Contracts not being renewed for 55 UB lecturers

Dr. Isabel Tun

According to Tun, UB lecturers are finding themselves in a catch twenty-two where they are not necessarily being forced to retire but that the management is not renewing their individual contracts.

Dr. Isabel Tun, Associate Professor, UB

“We do not want for the university to lose people who are highly trained and at this stage in which they can give to the university they would now be terminated and that service would not be available.  You have people, let me think, you have people such as Ms. Cynthia Gill, Mrs. Gill in the nursing.  Now you know that nursing in Belize and as a profession depends largely on the older, the more senior people who are mentoring the younger ones coming up.  Can we afford to cut people off like that?  We have critical people like Dr. Perriot, Leopold, in the Science Department.  I believe he is around his sixties; highly trained and there are many other people.  I’m talking about Education and Arts, but I’m mentioning people from other departments and they are in the system.  Now, that also raises the issue of is the rule being applied equally, where some people are being kept on and some being not fired but not being rehired.”

Dr. Tun is the President of UB’s Faculty and Staff Association and is one of several lecturers who has reached retirement age and is being affected by the current situation at the university.  Four of her colleagues in the English Department are also said to be on the chopping block despite denial by management they will be replaced.