Grenada is to have a new Resident Tutor for the University of the West Indies. The current holder, Beverley Steele is retiring from the post after 33 years of service. Her replacement is Dr. Curtis Jacobs, a Trinidadian national who holds a doctorate in History.

During her stint, Mrs. Steele has seen the growth of the local UWI centre including the provision of a Folk Theatre and an Educational Resource Centre comprising a library and classrooms. As part of her tenure, Marryshow House has developed from offering remedial education to a unit of the University of the West Indies offering full Degrees and University Certificates through Distance Education.

Several hundred Grenadians have managed to graduate with Degrees and Certificates that they would not have accomplished without the existence of this University Centre in Grenada. Mrs. Steele has also served on a number of organisations and committees over the years including the Grenada Arts Council, National Committee for CXC, Training Awards Committee of the Ministry of Finance, National AIDS Council, Grenada Music Teachers Association, The Willie Redhead Foundation and the USAID Justice Improvement Committee.

The retiring Tutor who is also the Honorary Consul for Jamaica in Grenada has written numerous items including a history of Grenada -A History of its People which was published by Macmillan Caribbean. The incoming tutor, Dr. Jacobs has worked and lectured in the Caribbean and North America. Prior to his appointment in Grenada, he was a Teacher of History and Caribbean Studies at Harrison College, in Bridgetown, Barbados and Part-time Lecturer/Tutor in West Indian History and Caribbean Civilization at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados.

Dr. Jacobs is a respected academic, researcher and writer and noted for such works as the development of an ideology of collective political violence amongst Grenada's revolutionaries, 1784-1795 which was presented at the Atlantic History Workshop. Dr. Jacobs is currently writing, "The last Five Hundred Years: A History of Trinidad and Tobago 1498-1998 commissioned by Macmillan Caribbean of the United Kingdom.

It will be the first general history of Trinidad and Tobago published since 1962.