs of the communities of
places, who will?” the South Pacific.”
So as the university celebrates its 50th year anniversary, the
Restoring Pacific-ness back into the time perhaps is right for the university owners and administrators
Bringing the Pacific university culture would mean having a to pause and reflect on how they can re-inject and restore some
back into USP communal dining hall for students and of the Pacific character and culture back into the university that
staff, inviting more Pacific academics into bears its name. For one thing, the university has been running
the teaching faculties and reviving visita- at a surplus for four consecutive years to 2017.
tions by USP students of communities in the Pacific.
It may also mean re-opening the Institute of Pacific Studies, USP is further blessed in that it still has
re-introducing Pacific studies into the curriculum of the university Listening to in its faculty staff some of the Pacific’s
and perhaps making these courses compulsory like it used to be. our matua best brains, and who are also the region’s
Way back in 1998 when speaking about the need to have Pa- matuas, elders like Professors Konai Tha-
cific studies in the university curriculum, sociologist, long-time man and Vijay Naidu.
academic and another matua at USP, Professor Vijay Naidu spoke What makes USP unique for Professor Konai is “its regional
about the vision the university’s second vice chancellor had, the nature, its staff and student profiles, its commitment to regional
late Dr James Maraj from Trinidad. He was “a strong advocate of cooperation and its innovativeness because of the need for it to
regionalism and a University of the South Pacific rather than a stay useful and relevant to the communities that send students
University in the South Pacific,” said Professor Naidu. here. These are not ideals but realities for USP.”
It was Dr Maraj that introduced Pacific Studies as a compulsory In a public lecture he gave two decades ago at USP, Professor
subject for first year students of the university and proposed an Vijay Naidu had articulated his vision for the university: “USP
academic festival on Pacific cultures and traditions, a Pacific Cul- can gain an international reputation as a centre of academic
tural Centre and a Pacific Ecumenical Centre. He also introduced excellence for Pacific Studies because it is in the middle of this
the celebrations of national days of each of the country members vast laboratory of island environments, peoples and cultures. By
of the University as well as Pacific Week. making the problems and prospects of small island and archi-
Granted, no one is accusing the current leadership of being pelagic states a central preoccupation, the University can very
guilty of the ‘crime of killing the Pacific nature of the university.’ quickly gain preeminence.”
Its name has remain unchanged right from the time Queen Eliza- Reclaiming of the Pacific character of the USP needs to come
beth of England added her royal seal to the university charter as well from the countries which are owners of the university.
on February 4, 1970. Twelve island countries are still members Given that they contribute around 20 per cent of the university’s
of the USP, namely Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, income annually, ($38.78 million in 2017), it may not hurt for
Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu the university to consider using a proportion of that contribution
and Vanuatu. towards funding the ‘Pacific’ component of the institution. For
Changes to its Pacific character only began when the university ‘after all, if they do not, who will?’
had to be financially feasible, like everyone else. Courses that are - We Say is compiled and edited with the oversight of the
deemed un-economical, those that are the least popular to fee- editor

Islands Business, May 2018 7