Students and educators stressed the importance of keeping their focus local at the University of the Virgin Islands’ annual research day.
During her opening remarks, interim Provost Camille McKayle told the crowd that UVI distinguishes itself by not being content to simply learn from others, but to actively find local solutions to local problems.
“It’s inspiring to me and inspiring to our students to see what we’re doing here—100 percent here,” said McKayle, who holds a doctorate in math. “UVI is really keeping the ‘of’ in the University of the Virgin Islands.”
At both campuses, professors and students gave the public a glimpse into more than 50 research projects focusing on social issues, from street gang violence to gay marriage.
Shareece Cannonier, a master’s student, presented a study she did on the prevalence of marijuana and alcohol use among children taken into custody at the Youth Rehabilitation Center on St. Croix. She found that in 2010, 27.5 percent of children brought into the center tested positive for marijuana.
“I like to think of my research like the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “It’s just a little information. There’s so much more information that can be gathered.”
Cannonier said she’d like to continue her study and take a closer look at drug usage amongst different age groups as well as its relationship to truancy. She said ultimately her study might be able to give educators in the Virgin Islands a better understanding of when to start drug prevention programs in schools.
At the St. Croix campus, agriculture took center stage with researchers exploring topics such as drought resistance of potential landscaping plants, the suitability of pitaya (also known as dragonfruit) as a new crop for the islands, and even the effect that different hair coat phenotypes has on tick infestations amongst Senepol cattle.
“We are a land grant university, so we have funds from the federal government to conduct research on agricultural problems that are needed to be resolved here in the Virgin Islands,” said Thomas Zimmerman, Ph.D., of the Agriculture Experiment Station, explaining the preponderance of farm-based research.
Zimmerman said the work he and his students do has had a real effect on agriculture in the Virgin Islands. He said the introduction of drip irrigation was largely due to their research, as is changes to sorrel production over the last four years that have dramatically increased the size of the territory’s harvest.
Zimmerman’s latest project focused on sweet potatoes, a crop that hasn’t been popular amongst the territory’s farmers due to weevil infestations. He found that if farmers harvest their plants earlier, at 120 days rather than the common 150 days, the amount of damage done by weevils is much less.
For crops harvested at 120 days, only about five percent of the potatoes were infested with weevils. At 150 days, as many as 80 percent were.
Zimmerman said that farmers tend to wait the extra 30 days because the potatoes are sweeter when harvested late, but he said the nutritional content was no different than those harvested at 120 days.
He said he hoped local residents would find a way to utilize his research, a sentiment repeated by most of the faculty present.
Simon Jones-Hendrickson, Ph.D., interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, said it was the responsibility of the university not just to conduct research, but also to see that their research is utilized by the community. That, he said, was one of the reasons for holding a research day.
“We have to demonstrate to the community that we have it here,” he said. “We have the largest reservoir of talent in the Virgin Islands.”
