The Office of the Open Campus Principal, Jamaica. 23 December 2016 - The leadership, staff and students of the UWI Open Campus mourn the passing of our Campus Council Chair Sir Dwight Venner on Thursday December 22, 2016. Sir Dwight was a regional giant whose passion, dedication and commitment to the development of the people of the region were legendary. It was therefore no surprise that in 2008 Sir Dwight agreed to serve as the first Chairman of the newly formed Open Campus, a post that he held right up to the time of his passing.
Sir Dwight was committed to the success of the Campus which he saw as integral to the development of the human capital in his beloved Caribbean. As a UWI Alumnus and former Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Mona, Sir Dwight was resolute that the UWI had to be the engine for change and growth of the people of the region. He was indefatigable in his advocacy of the UWI Open Campus and its mission to serve the underserved of the region.
In his statement to the Campus Council in 2015, Sir Dwight stressed that the University of the West Indies was ideally situated to lead the regional renewal of the Caribbean, and that the Open Campus played a seminal role in this effort. His own contributions to this mission, particularly through his 26 years of service to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank as Governor, have been transformational for this region.
The Open Campus is grateful for his leadership, his support and his guidance over the past 8 years. We will feel his absence deeply as we move towards our new strategic plan for 2017-2022, but are comforted by the knowledge that he has helped to lay a strong foundation for the future of the Campus, the University and his beloved region.
We offer our sincere condolences to his wife and children on this sad loss of a beloved husband and father. The entire region shares in mourning the loss of this lion of a man whose quintessential Caribbean persona will live on through the institutions he built.
About The UWI
Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a fully-fledged, regional University with over 50,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with three physical campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and an Open Campus. The UWI serves 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. The UWI’s faculty and students come from more than 40 countries and The University has collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. The UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) Visit www.uwi.edu