As aspiring student journalists we thought we should investigate the increased number of students at our University: Rhodes. We had only a week to find out where all the new students on campus were coming from. Queues had increased all over campus and some lecture venues even had students sitting on the floor. We decide that our story needed some official comment
We decided to speak to a warden who also lectures at the university. The warden explained how queues in dining halls have increased dramatically compared to the last year. She also told us that there was a Dining Hall braai on that same night. We then decided to hunt down crowds at the braai, we were successful. Older students at the braai all agreed that the campus had exploded with new students at the beginning of the year and was beginning to become a bit crowded. Check out the snail queue that we caputured at the braai. People had to wait up to half an hour just to get their food.
Over the next few days we struggled to get better official comment but got to speak to the Registrar (from the student admissions offices) at the last moment 24 hrs before deadline. He revealed to us that government has not being providing money for infrastructure until very recently and all the new residences built in the past four years have come out of the universities own funds. He made the story and told us that the university has implemented plans to ease the load for everyone. He mentioned the expansion to the library. Together Phumz and I decided that the construction site would be the ideal place to do our piece to camera. After capturing the perfect piece, construction site officials told us to put hard hats on and re-do everything. Phumz prefers her shot without the hard hat. What do you think?
Due to time constraints we couldn’t include the interesting piece from the registrar about subsidies. We also had to leave out student comment. Feel free to post your comments here about crowds on Rhodes campus and how they affect you.