Carey Fraser’s letter to the Prime Minister leaked to the media

As we mentioned at the top of the newscast, UB President Carey Fraser wrote Prime Minister Barrow informing him that he is considering resigning as head of that institution in June of next year.  News Five has managed to obtain a copy of the letter sent to Prime Minister Dean Barrow UB.  While we haven’t had time to scrutinize it closely, we did see some glaring points.  The President announces his intention to leave UB at the end of the current academic year, and states that, “the chronic inability of the Ministry of Education to meet its debts to the University of Belize has been an unfortunate signal of the low priority accorded to the University. The negotiations within the University about the budget for the 2013-2014 academic year have led me to question whether the situation will improve in the future.” Another glaring assertion by President Fraser is that he has concluded that, “a governance culture marked by Board intervention in operational issues has undermined the capacity of the University of Belize to foster institutional stability at leadership levels, especially at the levels of the President and the Provost.” Those are very serious accusations from a President of the University who was appointed two years ago with glowing regional and international commendations. No mention was made of those allegations in today’s press conference. We’ll have more from the letter, and much more from the press conference in Friday’s newscast.