25 December 2019
Dear Colleagues,
Here is Christmas again upon us. And the new year lying just less than a week away. How time does fly – days turn into months and months into years, and years into decades. Life flows fast. And so we need to make sure our time is well spent. A minute should be well lived and appreciated. And to thank God for every minute given us. And this year, we can humbly say we have not done too badly. Our student population now stands at 16,000 in addition to another 4,000 at postgraduate level. This brings the total student population to 20,000. And by the beginning of next academic year, the total student population will hit 24,000, the highest since the teaching began in October 1977.
Moreover, we are adding three new schools to our academic portfolio. These are: School of Journalism, Media, and Communication Studies; School of Mathematics; and School of Veterinary Medicine. And we were delighted to be joined by many colleagues after serving their terms as Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors of other public universities; and almost all of them took up new administrative roles as deans of schools or directors of institutes. We are very grateful to them for enriching and strengthening our University.
Just before we broke for Christmas a Japanese Corner in the Main Library was inaugurated. Our campus is witnessing unprecedented effort at renovation and we are planning to inaugurate the maintained Samani Hall by the end of January 2020. Our graduation ceremony for class 2018 which took place on 16 November was a spectacular success. The implementation of new salary structure has brought smiles to the faces of our staff and their families. In short, there is much to celebrate and thank God for. We also regret the untimely and sudden death of our colleague, Wafa’a Hussieni in November 2019. We will miss her greatly.
All in all, we thank God for all the progress made in 2019, and we look forward to a new year full of hope and pregnant with success stories. Together, impossible will be possible.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2020.
Prof. Dr. John Akech
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