RUTV 3

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.

You may have watched  our video on the Get home safe project.

Please see below safety guidelines for students at Rhodes University by the  Dean of Students.  It must be noted that this project runned with the help of Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use

See  Posters below ;

http://www.ru.ac.za/1783

MEDIA RELEASE FROM DEAN OF STUDENTS     

Coming to a new town and a new university constitutes a lot. Yes the parties and the new people but also a new found loneliness and detachment. We tend to bury our lack of comfort into bags and bags of food, and then we acquire what has come to be known as “first year spread syndrome”-probably something the ladies are more attuned to. Gaining weight is often a short term issue, but for some more than others, this syndrome as it were tends to perpetuate itself through second, third and even fourth year. When living in res, the dining hall is not to helpful in this regard either. Its mass produced, oil induced foods can’t be that healthy either.

No more eggs
The point of this story was to try and understand why the university has completely cut out all hot meals from breakfast and limited the cereal intake for its students, since fees have increased significantly. (Read the Dispatch article here)
I have no idea whether the decrease in breakfast portions is an attempt on the universities part to assist students in this regard but it is sure as hell creating a lot of controversy all around.

Gathering the Info
Affected Students did not shy away from the camera; they were infuriated and felt that their grievances needed to be heard. In this case it was extremely easy to get comments from them. Finding an authoritative comment from one of the university officials was a bit tricky. We attempted to contact Mrs. Jay Pillay, Head of the Catering Department, who unfortunately did not respond to our emails. The SRC then commented in this regard and were very much for the breakfast cut, explaining that it was for this reason our fees have not increased by a larger proportion.
According to a Cape Town business man, food prices have dropped since last year. Obviously inaccessible for the news package, an economics student would have worked as well but time was limited. This would have illustrated to the viewers the reason behind saving costs.

The Footage
We came into a bit of trouble when shooting in the dining hall. According to Mrs. Pillay, we would have to go through the ethics board to film inside any dining hall. Regardless, she gave us permission provided that it was not to be broadcast on any major television station. In the course of researching this story, the university made a decision to add an egg and yoghurt to the menu in alternate days. We were unsuccessful in getting any real reason or information concerning the funds for the introduction of the egg and yoghurt.

In terms of shooting, there are always those random people walking by trying to be on camera. We experienced a lot of those whilst shooting. Both interviewee’s and reporters for that matter are nervous being on camera for the first time. Therefore, the bloopers that come about make the story all the more interesting…Check them out below

Digs Formals are a relatively hidden part of life at Rhodes, despite the fact that many students do participate in them. When you breathlessly tell people that you’re going to a ‘digs formal’, the reception in often decidedly less excited, often met with uncomprehending blank stares.  However those that know about them either warn you off or give you a knowing smile. Let me attempt to explain what ‘digs formals’ are.

At some point during the year, a digs will decide to have a party, where each person living in the house gets a date (either someone they know or a blind date). It is the responsibility of each digs mate to ensure they all have dates, even if this means asking a random person in the photocopy room to attend a few hours before. With the dates secured, a theme must be chosen, i.e. ‘Dress to get laid’ (one of the more controversial ones). More alcohol than is humanly possible to consume (except in a Rhodes context) is bought and the stage is set. Everyone nervously arrives, drinks some punch to settle the nerves and ‘let the games begin’ so to speak. It is these games that give ‘digs formals’ their notoriety and often cause those participating (especially female students) to feel highly uncomfortable the morning after. These games include ‘group lunge’, where you are expected to kiss your partner (who you must likely won’t even know), body shots, and lap dances et cetera. Click here to read a student’s perspective on digs parties.

While this may be to most the most interesting aspect of ‘digs formals’ (especially since we’re all so sex obsessed), we identified another aspect as noteworthy: race. The trend seems to be that mostly white students attend these parties, with black students being mostly among those unaware of the tradition. At first we thought this may be because more white students live in digs. However, statistics compiled especially for us by the university said otherwise.

