Professor Gordon Shirley - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Professor Gordon Shirley, the newly installed principal of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, shares, among other things, his plans to attract more males into the university with The Gleaner Lifestyle Editor Barbara Ellington in an exclusive interview.

The last Sunday Gleaner article by Mr. Edward Seaga revealed frightening figures in a frightening trend. There are only 18 per cent male students on this campus. What are you going to do about that?

It is a vexing problem The article was interesting. He summarised some of the work done on that issue here. A lot of that work points to changes in the way males are socialised, the family structure, the feminised educational system. If we were to attempt to change all of those, we would have to start at the early-childhood stage and move up. If we were to get it all right, in 15 years we would have a more balanced situation. So, I am giving you my assurance that Mona's numbers will look far much closer to a 60-40 minimum that is more acceptable than what now obtains. It means we are going to have work closely with high schools.

Is there a mentoring programme here and, if so, how strong is it for the young men?

There is a mentoring programme, and we will do more for the young men to ensure that we have better-quality adult men. The reality is that more males are not coming because their CXC and CAPE passes are not as good as the girls, and the truth is that boys also have different learning patterns from women. Among the things we have to do, is adjust our teaching styles to reflect that and work with the high schools to attract good boys. Also, where there are identifiable deficiencies, we must identify those who fell just short of the mark and during the summer, work with them to correct their shortcomings, test them and include them in our programme.

To achieve that, one of the things we have to do at Mona is have far earlier admissions. The pattern now is summer admissions and we would like to move that at least one semester forward so that we have more opportunity to understand those who may not have made the programme, assess the shortfall and design special programmes for them during the summer, thus allowing us to understand the needs (especially of boys) and get more of them in here.

So, we will be actively experimenting with techniques to increase the male population. However, this will likely stir some kind of affirmative-action criticism that this is all happening at the expense of the girls. What we want to do is ensure that no qualified female is disenfranchised in the process.

I don't see that happening; by the time the boys catch up, given current trends, girls will still maintain their steady climb. Women have long seized the challenge to excel.

That's interesting. At a recent meeting with women on Mary Seacole Hall (all-female hall of residence), they said the present trends are not in their interest because upon graduation, they do not have enough males who are on par with them. So, the campus will benefit from a better gender balance.

I have heard the vice chancellor's vision for the university. Two things come to mind: His vision for an open campus, which is growing rapidly elsewhere these days, and expanding the role of the alumni. How much of that vision do you share?

The alumni are very important to any university. We are about to celebrate our 60th anniversary and looking back at those who were here at the start and are still alive, they would be about 80 years old now. But numbers increased at a very small rate over the first 10 years. The numbers are not large but they are a very important group in terms of the leadership roles they play locally and overseas. How we engage will be significant in terms of taking advantage of the networks they have built and the ways in which they may want to contribute.

Students back then had unique experiences with faculty members; interaction was key. Faculty members helped them lift their vision and it's not surprising that many became leaders of countries or headed institutions. When student numbers expanded to 12,000-15,000, the emphasis shifted. But the university still has to help prepare a new cadre of leaders. Now, those alumni have a role to play not just in giving back financially, but it is important for the new generation to interact with the old. They can share experiences because many came from similar humble backgrounds. This will raise the expectations of the young.

So, in addition to the vice chancellor's vision of bequests, there is a rich and deep contribution that alumni can make to the way the student body is educated.

Regarding an open university, we are going through a transition that reflects the changing face of the Caribbean Community. Trinidad has a million and a half population but their campus size is one and a half times ours. Moreover, the Trinidad government invests heavily in the university, so looking at the number of students trained at the university level in that population, it is going to be higher than ours.