From Hurricanes to Hope: Rebuilding UVI’s Future

University of the Virgin Islands President Dr. George reflects on the challenges of leading a university still grappling with the aftermath of devastating hurricanes. She speaks candidly about the lingering trauma in the community, why survival mode can’t become a permanent mindset, and how she encouraged the institution to imagine what was possible again. She hopes the focus on resilience and trust will elevate the UVI community shift from looking backward at loss to looking forward with hope and determination.

Yeah, it's been a homecoming. That's how I describe it. I love my alma mater. Of course, I'm also an alum of Emory University, and I love Emory, as an alum and did my post-doctoral fellow at Duke. So I have a special place in my heart for Duke as well. But there's no place like home, right? Not only is it my first institution, but it's also where I grew up.

And so I understand the context, the local context, the culture in which it sets the challenges. And I understand it from a student perspective. So the first president to actually have graduated from the institution. So I have an insider's look. But I also knew that. Right. It's difficult for what is it a prophet to be recognizing his own town?

But I think, you know, people appreciated that. I brought back with me a wealth of experiences and that the one thing that I think they knew and trusted that if I felt that the university was good enough for me to go to and graduate from, and how much I value what that foundation provided me to then catapult into, you know, the very successful career I've had.

So there's that trust that, you know, I had good intentions, which exactly. They have all been good. And so this first year has been sort of a relearning what the institution has done, been doing since I left 30 years ago. So I've been tracking it, but of course not from an insider's perspective. And, you know, recognizing the great things that have happened over the past 30 years through the, you know, the presidents that have preceded me when I was a student or Ken was president, and I love him as a president.

He was compassionate, very student focused. And then after him, of course, there were two presidents since then. So coming back to the university and really honoring what had been done by my predecessors, by the faculty and staff, the amazing alumni community and of course, the support from the government. Right. Their steadfast support. And so, you know, the work began on day one, like day one, of course, listening, but also, you know, first day on the job, addressing issues that needed to be addressed.

So no time for settling in and orientation. None of that. Just getting to know, listening to folks responding, making decisions, and also just being very excited and proud about, you know, what had been accomplished in Marine science and nursing and business and agriculture. But also, I was very, surprised by, you know, eight years later, the Territory University still being involved in so much recovery, still after the hurricanes of 2017 of Irma and Maria.

So that was a surprise. And people were still talking about, oh, it's because of the hurricane. Because of the hurricane. I finally told people, listen, I get it. I recognize as a health care provider that my community, my employees, were honestly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And so once I, you know, share that perspective. But I get it.

You know, you're still traumatized. You're still in recovery. But we still have work to do. We still have to move on. And we can't use that as a clutch or a crutch. I'm not going to take away from the fact that that happened. That exists. But we have to move on. We have to move forward [while] still recognizing the work that we need to do.

But we can not. I said, don't use that as any excuse for anything. And so from then, the started to move on, to heal, to think about what's possible, not just every single day looking backwards. So then they started to look forward to yes, we can do this. Yes, we've been struggling for all these years, but failure is not an option.

We are as resilient people tell our territory University and you know, no, let's dream about what's possible. Yes, we have these Herculean things that we need to address, but let's start thinking about the future because we can't stay stuck because students need us now and they need us in the future. So it's been amazing to see people start to get excited about what's possible.

For me as president, to put some money and resources where my mouth is and everyone knows the whispers in the hallways, or if it's something that would support students, she's going to support it and to hear them say and whisper that it makes me smile. Right? Because others are seeing that. Because they're seeing that, I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

And of course, also reminding employees that my saying that students are first is in say that you were last. You just says that they're first. And our job is to support them first. We've all had our turns, right. I will still always invest in employees, but we only have 2 to 4 years to affect these students.

Whereas, you know, with a great employee relationship, you know, we have a longer time to make sure you get your professional development, you get you need to get help. But these students have a very short window, and, you know, they need us to help them, you know, on their life journey so that they can one day be sitting in seats like us to be doing some of the things that, you know, we're now privileged to do.

So it's been, it's been amazing. It's been a whirlwind. It has been non stop. But my mantra is where does it sound? It's better to be busy than bored. So I love it.