Ms. Ann-Marie Williams
News Editor
The Reporter Newspaper

Dear Miss Ann-Marie Williams,
This response is delayed because of my absence from the country when your front page story was released. For the record, it is important that I respond to your statements of and allegations about my actions, penned in your article in The Reporter Newspaper, Volume 40, No. 16 of Sunday, April 29th, 2007, and written by you, in your capacity as News Editor for The Reporter newspaper.  The news story, a front page article which carried my picture, was entitled: University President Corinth Morter-Lewis being forced out?

Because the pen is a very powerful vehicle in communication, I believe that journalists, in carrying out their assignments, should have highest priority and take full ownership to accomplish their assignments, responsibly, accurately, truthfully and mindful always of the power of the pen to do good as well as to do harm and damage, sometimes intentionally and unfairly. 

I am, by this letter informing you, categorically, that in the front page article referred to above, that you have used your access to public media, via. The Reporter newspaper, which has circulation locally, nationally, regionally and internationally, to make statements, provided as facts that are untruths; statements that are destructive to my reputation and that have caused me embarrassment and personal distress.  For this reason it is important that I provide you and the public with the TRUTH regarding the false statements, unfounded allegations and unfair innuendoes you have made in your article. Below, I will reproduce and number 1) through 6), some of your untruths and innuendos, and will provide response as appropriate.

1.    “The fledging institution, at eight         years has seen more than its fair share of controversy under Morter-Lewis’ watch”

My response:-  The University of Belize is just about to complete its seventh year, in July of 2007. I entered the University of Belize amidst controversy and upheaval, as its Interim President, at the time when UB was seeking to give birth to a change in paradigm for moving the University forward.  Making change is a difficult thing, in the best of times, however beneficial the change may be.  We may observe that the act of women giving birth does not come without related pain.

2.    “She became president of the country’s national university on January 1, 2004 and since then UB has changed two Provosts.”

My response:-  Here your innuendos are completely unfair and border on abusive.  Whatever the circumstances may have been regarding the two Provosts who resigned from the University, it would be totally offensive and inappropriate, to discuss this issue except between the parties involved.  Additionally, for the record, your facts are incorrect.  I was brought into the University of Belize in January of 2003 as its Interim President and the first Provost was hired in August of that year.

3.    “A ministry source tells this newspaper that controversy over the so called SPEAR/UB general election poll taken in March was the last straw.”
My response:-  I feel confident that you are fully aware that the individual responsible for the poll has, in fact, fully cleared the University of Belize of any direct involvement in what you refer to as the SPEAR/UB poll.

However, the major issues to which I direct this correspondence are articulated below.

4.    “On March 23, 2006 the Chinese student Visa Scandal, which this newspaper broke rocked the institution and forced Morter-Lewis to close down the University’s Cultural Exchange Programme with Mainland China.

She could not account for 30 students of 52 who registered with the UB programme.”

My response:-  I am stating, for the record, that the University of Belize had no Cultural Exchange Programme with Mainland China nor any other entity with respect to the Chinese nationals involved in your story.  The University of Belize was requested and agreed to provide three hours of training in English as a Second Language, per day, for five days per week, through our Regional Language Centre, to students who came to Belize on a “City of Belmopan City Council Tourism Project”, in January of 2006.  The daily three hours of classes of English as a Second Language was the extent of our, the University of Belize’s, responsibility for the students from Mainland China who came to Belize on the said Project.  Thirty (30) students who came on this project registered for the ESL Programme of those twenty-eight (28) were accepted and were provided with the agreed training by Faculty and Staff at the Centre, from January 22nd 2006 to March 22nd 2006, when the programme was closed.  Neither the University of Belize nor I, by extension, as its President, had any responsibility for the whereabouts of the students who came to Belize on the said project.

Your statement, therefore, that: “She could not account for 30 students of 52 who registered  with the UB programme.” has no merit in attributing responsibility for the whereabouts of the said students to either the University of Belize or myself as its President.
 
