Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said on Tuesday that the president of the prestigious Harvard University in Massachusetts, Dr. Lawrence Bacow, has responded to his advocacy for a program of cooperation between the university and the Five Islands Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Antigua.
The prime minister said that Dr. Bacow has indicated “the willingness of Harvard to work out cooperation arrangements that would benefit the Five Islands Campus in acknowledgment of Harvard University’s historical relationship with slavery, particularly confronting past injustices and their legacies,” according to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.
The statement said Harvard Law school was “founded on an endowment in 1815 that was funded from slavery on the Royall’s plantation on Antigua.”
Preliminary discussions to establish a framework for cooperation will be held in January after the university’s break for the Christmas season, the statement said.
“Prime Minister Browne welcomed President Bacow’s readiness to engage, and stated that, between now and the preliminary meeting in January, practical proposals for cooperation will be prepared”, the statement said.
