19/07/2026
SEEK FOR DIALOGUE OVER DISTANCE, SERVICE OVER SILENCE, AND DEVELOPMENT OVER DEADLOCK -
AN APPEAL TO CUTOFF STANDOFF AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIBERIA:
The University of Liberia has always been more than classrooms and lecture halls. It is the place where the future of our nation is formed. It is where the teacher who will stand before a class in the hinterland is trained, where the nurse who will work in a clinic learns her skills, where the engineer who will build our roads and the lawyer who will defend our laws first learn how to think. When the University of Liberia is strong, definitely Liberia is strong. When the University of Liberia is silent, the entire nation feels quiet.
It is in that spirit that we must address the current decision by the University of Liberia Faculty Association to boycott classes until all demands are met. The frustration behind this decision is not new, and it is not imagined. For years, lecturers have raised the same concerns about salaries, working conditions, and respect for the academic profession. Those same demands were made during previous administrations. They were made to deans who have since left office, to administrators who have since moved on, and to governments that have since changed. Yet, here we are again.
That fact alone should tell us something important. For too long we have operated under one fundamental error in thinking. We have believed that changing administrators or changing administrations would automatically bring about change in system. We change the face at the top and expect the system to transform. We change the government and expect the problems to disappear. But if the mindset behind how we solve problems does not change, then the results will not change. We will continue to repeat the same cycle: demand, standoff, temporary fix, and then demand again a few years later.
A standoff feels like strength at the moment. It feels like the only way to be heard. But we must look honestly at what it produces. When classes are boycotted, it is not the administration that loses a semester. It is the young man in his third year of engineering who must wait another six months to graduate. It is the young woman in nursing whose training is delayed while our hospitals are understaffed. It is the over eighteen thousand students across Capitol Hill and Fendall, who go home with their books closed and their dreams on hold. A standoff also produces distance. It turns partners into opponents. Faculty see administration as their adversary. Administration sees faculty as unreasonable. The government sees both as a problem. And in the middle of all of that, the student and the nation are put off or even forgotten.
But there is another way. Although it may seem a bit harder, it requires patience, and it requires humility on all sides. It is dialogue. Dialogue does not mean surrendering legitimate demands. It means pursuing those demands strategically with wisdom. It means saying that we disagree on how to get there, but we agree on where we must go, which is a University of Liberia that works for everyone. When people sit at the same table, clarity emerges. We can separate what can be done immediately from what requires a phased plan and what requires advocacy at the national budget level. When people talk, creativity emerges. Perhaps the full amount cannot be taken care of immediately, but can we agree on a percentage now, plus other benefits, plus a clear understandable timeline for the rest? Can we invite alumni and partners to help? Can we restructure how resources are used? A standoff closes those doors. Dialogue opens them.
This moment calls us to choose service over silence. To the members of the University of Liberia Faculty Association, you are not just employees. You are a nation-builder. The students who sit in your classrooms will one day be the ones treating you in the hospital, representing you in court, and teaching your children. To delay their training is to delay the healing of the nation. Returning to the classroom while negotiations continue is not a weakness. It is the highest form of strength at service. It says that we will protect the future, our students even as we advocate for the needful and ourselves.
To the Administration and the Board of the University of Liberia, this moment calls you to lead with transparency and urgency. Continue to convene the dialogue without preconditions. Bring the budget to the table. Explain the constraints. Explain the possibilities. Treat the faculty not as adversaries, but as co-architects of the university’s future. The institution will only move forward when those who teach and those who manage walk together.
To the Visitor of the University, His Excellency the President of Liberia, this moment requires your timely intervention. The University of Liberia is the flagship of our public education system. The world watches how we handle it. Please constitute a high-level taskforce to address the recurring demands that have outlasted multiple administrations. Give a directive that breaks this cycle once and for all to "ARREST & RESCUE" the situation that has long existed. When the President speaks and acts, doors open and solutions follow. Resolving this issue will become a "BIG PLUS" to the government's achievement in it's "ARREST" agenda for the nation of Liberia.
We stand at a crossroads in the 179th year of our independence. We can choose the path we have walked before, the path of distance, silence, and deadlock. Or we can choose a new path. A path of dialogue over distance. A path of service over silence. A path of development over deadlock.
The error we must stop making is the belief that new faces alone will save us. What will save us is a changed mind. A mind that believes problems are solved at the table, not on the picket line. A mind that believes the student is the center of learning, and nation comes first. A mind that believes Liberia deserves better than repeating the same mistakes.
Let this be the administration, the faculty, and the student body that breaks the cycle. Let us meet. Let us reason together. Let us return to class and return to the table at the same time. Because, if we talk today, eighteen thousand students learn tomorrow. If we talk today, Liberia graduates the builders it needs tomorrow. If we talk today, our independence will mean something deeper than a holiday, because educated people are not only enlightened but free people.
The University of Liberia must continue to serve Liberia and remain open at all times. Our students must not be sacrificed. Our nation cannot afford another lost semester. We are appealing to the conscience of the University of Liberia Faculty Association to cut off the decision to standoff. Choose dialogue. Choose service. Choose development. For the future, for the students, for the nation, and for Liberia.
May God bless you for your understanding on this matter, give you more grace to serve, empower you with more wisdom to lead, and shower you with provisions to sustain your professions. AMEN 🙏
