Godfrey Smith’s Role as New U.B. Chairman

Godfrey Smith

The University of Belize has elected Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith as chair of its board of trustees.  Smith replaces former chairman Anthony Sylvestre who has since taken up the office of the Attorney General.  Earlier today, Smith was a guest on Open Your Eyes where he spoke briefly of what he envisions for Belize’s national university.

Godfrey Smith, Chairman, University of Belize

“My job, of course, as a chairman of the board, is to lead the board.  The chairman’s job is not to interfere in the operations, so to speak, day-to-day management of the university, but to assist in the setting of broad policy.  So I’m satisfied that many reports have been written about  the university.  There was a very recent one which I’ve had the opportunity of studying.  The university just completed a strategic plan.  These were tabled before the board of trustees at the very last meeting.  Tomorrow, actually, the president of the university, Dr. Palacio and I, will meet with the deans of the faculties to discuss moving forward.  So, I think that with the report of the UB governance commission, you’ll remember that there was a team of five people led by chairman Marcello Blake of the chamber, they put about a year’s worth of work studying the situation, the financial situation, the academic situation, the governance situation, the whole thing, the IT situation and they came up with a report which at this time we are not only studying but trying to distill from that a plan.  What will be the priorities, how will it be implemented?  How will we get the university on a financially sustainable footing.”