Capitol Hill Campus, Monrovia, Liberia January 14, 2025: The newly inaugurated President of the University of Liberia (UL), Prof. Dr. Layli Maparyan, has pledged to regularize UL’s academic calendar and regularize faculty pay.

In her inaugural address on Friday, January 10, Dr. Maparyan disclosed that she wants to move rapidly toward regularizing faculty pay in terms of both
timing and amount.

To effectively execute this goal of regularizing pay, the UL President plans to start with research about why pay lapses have occurred in the past and
what can be done to prevent similar instances in the future.

As part of this process, Dr. Maparyan stated that the UL payroll
itself needs to be verified and cleaned up if there are any errors.

According to her, clearing up errors makes more money available and it helps the entire campus community to get this right.

She suggested that it’s impossible for employees to do their job if they
are worrying about whether they’ll be able to pay their rent, afford food, get transportation, or
pay their kids’ school fees.

For the successful implementation of her vision for UL, Dr. Maparyan announced that she will begin fundraising immediately, starting with the contacts she already has
in the United States and around the world.

“… I will start making asks to bring in the resources we need to
accomplish our goals,” the UL President said.

She stated that the national subsidy to the University is certainly a starting place and the allocation that has already been
approved for this year.

However, she cautioned that if UL is going to address everything that needs addressing, whether
in the short term or the long term, the administration is going to start needing funding from additional
sources.

She argued that a healthy, fully functioning university has income from many outside sources,
including grants from public and private funders, gifts from donors and foundations, and even
fee for service and licensing revenue.

“It’s time to start exploring it and bringing it in.”

Regarding her plan to regularize the UL academic calendar, Dr. Maparyan wants to ensure that the school’s academic calendar is predictable and dependable year in and
year out.

She also wants to ensure that it is coordinated well with other institutions in Liberia and internationally.

“Students want to know when school is starting and when it is ending, as well as when
commencement will be held,” she explained.

The University of Liberia President further noted that students need to be able to plan, particularly when there are
other opportunities waiting, such as jobs, fellowships, and graduate study.

“We hamper UL
students’ progress and peace of mind when the academic calendar is unpredictable, and I intend to fix this promptly.”

“First, I want to affirm that we are
open for business on Monday, January 13th. Teachers, students, and staff should report for
duty,” said Dr. Maparyan.

As President of the University of Liberia, Dr. Maparyan vowed to bring everything she learned over the last 30 years as a professor,
administrator, executive, and fundraiser to the benefit of the University of Liberia.

“My values in this capacity are the five E’s and please memorize these: Education, Effectiveness,
Efficiency, Excellence, and Ethics,” Dr. Maparyan declared.

Talking about her leadership style, Dr. Maparyan indicated that her tendency is to take a scientific approach to solving problems, ask a question, gather data,
develop a hypothesis, pilot a solution, and then use feedback to tweak it until it’s optimized.

“More than likely that won’t change. However, since I arrived less than one week ago, my sense
about the urgency of certain issues has increased and now I am inclined to add some action
items to my first 100 days to-do list,” she revealed.

Regarding the conditions of bathrooms, Dr. Maparyan said she feels strongly about ensuring safe and well-functioning bathrooms
around campus.

She expressed her desire to have bathrooms well-prepared with adequate sanitation supplies to support public health and the comfort and
dignity of the university community.

“It is impossible to work or study when plagued by the call
of nature. New bathrooms may not happen overnight, but I will begin working on it ASAP and
keep it a high priority,” she disclosed further.

On the other hand, asked the university community, students, faculty, and staff to help by doing their
part to keep things clean, healthy, and beautiful.

She noted that this is a way of showing love and respect for
the campus.