The UWI Open Campus Appoints two Senior Managers
Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal. Thursday, July 23, 2020 – The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus is pleased to announce the appointment of two Senior Managers to the positions of Deputy Principal and Director of the Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS). These appointments will take effect on August 1, 2020.
Dr Francis O. Severin, Deputy Principal
Dr Francis O. Severin has been appointed to the position of Deputy Principal. He is currently acting Deputy Principal and was previously the Director of the Open Campus’ largest and most distributed Division, the Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS), since October 1, 2013. Prior to his formal assumption of the post of Director OCCS in October 2013, he had acted in that position for long periods between January 2010 and 2013; therefore, effectively serving in that post for nearly one decade.
Dr Severin, a citizen of Dominica, graduated in 1991 from The UWI Cave Hill Campus with the BA degree in History and Social Studies with Education; and from the Mona Campus twice; firstly in 1998 with the MSc degree in Sociology (specializing in Social Policy and Administration); and the PhD degree in Education, in 2006. He served The UWI part-time as Local Tutor in The UWI Distance Education (UWIDEC) Programme, School of Continuing Studies (SCS), in Dominica from 1994 to 1998, facilitating the courses: Introduction to Caribbean History for Law and Social Sciences and Introduction to Sociology of the Caribbean.
On January 1, 1999, he was appointed as Programme Officer in the Office of Administration and Special Initiatives (OASIs), a Centre Unit in the Vice Chancellery, headquartered then on the Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica. In that role he also managed the University’s Alumni Relations portfolio. Between 1999 and 2005, he accomplished several initiatives, including: the reformulation of the framework for Alumni Relations and the revitalization of The UWI’s connections with its alumni in the Caribbean Region, New York, Washington, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Toronto and London; the revision of Ordinance 2 of The UWI Alumni Association; and the drafting of a handbook for alumni chapters. During this period, Dr Severin also served as secretary to the team which formulated and authored the original Report on the Policy and Procedures on Sexual Harassment; co-authored the proposal for the UNESCO/Commonwealth Chair in Education and HIV/AIDS; and conducted a survey of students of the faculties of science and technology (pure and applied sciences) at Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine to comprehend what appeared at the time to be declining interest in science and technology.
In August 2005, Dr Severin returned to Dominica to take up the post of Resident Tutor and Head, School of Continuing Studies. While in that post he participated in the historical transition from the former entities that comprised the Board for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education (NCC’s & DE) to the Open Campus. Drawing from his 1999 co-authored study entitled, “How employers view our graduates: The Non-Campus Countries’ perspective”, he embarked on realising his aim as Resident Tutor/Head to transform /“revolutionize” the public perception of The UWI as an “Ivory Tower” institution, and build in its place a culture of harmony with the public that would allow the latter to embrace The UWI as its own.
As Country Head, Dr Severin inaugurated several lecture series, including the Dame Eugenia Charles Distinguished/Memorial Lecture Series in December 2006, in collaboration with the Head, Centre for Gender and Development Studies, UWI, Cave Hill, Professor Eudine Barriteau; the National Bank of Dominica Ltd./UWI Open Campus Dominica Distinguished National Lecture Series in May 2008; the Dr. Bernard A. Sorhaindo Memorial Lecture Series in July 2008; and the Annual Edward Oliver LeBlanc Memorial Lecture Series, in October 2012. These traditions have continued robustly beyond his departure as Head of Site. He embraced the Calypso art form and hosted several related fora at the Site in collaboration with the relevant local bodies. He launched and institutionalized the Annual Local Recognition of Graduates ceremony in 2007 in Dominica and hosted the Vice Chancellor’s XI vs. Bangladesh Cricket Match and associated activities held for the first time in Dominica in July 2009.
