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