FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION
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impressive publications and substantial experience teaching Jamaican undergrad- uates, besides experience working with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and the National Museums of Jamaica. As the year progressed family issues led to Dr. Beier resigning and the Department managed to recruit Dr. Atkinson-Swaby to a tenure-track post to replace him. With no other archaeologists working in the U.W.I. system finding external markers for these classes was resolved by tapping the Institute of Jamaica. Dr. Jonathan Greenland, the Director of the National Muse- ums of Jamaica assessed postgraduate work in Museums and Heritage, while Ms. Evelyn Thompson, MA., Head of Conservation at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and a past-President of the Archaeological Society of Jamaica, was external for our undergraduate Archaeology classes. More intransigent problems arose from the institution of a new University policy preventing replacement faculty from teaching our courses, even on line, before they receive their Jamaican work permits. Up until now such faculty have remained at home and taught their courses on-line until the Ministry processes the necessary work permits. This change meant that the well-qualified Asian historian who the Department had recruited as Dr. Oshikiri’s sabbatical replacement who, by late July had yet to have his visa processed, felt obliged to resign. The current schedule for this administrative process does not mesh easily with hiring replacement faculty internationally. The process of replacing vacancies has been further complicated by a strict enforcement of bans on employing candidates without Jamaican residency. (The turn-around time between the award of sabbaticals and getting a Jamaican work permit processed is too narrow for such a policy to be feasible and if West Indian candidates are not available will require a substantial gap before a fully visa-ed candidate can join a Department. To deal with this such vacancies will have to be identified in Semester 1, rather than half-way through Semester 2). As the U.W.I.’s own post-graduates do not develop second or third teaching fields during their MA programs here, as they do in U.S. and Canadian programs, departments have limited flexibility for plugging specialized vacancies. The institution of this new policy undercut our offerings in Asian history, though a postgraduate student, Ms. Saundrie-Kay Shaw, was recruited and successfully taught the Department’s intro- ductory survey of Chinese history that is a required class for Modern Languages’ B.A. in Chinese. When, near the end of Semester Two, the campus sought to ease its budget by allowing people on sabbatical to extend their absence with an unpaid leave, Dr. Oshikiri, who had been consulting with a local company during her stay at the University of Bologna, accepted this offer. This year Ms. Shaw will teach not only the 2 nd year survey of Chinese history required for Modern Languages’ Chi- nese program, but also a 2 nd year survey of Japanese history for Modern Languages’ Japanese language program. (A course that given the short notice the Department was unable to deliver for them last year). Then, a couple of weeks into Semester One of 2023–24, one more of our temporary faculty, Ms. Shantel Cover, a B.A. and 2017
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