Dear Editor,

I was a little surprised when it was mentioned by University of St. Martin Board Member, Mr. Danny Ramchandani during the just held Graduation Ceremony about USM planning to start this year their expansion plan of building several dormitories on campus, I didn’t see much publicity in the media about this major development.

I find this is great news for USM and St. Maarten in general where it concerns higher education on the island.

As a Faculty member at USM for the last 24 years and a big supporter of our University, I will lead by example and make a donation to USM to start this much-needed project for our students. This will also give us the opportunity to market and attract neighboring students from the different islands.

I am very excited about this news presented by Mr. Danny Ramachandani, other Board Members and Management & Staff, who have worked very hard to get this much-needed project off the ground.

I am pleading and calling on our 700 Alumnis to donate to such a worthy cause and let’s show the world that we can start the expansion plan of our University. The University of St. Martin have the most diverse Alumni Association in the world in which a lot of them hold key positions in the public and private sectors of St. Maarten.

It’s high time our Alumni stand up, rise to the occasion and give back to our University and recognize it as our National University for higher learning. I am very proud of our University and our alumni which excel anywhere in the world for a non-accredited University.

Just imagine if we support our University with their expansion plan and they get recognized as our National University how much more can be accomplished in the near future.

Most Universities in the world are built by their Alumni Association, business and Government contributions. We also have 700 alumni strong to lead by example and donate to expand our University.

In closing, I would advise the Board of Directors and Management to set up a fundraising account at Windward Island Bank and let’s start fundraising to start expanding our University. Imagine if every citizen contributed and every successful Alumni, Public and Private Sector gave a donation, we can accomplish our mission of providing quality service to St. Maarten and the region.