Lawn Chess launched at Uni Fiji
The American Ambassador to Fiji, Joseph Cella, launched the University of Fiji’s Lawn Chess on Wednesday. The Ambassador’s misson was to donate medical textbooks to the Umanand Prasad School of Medicine but during his visit he was invited to also launch the university’s Lawn Chess. Ambassador Cella made the first move in the inaugural game which was completed by two academic staff of the university.
The Acting Vice Chancellor Professor, Shaista Shameem, said that the university of Fiji’s Lawn Chess set, made with outsize pieces, is possibly the first in Fiji to be available for Fijian national chess tournaments. The university has established a Chess Club for staff and students who will be competing in national championships as time goes on.
She said the university was grateful to the USA Ambassador for launching the Lawn Chess as well as donating much needed medical text books to the UPSM which will be housed in the University Library. The books
were a gift from the embassy in partnership with the Asia Foundation. Speaking at the event, Professor Shameem said that the University of Fiji was small and mostly privately funded and had to really stretch to make ends meet. She said that the university was founded on values and it was these values that made the
university resilient.
“As we move deeper into the new century at a time of great difficulty due to the coronavirus situation the world over, we find that the values that our university’s founders instilled in us- what others might call the ‘’soft skills’’ of integrity, ethical conduct and authenticity- to be
taught alongside the hard skills of formal qualifications- allow us to become more resilient to the recent challenges that we could not have anticipated even this time last year,” she said.
Prior to visiting the Saweni Campus, the USA Ambassador had presented medical books to the Library at the Samabula Campus. Subsequently, he invited Law students to watch a series of legal films at the United States of America Embassy in Suva. Professor Shameem said the University heartily approved of the ‘movie diplomacy’ that the USA Ambassador had initiated.