News Releases

Building Renamed in honour of Sir Alister

For Release Upon Receipt - October 30, 2009

Cave Hill


Caribbean citizen, former diplomat and scholar, Sir Alister McIntyre, was showered with accolades for nearly two hours on October 22, 2009. He also had two honours - formal and informal - bestowed on him; the former Centre for Multi-racial Studies was renamed in his honour, while CARICOM’s top employee informally dubbed him “Icon of the Caribbean Community” (ICC).

 

Sir Alister’s name was permanently linked to the new CARICOM Research Park where the Alister McIntyre Building was unveiled in a ceremony attended by a number of local and regional dignitaries. Among them were included President of the Barbados Senate, Branford Taitt, Leader of the Opposition in Barbados Mia Mottley, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Principal of the Cave Hill campus, Sir Hilary Beckles, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM Dennis Kellman MP, retired regional diplomat Sir Shridath Ramphal and regional real estate mogul, Paul Altman.

 

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. George Belle, who presided over the ceremony, described the naming of the building as a celebration of someone who had “done so much to advance the region”.

 

He noted that the building would be headquarters for a proposed Centre for Integration Studies, promoting “sustained and sustainable engagement with the regional integration process”.

 

This, he said, was an important institution, given the difficult paradox faced by Caribbean politicians in carrying the process forward. “From 2003 there was a lot of concern about governance of the movement, including the single market and economy, since the leadership has been distracted because it is a community of sovereign states and (there’s been a) need for politicians to keep focus on their constituencies.

 

“The centre can provide sustainable focus… The UWI, unlike the politicians, has a regional constituency of West Indian people, which makes us well placed to carry forward the process.”

 

Giving full support to the renaming of the building, Secretary General of CARICOM Dr. Edwin Carrington said: “When the full history of Caribbean integration is written, one name that is sure to feature among the pantheon of its economic and intellectual architects is Meredith Alister McIntyre…

 

“You have served this region with distinction, intellectual rigour and exemplary commitment, whether at the CARICOM  Secretariat, UWI or the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.

 

“It is fitting therefore that this place of learning should choose to honour you in this lasting manner. Even more fitting is the location of this building in the CARICOM Research Park… The development of this region and its integration have been the foci of so much of Sir Alister’s life’s work, and a building bearing his name could not be better sited than in this place…

 

“His heart has been in all things Caribbean… Today I want to add my own title to my friend, colleague and mentor, and that is ICC, Icon of the Caribbean Community.”

 

Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of Cave Hill Campus, Sir Hilary Beckles, spoke highly of Sir Alister’s work to rescue the university during its most challenging period.

 

“There is no doubt in my mind, having worked with him in the 1990s, that given the critical moment of our university with the economies in recession and the challenges facing the region in financing the university, the fear and the doubt we had for the sustainability of the university … there is no doubt that Sir Alister saved the university.

 

“It was a difficult time. Budgets were being cut and campuses were shrinking. Sir Alister came to UWI, restructured our budget systems, reorganised our governance patterns, re-energised our faculties and researchers, inspired our students, and critically, went into the global arena and found millions and millions of dollars to rebuild and refurbish our university. The Cave Hill Campus benefited tremendously from that financial injection Sir Alister brought … This building will house the soul and spirit of Sir Alister…”

 

On Sir Alister’s distinguished service to the region, President of the Senate of Barbados, Branford Taitt said: “Back in 1974 when it became clear that we would lose that Caribbean giant Willie (Sir William) Demas, who had literally single-parented the Caribbean Community, the question on the minds of almost every CARICOM minister was: “with whom could we possibly replace Willie?” The answer was not long in coming for there had been another Caribbean colossus from the Spice Isle of whom we had all become happily aware. It is that distinguished gentleman that we have come here to bring praise and offer tribute…

 

“Sir, all of us who have been in any way associated with this Cave Hill Campus of UWI are eternally grateful to you … You have been eminently successful!”

 

In a message read by Belle, Chancellor of UWI, Sir George Alleyne, described Sir Alister as “a true icon of Caribbean regionalism to whom the region and … the UWI owe much”. “His brilliant economic work on monetary studies in the Institute of Social and Economic Research, and his leadership of CARICOM as Secretary General would have been reason enough to perpetuate his name through a building on the campus.

 

“But we at the university have even more reasons to be grateful to him and record that gratitude. He has left an indelible stamp on the university through his vice chancellorship, but I think his finest contribution was as architect of the Grand Anse Declarations in which the CARICOM heads of Government affirmed the regional nature of our university.”

 

Vice-Chancellor, E. Nigel Harris, also in a tribute read by Belle, said: “His is a legacy of accomplishment and service… [This building] will house three symbols of the coming together of people scattered across the Caribbean Sea – the Federal Archives, the Caribbean Lexicography Project and the Caribbean Research Project…

 

“It is only fitting that this building housing these three critical regional activities will bear his name…”

 

Responding to the many tributes, Sir Alister said: “This university … should serve as a guide and lamp post for the development of a Caribbean identity. To see so many distinguished Caribbean names recognised on so many buildings and other facilities provides a sober reminder to all of us that we are not here simply for personal accomplishment, whether by way of the acquisition of degrees, the publication of learned papers or the engagement in highly intellectual discourse.

 

“We are here also to establish, reinforce and extend our own personages as members of a Caribbean Community, not bound by any legislative parchment or any decision of a council, assembly or other inter-government organ, but bound firmly together by our own understanding of from whence we have come, for what we are experiencing here, and the uniqueness of that experience, and for what we owe to this generation … and invariably the region.”

 

 

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