Background Paper No. 2 8 -


1962 to provide for post-secondary school education in the

Virgin Islands. It has progressed through two-year Associate

to four-year Baccalaureate programs, and is now a territor-

ial Land Grant institution. To provide for a broad liberal

curriculum, a Division of Science and Mathematics was es-

tablished, including a resident faculty in the biological

sciences.


 Primarily a teaching institution, the College shortly

after founding established a Caribbean Research Institute

within it's administrative framework, with the object of

the Institute acting as the research arm of the College.

The Institute is in concept a multi-disciplinary organiza-

tion, and includes the Virgin Islands Ecological Research

Station within it's administrative jurisdiction.


 Within the field of ecological research, the role of

 the College should be clear:

 1) It provides through it's faculty in biology and

 through the Caribbean Research Institute for the educational

 and experential training in ecology of regional students on

 the baccalaureate level. It is on this level, in fact, and

 not on the graduate level that the greatest paucity of eco-

 logical manpower exists today in the Virgin Islands.

 2) It provides for the training of public school teach-

 ers in ecological subject matter, to better fit them, re-

 gardless of their academic backgrounds, for the needed in-

 terest which will ultimately lead to heritage in local stu-

 dents.