Dr Severin, an enduring proponent of the “Activist University” was often sought after as Head of Site, to offer his views on current issues in various fora, including his popular newspaper column “Pondering” which appeared in The Sun Newspaper from 2011 to 2013. In addition to public education, the visibility and profile of Open Campus Dominica were significantly hoisted under his leadership. He delivered keynote addresses at various engagements, including high school graduation ceremonies; formal dinners; Rotary Investiture Ceremony; Conference of the Caribbean Union of Teachers; Caribbean Association of Principals of Secondary Schools; Installation Ceremony of the Dominica Lions Club and the Leo Club of Dominica; Annual Congress of the Caribbean Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors; Caribbean Association of Fire Fighters; and the Annual Conference of the Caribbean Public Service Association, among several others. He also facilitated numerous workshops for both public and private sector entities. He delivered the inaugural Anguilla Social Security Board/UWI Open Campus Distinguished Lecture on the topic, "Putting people first: Grounding human well-being in a framework of social security" in November 2015 in Anguilla, and the Eleventh Annual Dame Eugenia Charles Distinguished Lecture on the subject, “Them Belly Full, But We Hungry: Insights into Autocratic Rule” in December 2016.
Dr Severin began his tenure as Director OCCS in 2013 and enabled the activism begun as Country Head, Dominica throughout the Sites, especially in the UWI-12. Hailing from what was formerly referred to as a “Non-Campus Country”, he was adamant on debunking the myth of a “fixed headquarters” (that a senior office of the Campus had to be located in Barbados, Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago). With the support of the Campus, therefore, he set up the Director's Office in Roseau, Dominica, and temporarily in St. Lucia, after Hurricane Maria devastated Dominica in 2017. During his tenure, Dr Severin led his distributed Division over the course of two accreditation and one mid-cycle accreditation review preparations (initial accreditation period of 2012/2018, mid-cycle in late 2016 and re-accreditation 2019/2026). He also led the Country Sites through the revolutionary Strengthening Distance Education in the Caribbean (SDEC) Project, from April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2019. This project included the implementation of the complex new Banner Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System which “empowered” the Campus to re-engineer its critical business processes.
Dr Severin has served on numerous Campus and University boards and committees, including: University Council; University Appointments Committee; Board for Undergraduate Studies (BUS); Board for Graduate Studies & Research (BGSR); Finance & General Purposes Committee (F&GPC); Open Campus Academic Board; Senate Committee on Ordinances and Regulations (SCOR)
Campus Evaluations & Promotions Committee (EPC); Campus Appointments Committee (CAC); University and Campus ICT Steering Committees; University Executive Management Team; University Senate and Library Evaluations and Promotions Committee.
He was a member of the One UWI Task Force and the Establishment of a Fifth Campus Task Force, chairing the Student Affairs Subcommittee in the latter. As Director OCCS, he has been a member of the Committee of Deans (COD) since February 2010, serving as Chair of the COD in the Academic Year 2019/2020 and co-chairing the Open Campus’s COVID-19 Emergency Management Team (EMT).
Dr Severin has been the Public Orator of the Open Campus since 2010. He is the first male to hold the Office of Deputy Principal of the Open Campus.
Dr Cheryl Sloley, Director Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS)
Dr Cheryl Sloley has been appointed Director, Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS). She is currently serving as Acting Director and previously served as Deputy Director, Finance, Facilities and HR (Trinidad & Tobago & Jamaica).
Dr Sloley, a Jamaican, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Studies (with Honors) from The University of the West Indies, Mona (1990); a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (1999) and a PhD in Electronic Commerce from The University of the West Indies, Mona (2014). Her Doctoral Thesis was conducted in The Management of Information Systems and was titled “Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Developing Economies: A Review of the Early Adoption and Diffusion of Electronic Commerce in Jamaica and a Framework for its Improvement.”
Dr Sloley brings a wealth of knowledge and valuable experience to the post of Director, having held several senior management positions over her many years of dedicated service to The UWI. She started her career at The UWI in 1991 when she worked in her initial position of Administrative Assistant in the Office of Development & Alumni Relations University Centre. She then served as Project Assistant in The UWI’s Project Office, was seconded to The UWI/CIDA Institutional Strengthening Project as Administrative & Finance Officer and later assumed the position of Administrative Officer at The UWI Centre for Environment and Development (UWICED) before moving on to the then School of Continuing Studies (SCS) in 2001.
