byA. James PierceThe International College ofthe Cayman Islands
Profiles in Caymanian Education
byA. James Pierce
With the re-opening of all schools, privateand public in the islands after the traditional Summer break,and the increased focus on educational facilities available tomeet the demand required for quality learning - Cayman Net Newsassigned a regular contributor to develop a new series of articlesfor our readers.
Appropriately, the first facility to take the Cayman Islands beyondHigh School to College level, the International College of theCayman Islands initiates this feature:
For the past 30 years, the InternationalCollege of the Cayman Islands (ICCI) has been providing the CaymanIslands with tertiary education at its Hirst Road campus in Newlands.
And through all the changes that have occurred in the Islands,over those 30 years student body and personnel at the Collegeone thing has remained the same: the mission of the College. ItsMission.
According to Dr. Elsa Cummings, President of the College, theoriginal mission of ICCI was to "fill the void for tertiaryeducation in the Cayman Islands" and to provide Caymanianswith affordable access to quality college-level study.
Now, three decades later - a generation later - into the College'shistory, the mission is the same that it has always been. "ThisCollege has survived, grown, and matured," said Dr. Cummings,"by staying committed to the improvement of Caymanian educationrather than by pursuing personal gain."
Of course, the road hasn't always been easy. Dr. Cummings recallsthat she and her husband, the late Dr. J. Hugh Cummings, knewwhen they founded the College that they would face many obstacles.
With their commitment to education, and by sacrificing personalwealth and comfort, the Cummings family knew that they would encountermany financial obstacles during the life of the College. Theyhave also faced, and indeed continue to experience, some obstaclesthat Dr. Cummings describes as "unexpected."
She related with a look of satisfaction the time when she andher husband were told back in 1970 that there would be no marketin the Cayman Islands for college-level education. "If therewasn't a market," she asked with a smile, "then whydoes the Island now have three colleges?"
Despite the obstacles they have overcome and the inevitable obstaclesthe College will face, Dr. Cummings however remains positive andis filled with pride at the success of ICCI. From its modest beginnings,when the land on which the institution sits, which was donatedby the late National Hero of the Cayman Islands - Mr. Jim Bodden,and by adhering to its original mission, the College has growninto an internationally recognized senior college with a varietyof degree programmes and academic disciplines.
According to the 2000 College Catalog, ICCI now offers Associate'sdegrees in nine academic disciplines, Bachelor's degrees in eightacademic disciplines, and Master's degrees in Human Resource Managementand Business Administration.
The College also offers college preparatory and developmentalcourses in math skills, writing skills, and reading comprehension,and conducts quarterly seminars in Miami that all degree-seekingstudents must attend at some point during their education.
In addition to the growth of its academic programs, ICCI has alsoseen a phenomenal growth in its student body. The College nowhas over 600 alumni in all parts of the world, including manyprominent political and business leaders here in the Cayman Islands.
During the past academic year alone, the College averaged wellover 200 students each quarter, and enrollment for the upcomingFall Quarter 2000, which begins September 11, is expected to maintainthe trend of excellent attendance.
Now, just a few days before its 30th anniversary, Dr. Cummingssays the College has reached a critical point in its history,just as the territory has reached its own critical point.
"The year 2000 has been planned as an action year,"Dr. Cummings has said on several occasions, and plans for futuregrowth and improvement of the College are already being discussed.
One such improvement would include the restructuring of the Collegeinto several divisions: an undergraduate division, the graduateschool, a continuing education division that would focus on collegepreparatory and developmental courses for learners of all ages,and a technological division that would compliment the courseofferings in each of the other divisions.
Such restructuring, says Dr. Cummings, "would allow eachstudent to receive the specific type of education that he or sheneeds and would enable the College to more thoroughly meet theeducational needs of the community."
Dr. Cummings also envisions a campus beautification project, includingthe renovation of the current facilities as well as the constructionof additional facilities, in order to better accommodate a largernumber of students and faculty.
"The new facilities would allow for the College's programmesto be extended and even perhaps to include care and learning centresfor small children, senior citizens, and those with special needs",she says.
Dr. Cummings would also like to see the College's other real estateholdings developed in order to create a more diversified and accessiblesetting for the College. With these new programmes and facilities,ICCI would then have the resources needed to pursue universitystatus the enhanced international accreditation in order to becomethe world-class educational institution that was first envisioned30 years ago.
"The dreams and thoughts and plans for the future must bekept in their correct context", Dr. Cummings explains, adding"however, all future improvements of the College will beimplemented in order to better serve the community of the CaymanIslands."
"Part of the problem of the perception of higher educationis that it is only for the elite and academically inclined,"she comments. "ICCI is and always has been committed to lifelonglearning. That is what the Island needs, and that is what thisCollege must do in order to continue to survive."
"This institution must continue to serve local needs,"she continued. "Our community members must be part of theirown country's infrastructure to avoid being at the mercy of outsiders.Caymanians must be educated in order to see the value of self-improvementso that they can be inspired to want to improve. That is the roleof education."
With the College's purpose and mission clearly articulated, Dr.Cummings believes the ball is in the community's court. Now morethan ever, Caymanians must be educationally competitive if theyare to survive in the global market, and ICCI is the place wherethey can receive affordable, local, quality education.
"If the mission of educating Caymanians is a worthy mission,and if the country intends to not rely on the constant importationof educated individuals from other countries", says Dr. Cummings,"then the community must lend its vision and support to ensurethat the College survives and its mission is fulfilled."