March 11, 2002 – Two days after the University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees announced its selection of UVI Senior Vice President and Provost LaVerne E. Ragster to become the institution's next president, faculty members held a teleconferenced meeting on the St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses to vote on a resolution regarding the selection.
"The vote was about the process of the board's selection," Patricia Harkins-Pierre, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, said Monday evening following the afternoon meeting that packed the Chase Auditorium on the St. Thomas campus and the Melvin Evans Center on St. Croix.
"We don't consider it to be rejecting any particular candidate, but we have serious concerns about the board's process in selecting the next university president," she said.
Harkins-Pierre, an associate professor of English, said the executive committee met Sunday afternoon to hear from Gene Emanuel, the faculty representative to the Board of Trustees, and also an associate professor of English.
"At that meeting we decided to call today's meeting to present and vote on a resolution," Harkins-Pierre said.
She said a letter from the faculty would be hand-delivered to Auguste E. Rimpel Jr., UVI board chair, on Tuesday morning.
"As soon as that letter is in his hands, we will release the results of our vote," she said, making it clear no statement would be issued before that time.
Ragster was selected Saturday by the trustees from a field of three finalists recommended by its Presidential Search Committee from 27 applicants who responded to a nationwide search begun last August for a successor to President Orville Kean, who will retire in September. The other finalists were Robert Jennings of Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Laurence I. Peterson, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and tenured professor of chemistry at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga.
Ragster, who holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California at San Diego, has served for the last three years as UVI senior vice president and provost, the No. 2 position in the university administration. Her career spans more than 20 years at UVI and includes more than a decade of teaching and research, in addition to eight years of senior academic leadership and institutional planning assignments.
A St. Thomas native, Ragster graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School and received her B.S. in biology and chemistry from the University of Miami and her master's in biology from San Diego State University. A professor of marine biology at UVI, she has served as director of the Eastern Caribbean Center and as vice president for research and public service. She has been a sub-secretary general of the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes, coordinator of the Consortium of Caribbean Universities for Natural Resource Management, president of the Caribbean Studies Association, board chair of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and vice president of the Caribbean Conservation Association.
Kean, who in 1990 became UVI's third president, has been with the university for 35 years, first teaching mathematics and later in administrative posts. His selection, too, followed a nationwide candidate search. He, too, is a St. Thomas native.
On Friday, the UVI St. Croix campus Student Government Association endorsed Jennings for president. Marthious Clavier, president of the campus SGA, wrote in a letter to the Board of Trustees, "We believe he has what it takes to bring our university to the next level. After his presentation, the students on campus … talked about nothing else." Jennings had addressed the St. Croix students at a campus meeting on Thursday.
Calling Jennings a "well-rounded individual with global connections," Clavier continued, "Most importantly, his revenue-generating techniques have been quite successful for several other universities … and this is something we definitely need here at UVI."
Jennings also spoke to students on the St. Thomas campus on Friday. On Monday, a campus source who requested anonymity said, "The students were very impressed with Jennings and his background. They were for his selection."
Jennings is currently executive vice president and chief operating officer of Future Focus, a futurist think-tank engaged in research and training at the Babcock Graduate School of Management. He received his Ed.D. degree in administration and policy studies from Atlanta University in Atlanta and has served as vice president for development at four southeastern U.S. universities.
Peterson received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Yale University. He began his academic career at South Dakota State University after a substantial business career that included having been president of two companies that he formed as well as vice president for research and development at two major U.S. chemical companies.
