2005 Year in Review

Starting a University from Scratch -- Again

The college council leads a processional to a ceremony marking the official opening of Njala University on February 12, 1965.

Njala University students listen to speeches given at the official opening of the college. There were 101 students enrolled in 1965.

In 1964, Bill Thompson traveled to the west coast of Africa to build an agricultural university in Sierra Leone from the ground up. At the time, Thompson was a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois. He and his wife Gerry had three children living at home. Their sons Bill and Jack were students at the U of I and daughter Julie was a senior in high school.

"After I was asked to go, Gerry and I thought about it for about two weeks and decided the move would be too disruptive of our family. Among other things, we didn't want to miss Julie's graduation," said Thompson. "When I told Dean Louis Howard of our decision, he emphasized the importance of the Sierra Leone project to the College and University and asked that we reconsider our decision and find a way to accept the challenge."

Eventually, the Thompsons were able to find living arrangements for Julie with a family friend and the University provided an Orchard Downs apartment for their sons. Part of the agreement made with Howard, who was dean of the College of Agriculture at the time, included that they would be allowed to take vacation time the following summer to tour England and Western Europe with their children. "That trip and the seven weeks the children spent in Sierra Leone during the summer of 1965 provided great experiences and family memories for all of us," said Thompson.

Thompson was the leader of the U of I team in Sierra Leone for two years -- building a university from scratch. "We helped select the first class of students, arranged for classrooms and laboratories and faculty and student housing, set up curricula, and ordered textbooks and supplies," he said.

The U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided the financial support for the U of I team, graduate degree level education of Sierra Leoneans at UIUC and other universities, and teaching and research equipment and supplies. The Sierra Leone government provided the Sierra Leone faculty and staff and resources for buildings and physical plant operation at Njala University College.

Thompson said, "After 10 years of UIUC involvement NUC was making a major impact by supplying graduates for employment in the agriculture sector and teachers throughout the country in the primary and secondary schools." But in 1991, war broke out in Sierra Leone, and by 1995, the Njala campus was destroyed. The university was relocated to the capital city of Freetown in 1996 -- a move that was intended to be temporary.

Despite a difficult decade, with over half of its faculty members leaving because of the civil war, Njala has managed to hang on, now looking forward to re-inhabiting its abandoned campus and rebuilding it, adding 21st century technology and expanding its curricula beyond agriculture and teacher education.

Today, a little more that 40 years later, the U of I is preparing to help rebuild that institution after its campus was destroyed in 1995 by vandals during a civil war. 'The war was a mixture of opportunism, lawlessness, a little political motivation and a lot of vandalism. It was shear vandalism that destroyed Njala University," said Eugene Terry.

Terry, who initiated this déjà vu collaboration between Njala and the U of I, is a native of Sierra Leone and was one of the first of the young Njala faculty selected to pursue a Ph.D. degree in plant pathology from the University of Illinois in 1970. He then returned to join the faculty at Njala for several years following which he took leadership positions in two international agricultural research and education institutions in West Africa (The international Institute of tropical Agriculture IITA and the West Africa Rice Development Association WARDA). He later joined the World Bank in Washington DC. Terry is now an independent consultant working on agricultural institutional development and technology transfer.

In May 2004, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I hosted a 40th anniversary of the 1964 agreement. Terry discussed the possibilities of joining once again to rebuild the university. "We thought the 40th anniversary would be a good time to talk about a reengagement to start the effort to get Njala back to its original location," said Terry. "I was just the lightning rod."

Once some matching funding is secured from the Sierra Leone government, the U of I will proceed with its rebuilding efforts. "The U of I will provide support where it has expertise -- the specifics will be determined after a scoping study is completed -- looking at what is required to address the economic, agriculture, food and nutrition needs in Sierra Leone," said Terry.

"In some ways, it may be easier the second time around. There are now many well-educated Sierra Leoneans in the areas of food, agriculture and education. External communications are greatly improved," said Thompson. "But following the civil war the country is faced with many needs and limited resources. In 1964, the country was blessed with the enthusiasm and confidence of its new independence. It had stable political leadership and strong external support."

Asked if he'd do it again if given the opportunity, Thompson said without hesitating, "Sure! Our team and those that followed during the 10 years made an impact. We knew we were doing important work. I developed a better understanding of the many facets of a land-grant type university." He continued, "It changed my career. When I got back I taught with more emphasis on international affairs, set up a new course on the economics of agricultural development, and went on to lead the International Soybean Program (INTSOY) and became associate dean for international agriculture. None of that would have happened if Gerry and I had not accepted Dean Howard's challenge to go to Sierra Leone."

by  Editor, theCity1.com
May 27, 2005