The Regional Language Centre provided training for the students who, as per our policy for all students entering programmes at the University of Belize, registered for the training at the Regional Language Centre.  Training was provided for the twenty-eight students from January 30th, 2006, until training was discontinued in March 2006.  The provision of training to the students was discontinued, when reports were made to the staff of the Regional Language Centre that the students had moved out of the homes of the foster families where they were living.

Another false statement made in your article is that:
 
“Chinese businessman Chen Da Teng (Yim Saan), who facilitated the students’ arrival … He made payments to the university …”

My response:-  I state, categorically, that the University of Belize did not collect any payments from the businessman to whom you made reference.

In the incident you reported in your article regarding the alleged rape that occurred in the Dynasty Dorm on the Belmopan Campus of the University of Belize, you wrote:

The University covered up the alleged rape for almost five days.
My response:-  Your statement of “cover up” is malicious and one you could only make in light of evidence of the sequence of events between the occurrence of the incident and the report that was made to the Belmopan Police Department.  I state categorically that there was never any cover up of the incident.   I trust that you will be able to provide proof of the “how” and by “whom” this cover up was done.

You further wrote:

“Morter-Lewis never called the police or reported the matter until the officers got wind of the crime of violence and visited the school to do their investigation.” 

My response:-  Again, you have made a statement that is completely false.  For the record: The Police were brought to the University of Belize at the request of the Chief of Security of the University of Belize, on my instructions.  On the morning of Thursday, 19th October 2006, the Chief of Security called and spoke with a police officer in the Crimes Investigation at the Belmopan Police Department and requested that he come to the University to investigate the incident.  The Sergeant dispatched a female corporal, who arrived at the Belmopan Campus that afternoon and after briefly introducing herself to me, met with the two female students.  The female corporal did not come to the University of Belize to investigate because the police in Belmopan “got wind of the crime of violence and visited the school to do their investigation”; she came as a request made to the Belmopan Police Department by us.  No other officer or officers from the Belmopan Police Department visited the Belmopan Campus of the University of Belize to investigate this incident. 

Subject to the incident I issued a release to the media regarding the events that transpired.  In that release, which was also sent to The Reporter newspaper, for which you are the News Editor, I made it clear that the University had called the Belmopan Police Department and requested that they come to the University to investigate the incident, which they did.  You have ignored that information and have, in your article, accused me of failing to inform the police.

The preceding allegations, made by you, chronicled as misdeeds occurring under my watch, with negative implications, and propagated as part of my legacy as President of the University of Belize, are untrue, defamatory in nature, and have had negative implications for me.  I have had to respond to calls, explain and correct many questions, comments and expressions of concern from many colleagues in the professional and social sectors of this country, regionally and internationally, from the many arenas in which I have worked and continue to work with professionalism, honesty and integrity, and where my contributions in many areas of endeavour have been recognized and acknowledged.  The issues and queries to which I have had to respond have been precipitated as a direct result of the statements you have made public in your article via. non-electronic and electronic modes.
You have, from what you have written as facts, tarnished my name, and by extension the names of my children and husband. 

I am, by this letter requesting that you do the honourable thing, in light of the distress you have caused, through statements and by innuendoes, that you have attributed to me, and that I have detailed above, by providing evidence to substantiate that these statements are true.  In the absence of such evidence I am demanding that you make a retraction, within two weeks of the date of this letter, by 3rd. June 2007, and that it be done in a public manner, with similar front page profile as you used in your article Volume 40, No. 16 of Sunday, April 29th, 2007, in the newspaper, for which you are News Editor, and in which the said article about me was published.  In the absence of such retraction, I will pursue whatever action I deem necessary for redress against you and The Reporter Newspaper in which you published the article. This action will be to, among other things, clear my name, publicly.

Respectfully,

Corinth Morter-Lewis Ph.D.
President
University of Belize
Central Campus
University Boulevard
P.O. Box 340
Belmopan City
Belmopan
Belize
Tele.:   +501-822-1000
Fax.:    +501-822-1107
E-mail:  [email protected]

cc:    Mr. Harry Lawrence, Publisher,             The Reporter
        Dr. Lewis Zabaneh, Chairman             Board of Trustees, University             of Belize