BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - DOCTOR Kelvin Daly, who was installed as the second President of the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) on September 1, 2013, has called for the building of a new CFBC campus in the future if the college is to truly achieve its noble objectives.
Delivering his inaugural speech at the CFBC’s main campus before the learning institution’s Board of Governors, government officials, senior civil servants, faculty, staff and students of the CFBC, family and friends, Dr. Daly said “if CFBC is to accomplish all of these noble objectives and to do so in a timeframe that is reasonable, I am afraid that our present confines will prove an impossible impediment to overcome”.
“In other words, Mr. Chairman, we cannot get there from here. We must build a new campus,” Dr. Daly said to thunderous applause.
“Our greatest hurdle is not the quantum of funds needed to build a new college but rather the commitment and determination to do so. The monies will flow through all manner of creative and standard channels once the commitment is fully embraced by all constituencies.
“Let us build a campus that while bold and daring in its application is accommodating, family friendly and accessible to all. A campus whose arms embrace not only the academic and the technical but also community health and wellness, performing arts, sports; a vibrant repository of our culture and history. Let us build a campus that is truly ‘green’, signalling our commitment to energy and water efficiency and sustainability, a commitment to leave this world a little better than we found it,” Dr. Daly said.
“Which road must we take if CFBC’s promise of greater community outreach and engagement is to be realised? A road that encourages that little boy from the Village and that little girl from Charlestown to begin their own journeys and dream of things yet unseen. Perhaps the 2024 Olympics may see a new champion in swimming coming from our aquatics centre,” Dr. Daly added.
While speaking of improvements in the physical infrastructure of the college, Dr. Daly also underscored the need for students to be given a quality education and faculty to be equipped with the essential tools to carry out their work.
“To support and inspire greatness, we at CFBC must create the type of learning environment, the type of teaching environment that will deliver on that ideal; an environment that generates and nurtures essential qualities and skills in our graduates. They must become self-aware and to know their rightful place in the rich tapestry of human culture.
“They must be taught to appreciate and respect the richness of our physical and natural world. We must create an environment that permeates and saturates their minds with critical and creative thinking skills, communication skills, technology literacy, teamwork and problem solving skills; an environment that promotes moral, ethical and social responsibilities not just for self but for the collective good of our communities and our country.
“We must create an environment in which our faculty and staff are not stretched to the breaking point, or become disillusioned. They must be afforded the resources, training, physical and financial support that incentivizes even greater commitment and productivity. The strength of this institution is directly proportional to the strength of the faculty. Thus, while I applaud with great fervor the expansion of the scholarship programme for students, I would love to see the same attention and courtesies be extended to our faculty,” Dr. Daly said.
Dr. Daly said that we all subscribe to the “same premise that education and economic success are inextricably linked.”
Dr. Daly, who is Nevisian by birth, is an able educational administrator and an ardent agriculturalist. He served for six years as a graduate teacher at the Charlestown Secondary School and Sixth Form College in Nevis and then moved on to become Director of Agriculture and ultimately as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Housing, Cooperatives and Fisheries in Nevis.
Dr. Daly’s predecessor, Dr. Hermia Morton Anthony, resigned as President of the CFBC on August 31, 2013. She served as President for two years.
