Dr. Gonway-Gono said stakeholders, especially sponsors of students should make sure that their obligation to the university is settled, adding, “This is a tuition based university, by settling your obligations, you will enable us to make sure that quality education is delivered to our students.”
Dr. Yar Donlah Gonway-Gono, President of the United Methodist University on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 challenged Board of Directors, Administration, Faculty, Staff, Students, Stakeholders, and Partners at home and abroad to join the leadership of the United Methodist University in moving the university forward. Speaking to the Press at the Monrovia campus of the university, Dr. Gonway-Gono said stakeholders, especially sponsors of students should make sure that their obligation to the university is settled, adding, “This is a tuition based university, by settling your obligations, you will enable us to make sure that quality education is delivered to our students.”
She told media representatives that the next three hundred sixty-five (365) days will require the collaborative efforts of the Board of Directors, Administration, Faculty, Staff, and Students of the university to do the things that will enhance the future of the institution. She pointed out that some of the infrastructural development that her leadership is undertaking which include the renovation Science and Technology College, the construction of faculty housing unit on the Doemah Town Campus of the UMU are her intentional attempt to ensure that the university move to the Doemah Town campus in Margibi County. “We will move the smaller colleges to the Doemah Town campus before my next anniversary which will be June 22, 2023”, she emphasized.
Dr. Gonway-Gono reiterated her plans to ensure that the curriculum of the UMU is diversified in ways that will make graduates of university job creators and not job seekers. “We will ensure that our students are taught courses that are globally realistic in dealing with the issue of climate change”, she affirmed. She also said School of Marine Sciences, ICT College which now teaches telecommunications, and the partnership between Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST) and the United Methodist University are all ways in which her administration will bring the university on equal footing with other universities in Liberia and around the world.
“The challenge not the be a ‘weak leader non a wicked leader’ has been tested and has given me strength in leading this noble institution”, Dr. Gonway-Gono asserted. She indicated that the strong and fierce wind of change that is blowing across the five campuses of the UMU will make the university a better place for learning in the coming years. “We will make this United Methodist University a center of academic excellence and attraction for the students’ populace in Liberia and the world”, she concluded.
The United Methodist University (UMU) is a private four-year liberal arts institution of higher learning owned by the Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and is located in Monrovia, Liberia. The University has about 5000 students enrolled on five campuses (Monrovia, Gbarnga, Ganta, Gbazon Town, Sinoe, and Doemah Town, Margibi County) across Liberia. Affiliated with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, the University is the only United Methodist Church institution of higher learning in the West Africa Central Conference.
