Charles speaks of tough times at COSTAATT, better to come under new minister

Rodney gets a corsage from Senator Lyndira Oudit

UN Ambassador Rodney Charles said on Thursday the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of T&T (Costaatt) has contributed significantly to tertiary education in Trinidad and Tobago despite attempts to undermine it.

Speaking at the institution's 10th anniversary celebration in San Fernando Charles noted that the college was able to take tertiary education into the country into the 21st century, despite the efforts of a shareholder whom he did not name, who tried to stifle Costaatt in order to develop the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

“Its first decade was characterised by benign neglect and Cinderella treatment by a shareholder who could not bring himself to understand the mission of this institution and the critical role it was playing in our country’s future,” he said.

“Budgets were limited and siphoned off to UTT, and other institutions, in pursuit of the elitist dream. Every initiative we developed, like COMPASS, was co-opted,”

Charles, who developed the schools Journalism school and was Senior Policy Adviser to the President of Costaatt before being handed a diplomatic appointment, said for nearly five years the college had to endure the step-child treatment as it occupied office and classroom space at the Eric Williams Medical Complex.

“Often, students while walking to classes could witness dead bodies being moved to the mortuary, or relatives crying for their departed,” he said.

He said Costaatt own a single building. "Those which we owned as John Donaldson and San Fernando Technical Institutes and ECIAF were taken away literally like a thief in the night and handed lock, stock and barrel to the UTT," he said. "You think it easy?"

Charles said the roadblocks did not stop the staff and administration who helped develop a quality institution with the help of Emmanuel Gonzales who was appointed President in 2008.

Charles said there is hope for great things to come now that there is "an enlightened Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education". The minister is Fazal Karim.

Acting president of Student Affairs Dr Meryle Hoyte praised Charles for his vision. “When I saw in the newspapers that UWI was establishing a school of journalism, I said what you talking bout?...Rodney Charles did that with us.”

Hoyte described the journalism department as "second to none".