MONROVIA – Cllr. Taiwan Gongloe’s challenge to African Methodist Episcopal University faculty reaches beyond classroom discipline to Liberia’s crisis of public integrity. Speaking Saturday on Camp Johnson Road, Gongloe argued that lecturers cannot credibly demand honesty from students while practicing favoritism, unfair grading or abuse of authority. His warning identifies universities as early training grounds for the conduct later displayed in government, business, law and journalism. Students who learn that connections defeat rules may carry that lesson into public life. Gongloe therefore placed responsibility directly on educators to model fairness, punctuality, accountability and respect. His argument is demanding but clear: Liberia cannot produce trustworthy leaders when its educational institutions reward academic achievement without also forming principled character. THE ANALYST reports.

Gongloe Challenges AMEU Faculty To Build Culture Of Integrity

MONROVIA: Human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate Cllr. Taiwan Gongloe has challenged university lecturers to demonstrate the integrity they expect from their students, warning that educators cannot successfully teach honesty when their conduct contradicts their instruction. He maintained that Liberia’s educational institutions must become training grounds for integrity if the country intends to produce trustworthy professionals, public officials and national leaders.

Gongloe delivered the lecture, “Building a Culture of Integrity in Our Students,” to faculty members at the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) on Camp Johnson Road Saturday, September 12, 2026. He placed the responsibility for cultivating ethical students squarely on lecturers and other university authorities.

“We cannot successfully teach integrity to students if they do not see integrity in us,” Gongloe declared. He noted that students learn from what their lecturers say, but learn even more from what those educators do.

A lecture on honesty will have little meaning if the lecturer is habitually late, unfair in grading, shows favoritism, abuses authority or accepts improper favors, he stated. The message also loses its force when an educator applies rules differently depending on the identity of the student.

“Integrity in education must therefore begin with the faculty,” Gongloe emphasized. He urged lecturers to recognize that their daily conduct communicates lessons that may remain with students long after formal instruction ends.

Rules Must Apply Equally

Gongloe observed that the rule of law requires rules to apply equally to everyone. He argued that the same principle should govern the classroom.

If attendance is required, the rule should apply equally, he maintained. If an assignment is due on a particular date, exceptions should not depend on friendship, influence, family connections or personal preferences.

Gongloe stressed that grades must reflect a student’s performance rather than relationships. He warned that students constantly observe how lecturers exercise their authority and apply institutional rules.

According to Gongloe, students notice whether lecturers keep their promises, begin classes on time and prepare adequately. They also observe whether their instructors admit mistakes, treat every student with dignity and permit grades to be influenced by money, favors, friendship or pressure.

“Every one of these actions teaches a lesson,” Gongloe declared. He maintained that faculty conduct can either reinforce or undermine the ethical principles taught in the classroom.

Universities Must Teach Integrity

Gongloe argued that Liberia’s universities and colleges must become training grounds for integrity if the country wants to develop a culture of honest conduct. He warned that tolerance for misconduct in school could influence how students later behave in public and professional life.

“The student who learns that cheating is tolerated in school may later believe that cheating in public office is acceptable,” he noted. A student who sees favoritism in grading may also come to consider favoritism in government normal.

Similarly, Gongloe warned that a student who learns that rules can be avoided through connections may carry that attitude into the civil service, business, politics or the Judiciary. He described character as something formed through repeated conduct.

Gongloe referenced the principle widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi that people should become the change they want to see. For faculty members, he explained, that principle requires them to model the conduct they expect from students.

“If we want students to respect rules, we must respect rules. If we want them to be honest, we must be honest,” Gongloe declared.

He urged educators who want students to reject corruption to reject every form of improper advantage themselves. Those who want students to speak truth must also create classrooms where respectful disagreement is welcomed rather than punished.

Gongloe added that lecturers who want students to respect due process must hear them fairly before judging them. He stressed that the responsibilities of faculty members go beyond teaching their assigned academic subjects.

“Every faculty member is also teaching citizenship,” he asserted. He described teaching as an opportunity to shape the standards students will carry into their communities and future professions.

Honesty Must Determine Success

Gongloe maintained that lecturers teach integrity when they grade honestly, apply rules impartially, refuse conflicts of interest, respect students and allow them to question ideas respectfully. Students in every discipline, he argued, should learn that excellence, honesty and hard work determine success rather than connections.

