Chris van der Westhuyzen: While UCT students value their right to be engaged with and deliver input on university matters affecting their constituencies, recent actions by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Max Price, appeared to give short shrift to student opinion on the university’s controversial race-based admissions policy that is currently under revision.
Roxanne Jones: The 4th Year UCT medical students, in association with the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), recently did a research project on hookah smoking.
The motivation behind the research was to gain a better understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and practices involved with hookah pipe smoking.
Krysia Gaweda: RideLink is a Green Week project under Green Campus Initiative (GCI), where UCT students are encouraged to carpool with other students who live close to them.
RideLink offers an online service in which members of the UCT community are able to sign up and are matched to other students according to their routes of travel.
Megan Thomas: The Student Experience Dialogue Series is a University of Cape Town (UCT) initiative that was established to encourage students to debate pertinent issues on campus and to reflect on the general lifestyle of a UCT student.
On April 9th, a panel of speakers interacted in a debate-style discussion to discuss whether political organizations have a place on campus or whether they should be banned.
The initiative began as a result of UCT management wanting to involve as many students as possible in the running structure of their working environment. They wished to also generate dialogue and debate amongst students around questions asked in The Student Experience survey.
Aisha Abdool Karim: On Tuesday, April 16th, the Students for Law and Social Justice organised a talk on Impact Litigation and Social Movement.
The talk featured three key speakers from prominent organisations such as Dr. Marjorie Jobson from Khulumani, Janet Love from Legal Resources Centre and Mark Haywood from Section 27. All of these speakers elaborated on the links between successful litigation and social support.
The 2013 edition of the Steinhoff Varsity Cup drew to an end last Monday, with Tuks once again emerging as the victors. Playing away from home against a team that had beaten them in Round 4 (Maties), being unbeaten themselves, it seemed unlikely that Tuks was in with a chance.
In the course of the tournament, they had also seen defeat at the hands of Pukke and NMMU. So why were neutrals not elated when the apparent underdogs not only won, but did so in emphatic style, 39 points clear of the hosts? The answer lies in the controversy that has stalked the team over the past two years concerning player eligibility.
Hangula Lukas: A new bylaw regulating the purchasing and consumption of alcohol came into effect on April 1st.
The new regulations, passed by the City of Cape Town municipality, require all liquor stores to close at 6pm and make it illegal for certain pubs and clubs to serve alcohol after 2am.
Uthman Quick: Now that the dust has settled after a week of hysteria, vitriol and controversy surrounding the “Is Love Colour-Blind” article and chart, what have we as South Africans achieved?
In my opinion - largely nothing. Another race-row has come and will soon be gone and all that we can say is that a few extra column inches were filled and #UCT was trending in South Africa.
Chris van der Westhuyzen: On Saturday April 6th, Matt Silver-Vallance used a cluster of helium-filled balloons to float from Robben Island, across the icy Atlantic, to the opposite shore of Bloubergstrand.
The 7km journey, which Silver-Vallance described as “scarier than anticipated”, had raised close to R70 000 for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
Security remains one of the most discussed issues in South Africa but the least resolved, as demonstrated by the Campaign for Safe Communities event at UCT’s Jameson Hall on Wednesday, March 27th.
