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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, April 26, 2024
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NEW UVI STRUCTURE UNVEILED

The turn-out was strong but the questions were few Thursday as University of the Virgin Islands president Orville Kean presented an overview of the administrative restructuring that will take effect Oct. 1.
He made a morning presentation on St. Thomas and another session on the St. Croix UVI campus in the afternoon.
The Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the reorganization, which will create the positions of senior vice president/provost for the whole university and chancellors for each campus.
At present, UVI has a president and five vice presidents, for academic affairs, business and financial affairs, institutional advancement, research and public service, and student affairs. There are also academic deans for each campus. Under the new plan, the deans will cease to exist and the vice president for research and public service will become the vice provost for same, answering to the senior vice president/provost. The vice presidents for administration/finance and institutional advancement retain their titles. The title of vice president for student affairs will become vice president for student life and development.
All vice presidents will report to the president. The chancellors will be responsible for the academic operations on their respective campuses and will report to the provost.
There will also be associate chancellors for each campus, Dr. Kean told an overflowing audience of more than 150 in the St. Thomas campus cafeteria. "All the details have not been worked out," he said. "We have a lot of time to work them out."
The trustees condiotioned their approval of the reorganization on its not adding to the university's administrative costs.
"The duties of existing positions may change," Kean said. "I recognize that a real concern to a lot of people is where they are going to be in the structure. The transition team is working on this."
Dr. Laverne Ragster, vice president for research and public service, has been named interim senior vice president and provost. Roy Watlington, a physics professor who has overseen an extensive general-education curriculum revision at UVI for several years, has been named acting vice president for academic affairs, due to the departure of Dr. Denis Paul.
Dr. Maxine Nunez, academic dean for St. Thomas, is going on sabbatical leave effective fall semester.
Kean pledged earlier in a memo to all faculty that the reorganization "will result in a stronger, better-organized, more effective university with the proper autonomy between campuses.''
Asked about the makeup of the transition team, Kean said it comprises "the cabinet and a number of other people who are the primary stakeholders."
Ragster said there actually are several different transition teams working under the "cabinet" — the top administrators from both campuses.
Another change will be the creation of separate heads of the six academic divisions on each campus. At present, there are university-wide chairs, occupied on rotating three-year terms by faculty from both campuses.
All new positions will be occupied on a one-year interim basis, "and the structure will be evaluated on an ongoing basis," Kean said.
Faculty Senate chair Gene Emanuel, who has represented the teaching staff in discussions leading up to the reorganization, told his colleagues at the meeting, "This is going to be a tough sled, a difficult period for all of us." Pledging to work with the administration, he added, "We have to take the step, and watch our step."
Fall semester classes begin in two weeks.

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