VZCZCXRO3033
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0858 1881737
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071737Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2710
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1238
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 000858 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL, INR/AA 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM SG
SUBJECT: UNIVERSITY POLITICS AND POSSIBLE POLITICAL REFORM IN ST. 
LOUIS 
 
REFTEL: 07 DAKAR 2030 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.   In her first official visit to St. Louis May 
6-8, Ambassador Bernicat heard that the Ministry of Higher Education 
is trying to make Gaston Berger University, Senegal's highest 
quality university, more like the other, mass, institutions.  The 
university rector has not only resisted this pressure but has 
developed forward-looking and practical plans for the institution. 
The newly elected mayor in St. Louis outlined his attempts at reform 
in this 350 year-old city.  END SUMMARY 
 
SENEGAL'S BEST UNIVERSITY 
------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Dr. Mary Teux Niane, Rector of Gaston Berger University (UGB) 
(Senegal's most competitive and academically rigorous  university), 
with 6,000 students, told Ambassador that the Ministry of Higher 
Education has been attempting to force him to accept more students 
to relieve overcrowding at other faculties nationally, especially 
the 70,000 strong University Cheikh Ante Diop in Dakar.  Dr. Niane 
has attempted to forestall the damage an increase in student 
population and dilution in student quality would cause by insisting 
that any increase in students be accompanied by a proportional 
increase in teachers, funding and equipment to assimilate the new 
students smoothly into the institution and to maintain standards in 
the long run (reftel). 
 
¶3.  (U) More optimistically, Dr. Niane diverged from the prevailing 
Francophone model that higher education is to train people for elite 
professions to produce graduates who can enter the economy.  Niane 
is very open to adopting foreign practices to Senegalese higher 
education in order to improve instruction, administration, standards 
and learning.  An ex-participant in the International Visitor 
Leadership Program, Dr. Niane stated that student scholarships 
should be needs-based rather than universally available to all 
university students.  The rector also said that UGB has a land-grant 
type agreement with Ohio State University (OSU) that will permit it 
to develop an agricultural development program, and that with OSU, 
Gaston Berger it will be able to develop further the distance 
learning program it already has. 
 
REFORM ST. LOUIS POLITICS? 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) The recently elected opposition Mayor, Cheikh Bamba Dieye, 
(referred by his admirers as the "Obama of Senegal") outlined his 
version of reform St. Louis style.  A member of the opposition 
coalition "Benno Siggil Senegal", he is riding the national wave of 
electoral revolt against the Wade regime and his Democratic Party of 
Senegal.  Dieye said he wants to revive the economy of Senegal's 
original but neglected capital, mobilize artisans who can sell their 
products to tourists, find alternative resources of energy for the 
city, conduct a monthly public review of the city budget, allow 
citizens to share their concerns and interests with city hall in 
weekly open meetings, and revive the currently underutilized city 
airport so that St. Louis can become a major entry point into 
Africa. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Rector Niane and Mayor Dieye have their hands 
full.  Both have to reckon with ministries based in Dakar that are 
focused on their own agendas.  Rector Niane will have to withstand 
further pressure to prevent his beloved Gaston Berger University 
from becoming merely another overcrowded, strike-prone Senegalese 
university that he calls "baby pens".  Mayor Dieye will have to work 
with the ruling party and a conservative, centralized state 
administration, but the consensual style of the Senegalese 
politician may help him translate his "can do" energy into some 
concrete accomplishments and even into a surprise presidential bid 
in 2013. END COMMENT 
 
 
BERNICAT