Professor Ofori Sarpong, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University, said the university has of late faced a lot of constraints and might not be able to carry out its mission in the future.
"Facilities are going down, research and teaching quality are also in trouble' Professor Sarpong was speaking at the re-opening of a renovated Museum for the Department of Archaeology and the launch of a 158-page book titled: "The Bead Is Constant."
Professor Sarpong said 90 per cent of the University's subvention goes onto salaries, wages and teaching facilities. He said the recent population of the university had also over burdened its ability while the students were also demanding free tuition.
Professor Sarpong said the renovation work and the book were funded by the US Embassy at the cost of 15,000 dollars and appealed to other embassies and benevolent organisations to emulate the US Embassy and assist the University in its efforts to provide most of its departments, halls with the necessary facilities.
He said much as the university needed books, it also needed funds to computerise all its faculties. Mrs Mary Yates, US Ambassador to Ghana, opened the museum and Atukwei Okai launched the book, a copy of which is 85,000 cedis. Professor Atukwei Okai, Secretary General, Pan African Writers Association said it was time Ghana appreciated the bead business as a source of a non-traditional export.
"We must work out a system of expansion, training, refinement, classification, packaging, promotion strategy and export of beads, he said. Okai said Ghana needed to remember the lesson from the Kente experience and move fast before she was overtaken by events and other initiatives from outside to the detriment of her interest.
He said the book introduces the reader to the origins and emergence, creation and recreation of the bead. Okai said Ghana must envisage a future for the bead museum by designing and building a whole block to make room for a fuller research programme.
Dr Yaw Bredwa, Dean of the Department, said the museum used to be a teaching one but now it would be for the public as well. He said with enough funds, it could be extended and the Department would also continue to change the faces of the artefacts. Some women and men from Manya Krobo with knowledge in the bead trade and who volunteered information during the research were given certificates.
