Sirleaf Dedicates Tubman University

Last Saturday, February 27, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf cut the ribbon to inaugurate the first university in southeastern Liberia, the William V.S. Tubman University (TU) in Harper, Cape Palmas, Maryland County.

TU will bring tertiary education closer to students finishing high school in the country’s southeastern region.

The dedication ceremony was attended by several cabinet ministers, members of the Legislature, foreign dignitaries, including members of the Diplomatic Corps, the United Nations Mission in Liberia and the United Nations Development Program, special foreign guests who flew in for the occasion, and Marylanders from far and near.

The function coincided with the inauguration of the TU’s first president, Dr. Elizabeth Davis-Russell. TU represents the transformation from the erstwhile William V.S. Tubman College of Technology (TC), which was established in Harper, Maryland County in the late 1960s.

Russell, a professional psychologist, was appointed president of TC in October 2007 and assumed leadership of the institution in July, 2008. Upon assuming the post, she immediately assessed the probability of the college becoming a university.

Education at the TC had come to a standstill since the 14-year-long civil conflict which began in 1990, the same year the college was accredited by the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) to offer Bachelor of Science degrees in five engineering disciplines.

The Ministry of Education and the NCHE set out to reawaken the institution by creating an interim management team which reported on the possibility of reviving the TC in 2006-2007.

In September of 2009 an act establishing the college as a university was signed into law by the President of the Republic granting the institution legitimate university status.

Russell holds several degrees, including Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Oakland University, Michigan (1965); a Master of Arts in Educational Psychology from New York University (1966);and a Doctorate in Counselor Education from the Yeshiva University.

She also obtained a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from New York University in 1987.

Upon completion, Russell pursued post-graduate training and received certification in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Institute for the Study of Psychotherapy in New York.

No stranger to administrative duty, Russell served for three years as president of the Central New York Branch of the National Association of University Women before coming to Liberia.

The Liberian President, who is also Visitor to Tubman University, lauded Russell for leaving her well paying jobs in the United States to come home to serve her country.

Sirleaf highlighted the significance of the University in the southeastern region and expressed her utmost confidence in the leadership of TU.

The University, she said, will serve as an institution that will help students finishing high school in the southeastern parts of Liberia.