- Michael SloleyWest Indies fast bowler and Jamaican Ambassador-at-large, Courtney Walsh, left, acknowledges the cheers after being presented with his latest accolade, an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies, by Chancellor Sir Shridath "Sonny" Ramphal during the university's graduation ceremony on Friday.
FEMALES AGAIN dominated the outgoing class at the University of the West Indies, but the top sportsman was the main attraction at Friday's graduation exercise held on the Mona campus.
Of the 2,358-strong graduating class of 2000 at UWI, only some 554, or 23.5 per cent - less than a quarter - were men.
Making this ominous revelation at yesterday's outdoor ceremony Chancellor Sir Shridath Ramphal, as he had on several such occasions before, lamented the continuing manifestation of male marginalization, an increasingly recurring theme of the past decade or two. In his opening remarks to commence the ceremony, Sir Shridath described it as being of "great concern to the university," and charged that it should be "a matter of great concern to the entire society."
Except for mention of one student who died before graduation, the rest of the two-hour ceremony for the presentation of graduates was far less sombre, and was highlighted by the conferring of honorary doctorate degrees on Bahamas Governor-General Sir Orville Turnquest; Pakistan-born Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund; and Jamaican and West Indies cricket star, fast-bowler Courtney Walsh.
Laughter and thunderous applause sounded and a single star illuminated the cloudless twilight sky as UWI Public Orator Edward Baugh commenced the citation to Mr. Walsh with the words: "...somewhere out there in the night, some hapless batsman awaits, unknown and unknowing...to make a dubious intervention into history by being the four hundred and eighty-fourth Test victim of the wily Walsh."
