Ellen applauds progress at TU

 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said that the construction of state-of-the-art electronic library at the Tubman University in Maryland County, Southeast Liberia will stimulate ongoing effort to expand Liberia’s educational reform with technology at the core.

 “This is why Professor Paul Farmer has selected the TU as the site to construct a modern hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital for health care workers who will obtain the skills to work with community leaders and workers as part of government’s effort to build a resilient health system that has the capacity to respond effectively to infectious diseases,” she noted.

 The Liberian leader said Tubman University, formerly the W.V.S. Tubman College of Technology, which was shut down during Liberia’s civil upheaval, represents an example of what is possible from determined commitment.

According to a dispatch, the President, who returned home Tuesday, spoke last week at a special event organized by the W.V.S. Tubman University Foundation and the MFP in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. She praised the U.S.-based nonprofit William V.S. Tubman University Foundation and the Marylanders for Progress (MFP) for spearheading the construction of an electronic library and learning center at the Tubman University (TU).

 President Sirleaf recalled that Dr. Elizabeth Russell, President of Tubman University, took a virtually non-functional technical college suffering from the ruins of war and neglect and in three years has turned it into the best higher education institution in the country, and thanked all well-meaning philanthropists, charitable institutions, and friends of Liberia for joining in support of this worthy project.

 Speaking earlier, W.V.S. Tubman University President Dr. Russell, said during the course of her tenure, she will continue to work to ensure students have access to the best quality education here. Also speaking, the Chairman of the Board of the Tubman University Foundation, Mr. Gerald Cooper, underscored the Foundation’s commitment to the full realization of the project.

 Dr. James Elliott, Chairman of the Board of the Marylanders for Progress, also underscored MFP’s commitment to ensuring that the project becomes a reality. The W.V.S. Tubman E-library and Learning Center, which is estimated at more than US$19 million, is designed as a state of the art and futuristic project. It will contain a regular library and learning center with electronic books that will enable students, faculty, and researchers to have access to books and academic materials globally through the internet, the dispatch said.

 Prior to the Ebola epidemic last year, nine students from the three universities traveled to Harper, Maryland County for a first-hand experience. The final design of the E-library and Learning Center was announced at a ceremony held at Howard University on June 27, 2014.Dispatch