Greetings, I am very pleased to welcome to the Department of Government all new students and equally, to welcome back those who are continuing their journey withus towards either an undergraduate or graduate degree. I extend a warm welcome also to our international students and visitors from our sister campuses of Cave Hill and St. Augustine. I hope that all of you will enjoy your time at UWI Mona and that it will be a time of learning, intellectual and experiential growth which will culminate in academic success. You are both privileged and challenged to be university students in very interesting and turbulent times for Jamaica, the region and, indeed, the entire international community. It is a leaner time for us in terms of financial resources. We are likewise being made increasingly aware that human progress is cyclical rather than linear and is driven by all sorts of factors apart from technology and money. This means that we will all, as a university community, have to expend more effort to maintain our functions as a community of knowledge. For you, the student, it means not taking lightly the privilege of tertiary education. You should maximize the opportunities you have to educate yourself, to understand your regional environment and to build strong networks of friends and professional colleagues among the folks you meet here. For us in the Department of Government, it means among other things, to maintain our commitment to enriching the learning and development of our students and to providing good administrative and mentoring support to you. The Department of Government has for several decades recorded and reflected upon the Caribbean state and public policy issues, leadership and the practice of politics and the Caribbean’s interaction with the global political economy. There are lots of exciting new developments to be analyzed and interpreted, new stories to be told about Caribbean politics and societies. I hope that you will participate fully in this process and that, in the years ahead, we will be able to proudly pass the baton on to you to keep the task of knowledge production and training on Caribbean issues going. Have an enjoyable and productive year!

Jessica Byron