By 2002, Dr Sloley assumed the position of Acting Resident Tutor/Head of the largest SCS Centre: Camp Road, Jamaica. In that capacity she was mandated to spearhead a comprehensive administrative and financial restructuring of the Centre. Her significant accomplishments in this position included a 30% increase in student numbers from 2002 to 2004; programme re-engineering: introduction of new courses; the revision of legacy programmes; significant infrastructural development and the implementation of a new marketing thrust.
Dr Sloley, while serving in senior management positions over the years, has had the distinct opportunity of being tasked with several concomitant portfolios. During the years 2008 - 2012 she served in the Office of the Director OCCS as Regional Coordinator for the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados with overall responsibility for the coordination the implementation of the Open Campus’ Strategic Goals and Operational Plans in those jurisdictions. She was also responsible for ensuring student and staff satisfaction, and overseeing the administrative and financial operations of the eleven (11) Open Campus Country Sites in that region.
In October 2012 while managing this portfolio, she also assumed additional responsibility as managerial lead for the Government of Jamaica’s (GOJ) Universal Service Fund (USF) Project Grant of J$105 million to upgrade the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure of ten (10) Open Campus Country Sites in Jamaica.
In 2013, Dr Sloley was then appointed as Deputy Director, Commercial Operations in the OCCS with responsibility for strategic leadership, student and staff portfolio matters as well as OCCS growth and development initiatives. While managing her substantive portfolio with the Open Campus, she continued to serve as Project Manager for the USF project. The ICT infrastructural upgrades resulted in an average 40 - 750% increase in student numbers throughout the Jamaica OCCS Sites over the five (5) year period 2012-2017.
In August 2019 Dr Sloley’s position was redesignated to Deputy Director, Finance, Facilities and HR (Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica). Her strategic leadership and Campus responsibilities included, among other things, the identification of operational and commercial development initiative as well as training and development needs, working in collaboration with Heads of Sites across the region. Dr Sloley has over 22 years’ experience in project development and implementation. She served as Project Sponsor for the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) 2016/2017 Strengthening Distance Education in the Caribbean (SDEC) Project (CDN$1,000,000); Project Manager - UWIOC/Universal Service Fund (USF) ICT Grant of J$105,000,000; Chair, Open Campus Disaster Recovery Committee (2017-2018), spearheaded the recovery and renovation of the Open Campus Dominica, BVI, Anguilla and St Kitts and Nevis Sites following the destruction of Hurricanes Irma and Maria; Project/Finance Officer, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Dr Sloley’s impressive portfolio and her dedication to duty are the hallmark that spans her career over the years. She is an excellent leader who exhibits exceptional interpersonal and team-building skills honed over 22 years’ experience as a UWI administrator, 15 of which were spent at the senior management level. She fosters a people-centric culture through the adoption of a transformational leadership style in the supervision of staff at all levels throughout 42 Open Campus Country Sites across 16 Caribbean countries.
Dr Sloley serves on various constituted bodies of The UWI and the Open Campus such as Campus Council; Academic Board and the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Steering Committee. She also acted as Director, OCCS on several occasions between 2013 and 2020. She currently serves as a member of the University Senate; the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee on “UWI: Imagining 2020/21 and Beyond” and is Convenor for “The Online University”: A Subcommittee for “UWI: Imagining 2020/21 and Beyond.” She has undertaken several research and consultancies and was responsible for the Establishment of a National Registry of Volunteers for the Council of Voluntary Social Services (CVSS) in Jamaica.
Dr Sloley is also a commissioned Justice of the Peace for the Parish of Kingston and St Andrew, Jamaica. She also served as the first female President of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains (RCLP), Jamaica in 2007-08; was the recipient of the Rotary International’s Governor of District 7020 President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the RCLP (2004-05); earned the first Gold Award for the RCLP in 2009 and was conferred by RCLP with the highest Order in Rotary, being inducted as a Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) in 2009 for outstanding service as President of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains.
She is the proud mother of two sons, Christopher and Dominic.
The Open Campus wishes these two senior managers success in their new appointment as they continue to serve the people of the region on behalf of The UWI and the Open Campus.
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Dr. Francis Severin |
Dr. Cheryl Sloley |
About The UWI
For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. The world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean for 2018 and 2019.The UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
