BWI AA welcomes new appointment

The Alumni Association of the Booker Washington Institute (BWI) says it welcomes President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s appointment of Mr. Harris Fomba Tarnue as the new principal of the institute, and has pledged to work with the new administration under Mr. Tarnue for the growth of the institute.

Mr. Tarnue, a 1980 graduate of the institute, was appointed following a competitive vetting process that brought together a pool of candidates to head Liberia’s premier technical and vocational institute.

In a release, the leadership and members of the BWI Alumni Association thanked President Sirleaf for opening the process for qualified Liberians to apply and be vetted, even though as president she could have made the appointment without a vetting process.

Mr. Harris Fomba Tarnue replaces Mr. Alexander Melvin Massey, a 1977 BWI graduate, who served as interim principal of the school for over two years. The BWI Alumni Association assured Madam President and the new administration of BWI of its unflinching support in ensuring the school is made a center of excellence in accordance with the president’s plan and pronouncements.

The association had earlier appealed to the president to reconstitute the institute’s board of governors in order to bring on board personalities and institutions that will help the president to fulfil her plan for the school.

The alumni association says it is delighted that in a conversation with its president, Mr. Jonathan Paye-Layleh, recently, the Liberian leader also expressed the need for the BWI board to be reconstituted since the current board was set up to assist the outgoing interim administration to run the school.

Meanwhile, alumni of BWI are expected to participate in the induction of the new principal on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 on the school’s campus in Kakata, Margibi County.

A program to honor the outgoing interim principal and his team is also being planned.