Monrovia, Liberia (August 18, 2026) – University of Liberia President Dr. Layli Maparyan on Monday said she invited faculty and staff to a dialogue table in hopes of resolving demands that fueled their month-long go-slow.
Speaking as a guest on state broadcaster ELBC’s Super Morning Show in Paynesville, Dr. Maparyan addressed the current crisis at the university but also highlighted gains her administration has made since taking office in January 2025.
She said she remains very sympathetic to concerns raised by the University of Liberia Faculty and Staff Association (ULFASA), including salaries, social security payments, transportation, and infrastructure development – their key demands, saying they can be resolved while school is open.
“In terms of working with ULFA … ULFASA, both faculty and staff, I would like to do so. And as a matter of fact, I just sent them a letter of invitation to the dialogue table last night, and I’m waiting to hear back from them,” she said during the live radio program in Paynesville.
ULFASA’s go-slow which began on July 17, 2026, is affecting preparations for a planned resumption of a new academic semester which is scheduled for August 25, and administrative activities across the university.
“Most of the things that they mentioned in the recent resolution from ULFASA were issues that I share, the concern and issues that the UL administration has been actively working on since the day I got here,” Dr. Maparyan added.
Don’t want school to shutdown
Dr. Maparyan stressed that she does not want the university to shut down, outlining strategies to keep aggressive renovation works ongoing while the semester runs. She mentioned using school breaks, working on portions of buildings that students are not frequenting in, or moving people temporarily to swing space for renovation works.
“So, my goal is for school to be taking place alongside renovation. I don’t wanna shut the school down just to do renovation, and I don’t wanna skip renovation just because we have school,” she said.
Gratitude to GoL for US$6.3m to support renovation
Dr. Maparyan expressed gratitude to the Government of Liberia for a large allotment of US$6.3m for infrastructure development in the 2026 budget for the university.
She said properties and buildings that are to be renovated have been assessed, and contractors procured for the renovation works.
“And so, we’re getting ready to get to the shovels in the ground point. The step that follows where we are now is the contracting. Now that we’ve picked them, we’re doing a contracting,” Dr. Maparyan said.
Some gains made: regularized academic calendar, salaries, and study leave arrears payment
During Monday’s radio appearance, President Maparyan expressed excitement that the university now has a regularized academic calendar that was passed by the faculty senate, celebrating it as an early win of her administration.
She also expressed gladness that payments of faculty and staff’s salaries are now on time, saying its another win.
“You know, getting our study leave people arrears paid, that was another win. But there are still salary disparities that we are dealing with. There are still infrastructure issues that we’re dealing with,” she said.
She detailed that resolving age-old salary irregularity, and paying adjuncts twice as promised – once at midterm and once at finals – were part of her priorities.
Not worried about resignation
Dr. Maparyan expressed her commitment to her job as president of the university, ruling out concerns that the ongoing crisis could lead her to resign.
“No. I’m not worried about that. You know, I’m very committed to this job and to this work, and I love it even though it’s hard. I’m here to be a problem solver. I’m not here for any personal glory, but I did ask everyone to come back because our students need us,” she said.
Student protests
All over the world, Dr. Maparyn said students protest and sometimes they even disrupt, but she thinks there’s a line that protesting students would not want to cross, including harming people, destroying properties, and breaking into unlawful behavior.
“So, sometimes here the students go a little too far. So that’s the thing I would like to pull back. But learning how to engage in social discourse and express political opinions is part of what people do at university,” she said.
Inherited Crisis
The UL president said she assumed leadership after a transitional period when the institution faced active strikes and protests, an academic year had only one semester, and a lot of people desired to get back to work.
She said some of the longstanding issues that her administration inherited included infrastructure, academic fraud investigation, and a lot of people were yearning for change.
“So, I spent the majority of 2025 really listening to people, examining conditions, doing my own research about the University of Liberia, and working towards a new strategic plan for the university that would put us on a path to transformational change, that would lead UL from where it was when I met it to something of a return to its status or its legacy of greatness,” she said.
