UNIVERSITY POLITICS AND POSSIBLE POLITICAL REFORM IN ST.

UNCLAS DAKAR 000858

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL, INR/AA
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM SG
SUBJECT: UNIVERSITY POLITICS AND POSSIBLE POLITICAL REFORM IN ST.
LOUIS

REFTEL: 07 DAKAR 2030


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. In her first official visit to St. Louis May
6-8, Ambassador Bernicat heard that the Ministry of Higher Education
is trying to make Gaston Berger University, Senegal's highest
quality university, more like the other, mass, institutions. The
university rector has not only resisted this pressure but has
developed forward-looking and practical plans for the institution.
The newly elected mayor in St. Louis outlined his attempts at reform
in this 350 year-old city. END SUMMARY

SENEGAL'S BEST UNIVERSITY
--------------


2. (U) Dr. Mary Teux Niane, Rector of Gaston Berger University (UGB)
(Senegal's most competitive and academically rigorous university),
with 6,000 students, told Ambassador that the Ministry of Higher
Education has been attempting to force him to accept more students
to relieve overcrowding at other faculties nationally, especially
the 70,000 strong University Cheikh Ante Diop in Dakar. Dr. Niane
has attempted to forestall the damage an increase in student
population and dilution in student quality would cause by insisting
that any increase in students be accompanied by a proportional
increase in teachers, funding and equipment to assimilate the new
students smoothly into the institution and to maintain standards in
the long run (reftel).


3. (U) More optimistically, Dr. Niane diverged from the prevailing
Francophone model that higher education is to train people for elite
professions to produce graduates who can enter the economy. Niane
is very open to adopting foreign practices to Senegalese higher
education in order to improve instruction, administration, standards
and learning. An ex-participant in the International Visitor
Leadership Program, Dr. Niane stated that student scholarships
should be needs-based rather than universally available to all
university students. The rector also said that UGB has a land-grant
type agreement with Ohio State University (OSU) that will permit it
to develop an agricultural development program, and that with OSU,
Gaston Berger it will be able to develop further the distance
learning program it already has.

REFORM ST. LOUIS POLITICS?
--------------


4. (U) The recently elected opposition Mayor, Cheikh Bamba Dieye,
(referred by his admirers as the "Obama of Senegal") outlined his
version of reform St. Louis style. A member of the opposition
coalition "Benno Siggil Senegal", he is riding the national wave of
electoral revolt against the Wade regime and his Democratic Party of
Senegal. Dieye said he wants to revive the economy of Senegal's
original but neglected capital, mobilize artisans who can sell their
products to tourists, find alternative resources of energy for the
city, conduct a monthly public review of the city budget, allow
citizens to share their concerns and interests with city hall in
weekly open meetings, and revive the currently underutilized city
airport so that St. Louis can become a major entry point into
Africa.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: Rector Niane and Mayor Dieye have their hands
full. Both have to reckon with ministries based in Dakar that are
focused on their own agendas. Rector Niane will have to withstand
further pressure to prevent his beloved Gaston Berger University
from becoming merely another overcrowded, strike-prone Senegalese
university that he calls "baby pens". Mayor Dieye will have to work
with the ruling party and a conservative, centralized state
administration, but the consensual style of the Senegalese
politician may help him translate his "can do" energy into some
concrete accomplishments and even into a surprise presidential bid
in 2013. END COMMENT


BERNICAT