Interestingly, digs life is more popular amongst women at Rhodes, with more women than men in digs across each race group.

Warden Gordon Barker, who oversees students living in digs thought it might be due to the fact that economically black students rent rooms, instead of a digs with friends for the year. Therefore, the vibe needed for a digs tradition might not be present.

[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/gordon-filled.mp3[/podcast]

The issue needs more research for a conclusive answer. Until then students will continue to get drunk and debaucherous at ‘digs formals’.

This story focuses on the creation of COPE and its impact on the South African Students Congress at Rhodes University. COPE formed in December 2008, which was, for all intensive purposes, a break-away party from the ANC, caused a lot of unrest within the ruling party but also within Unions and societies which were historically aligned with the ANC.
One of these unions was the South African Students Union (SASCO). SASCO now had a decision to make, they could either support their members who had defected to the new party COPE, or they could root them out and maintain their alliance to ANC ideology.
To “preserve” their organisation and prevent a split within SASCO, rather than have their organisation split by COPE like the ANC had been, they took the decision, says Xanti Njozela (President of Rhodes SASCO) not to tolerate people who openly supported and campaigned for COPE.

This took place after SASCO’s National Secretary –General Magasela Mzobe (see related links) called for the rejection of COPE on University campuses. Whether or not he was talking about active rejection or not, his words sparked violence amongst SASCO members on many campuses in South Africa where SASCO members and COPE supporters clashes at rallies and other political events, like Butterworth University.
Shortly after it became known to us that there was a pending investigation against COPE supporters within SASCO at Rhodes, we thought that it was worth investigating. It was then revealed that there were almost 50* COPE members within SASCO. While the SASCO president tried to tell us that they were not unwelcome in SASCO he eventually admitted that people who were doing COPE work would in fact not be tolerated and would be subject to disciplinary hearing and possible suspension.
At the same time, COPE at Rhodes is trying to set up their Youth League. However, after missing the SRC deadline for registration of societies, many of their members joined SASCO out of old allegiances and lack of their own society. But they say that once the COPE Youth League is formed on campus there will be a mass extradition from SASCO to the COPE Youth League which would eventually spell the “death” of SASCO according to COPE sources.
*according to COPE representative on Rhodes campus, Loyiso Phantshwa at kazinoekstra kazino igri rotativki plodove.

Related Articles:
Sasco’s no to Party
Cope supporter shot during riot
IFP Calls on Unisa Students to Reject Sasco Strike

The story idea came about after a fellow journalist interviewed Rhodes COPE representative, Loyiso Phantshwa, after the COPE launch on Rhodes campus. During the interview Phantshwa revealed that he was a member of SASCO. We thought this would be a great story considering SASCO has always been affiliated with the ANC and recently on the Butterworth campus, a violent riot broke out between SASCO and COPE because SASCO was called to reject any COPE members. Had COPE infiltrated SASCO Rhodes?  Would SASCO split?

We set up an interview with Rhodes SASCO president Xanti Njozela, for the following morning, however, we needed confirmation and we needed numbers of how many SASCO members were now aligned with COPE before the interview. I then conducted a telephonic interview with Phantshwa to get confirmation of his membership and how many other COPE affiliates were members of SASCO. He confirmed that he was a member though was not active, also confirming around fifty COPE members were part of SASCO.

We conducted the interview with Njozela the following morning. He could neither confirm nor deny the number of COPE members, but maintained there was no potential split. Most of what he said was contrary to Phantshwa’s statements. We knew we had to set up an interview with him to reveal the contradiction and represent the very powerful things he had said over the phone. Due to the time limit of 90secs we really had to focus the insert and stick to the infiltration of COPE in SASCO. So unfortunately we had to leave out of some very controversial accusations made by Phantshwa regarding ANC ideology within SASCO discourse as well as Njozela’s initial denial of bowing to ANC policyand then his eventual defence of SASCO’s support for the ANC.