11 He was the first person in the Faculty of Engineering to be made a Reader, a British academic title we have since abolished but which was awarded solely on research excellence. He received a personal professorship in 1998, and when he got the ViceChancellor’s Award for Excellence, it was for research as well as public and university service. I first got to know Clem in the mid-1990s, when he was Campus Coordinator, GS&R, and I was a member both of the Campus Committee and of the newly constituted University Board for GS&R. Along with Julian Duncan and others, we worked hard to upgrade and expand the campus effort in graduate education and research. I was impressed with his passion for this key aspect of UWI’s remit, his insistence that excellent and relevant research was what justified the spending of tax-payers’ money on the University. Even after he demitted office as Campus Coordinator and became Dean of Engineering, I remember that when Frank Gumbs, his successor as Coordinator, fell ill, he and I shared his duties for most of a semester. It was no surprise when Clem was appointed Pro-ViceChancellor for GS in 2007, though as it turned out he held that post for only a few months. The friendship we forged while working on GS&R matters continued during Clem’s tenure as Dean of Engineering; we would meet and talk over UWI events, developments and gossip from time to time. As it happened I was Interim Principal
during the last half of 2007; I had no doubt that Clem was the strongest candidate for the substantive post and was genuinely pleased when he took up office at the start of 2008. We continued to talk quite often, even after I retired in 2010. As many would be aware, the responsibilities for all Campus Principals can be arduous at times, and Clem was certainly not exempt from the considerable challenges that prevailed during his tenure. However, he always found a way to effectively manage the various stakeholder relationships that are inherent in the UWI’s administrative landscape. Ultimately his efforts were always to represent the University’s interests as strongly as any situation allowed. What distinguished Clem as Principal, for me, was first his absolute loyalty to the University and especially to St. Augustine, effectively his only employer and academic home since he received his Ph.D. while still in
his twenties. The second was his insistence that UWI was a research university and that it was the quality of our graduate education and training, and the research carried out by postgraduates and academic staff, which separated UWI from all the other tertiary institutions in the region. (Of course, this is not to ignore all his other achievements as Principal, nor to suggest he regarded undergraduate education—and we know that there was a massive increase in undergraduate enrollment under his watch—as of lesser importance.) For me, Clem Sankat is the quintessential UWI person. He came to UWI as a teenager; he stayed for nearly half a century; he served; he made a difference; he has left a positive legacy for his University and his Campus. Bridget Brereton is Emerita Professor of History, UWI, St. Augustine
Prof. Emerita, Bridget Brereton chatting with Campus Principal, Clement Sankat in 2011.
STAN MAY - JUNE 2016