Matie troubles averted

2004-05-04 08:47

Elsabe Brits

Cape Town - A breakdown in relations between student representatives and University of Stellenbosch management has been avoided after urgent negotiations were held over disputes regarding the handling of student affairs.

This comes after the student council (SC) of the University of Stellenbosch (US) formally cut ties with the management about two weeks ago.

Prior to this, the SC had given the university an ultimatum before it would consider any talks on "normalising co-operation". The SC was unhappy about how management handled student affairs.

In a strongly-worded memorandum of five pages written by Michael Cass, SC chair, on April 21 and sent to the US management, the SC claimed management, as well as rector and vice-chancellor Chris Brink "in particular", did not "respect the perspective, advice and needs of the SC".

The SC said it doubted the "motivation of the management's so-called sympathetic approach. The SC no longer wishes to be part of this poor approach".

Cass claimed that management did not attach enough value to the representation of student interests at a senior management level.

The SC would embark on further talks only when a decision had been taken to officially appoint a student deacon to the university's management team, read the memorandum.

The SC executive committee would no longer attend meetings with management and Cass would not in future meet with Brink every month, according to the memorandum.

SC members who were part of the student culture work group withdrew. Cass said the announcement by the management that the acting student deacon, Pieter Klopper, was appointed after consultation with the SC, gave the wrong impression.

Cass said the students' proposals were ignored. The announcement regarding Klopper created the impression among members of the student union that the SC supported the appointment. Klopper was not on the candidate list presented by the cultural work group.

Cass said Brink dealt with the group's proposals in an autocratic way.

In a joint statement issued by the SC and management on Monday night, the two parties said there was consensus to hold constructive talks on issues noted in the memorandum.

Brink put forward three proposals:

That student issues become a scheduled item on the agenda for monthly management meetings;

That there are scheduled meetings between the rector and student deacon; and

that the SC is represented in the co-ordinating committee.

He suggested that for the sake of efficiency, management should consider any one of these proposals, or even another one.

- Die Burger