He also urged faculty members to teach students that character matters before leadership. Before voting for anyone in student government, their communities or national elections, students should examine the candidate’s record.

They should determine whether the person keeps promises and has handled previous responsibilities honestly, Gongloe suggested. Students should also examine how a prospective leader behaves when nobody is watching.

“Public office does not magically create character. Very often, power reveals character,” Gongloe declared.

He maintained that educational institutions must prepare students to examine the integrity of those seeking leadership. Such preparation, he indicated, would help young people make better choices in both campus and national elections.

Personal Experience In Public Service

Departing briefly from his prepared lecture, Gongloe drew on his experience in the classroom and public service. He stated that his work in both areas had convinced him that living with integrity was possible.

“It is not always easy,” Gongloe acknowledged. Integrity sometimes requires a person to refuse an improper advantage or say no when others expect agreement, he explained.

It may also require speaking truth to authority and accepting personal inconvenience rather than compromising a principle. Despite those difficulties, Gongloe insisted that integrity remains possible.

He observed that habits developed in professional life often follow individuals into public office. The discipline of fairness in the classroom, he argued, is the same discipline required in government.

“The courage to apply rules impartially as a teacher is the same courage that is required to uphold the law as a public official,” Gongloe stated. He linked a lecturer’s refusal to favor one student over another to a public official’s refusal to favor friends, relatives or political allies.

“That is why I believe integrity must be lived before it can be effectively preached,” Gongloe declared. He told the faculty members that their conduct would determine whether students accepted or rejected their teachings about honesty.

Teachers Can Build The Nation

Gongloe said teachers could inspire students to become nation-builders instead of nation-destroyers. He urged educators to teach students the proper meaning of the common statement that politics is about interest.

“When people say politics is about interest, the proper meaning should be national interest, not personal interest,” he emphasized. He defined national interest through improvements in the lives of citizens.

According to Gongloe, national interest means building better hospitals and health systems, schools and universities, roads and other infrastructure. It also requires strong food security, employment opportunities and improvements in the general welfare of the people.

He rejected any understanding of political interest that focuses on enriching a small number of citizens occupying government positions. “When we say politics is about interest, it does not mean increasing the fatness of the pockets of a few citizens who happen to occupy government positions,” he stated.

Gongloe argued that politics should not be understood as a struggle for access to public money. It should instead be regarded as a contest of ideas about the best ways to improve people’s lives.

African Examples Offer Lessons

Gongloe maintained that educators could prepare students to help Liberia follow the developmental direction of Botswana, Rwanda, Seychelles, Cape Verde and Mauritius. He stated that those countries had demonstrated in different ways that African nations could improve governance, strengthen institutions and raise their citizens’ standard of living.

He urged faculty members to ensure that students leave their classrooms believing that Liberia can also improve. But he cautioned that belief alone would not be enough.

“They must leave with the character to make it happen,” Gongloe emphasized. He called on educational institutions to produce honest public servants, responsible businesspeople, principled lawyers, fair judges and ethical doctors.

The country also needs accountable politicians, responsible journalists, competent professionals and citizens who understand that public service is a trust, he stated. Gongloe warned that academic qualifications without moral preparation would amount to incomplete education.

“If they leave our institutions academically qualified but morally unprepared, then we have not fully educated them,” he declared. The duty of educators, he insisted, extends beyond producing graduates.

“Our duty is to help produce nation-builders and citizens worthy of public trust,” Gongloe stated. He added that educators could accomplish that objective only if their conduct supported what they taught.

Faculty Example Leaves Lasting Lesson

Gongloe told the lecturers that students might forget some of the lessons delivered during lectures. He maintained, however, that they would remember whether their instructors were fair, honest and respectful.

Students would also remember whether faculty members practiced the principles they asked others to follow. He described personal example as the most powerful instrument available to educators seeking to build integrity.

“Let us teach integrity. Let us demand integrity. But above all, let us demonstrate integrity,” Gongloe urged.

He called on AMEU faculty members to produce students who would build a better Liberia rather than destroy it.

Gongloe concluded that the most powerful lesson educators would ever give their students might not be found in their lecture notes.

“It will be found in our example,” he declared. His closing appeal placed the success of integrity education on the daily conduct of the people responsible for delivering it.