RUTV 3

Going to an indian wedding and have no clue what to do….these steps will help u get jiggy with it bollywood style!! The tradional geet dance is done on the night before the wedding with the family’s girls and boys. Join in and show them what you made of

Are you bored of playing with the same old toys? Check out how to make the most awesome potato shooter with the barest of essentials. And it really does shoot far!!

If there’s one thing that most people have in common other than breathing, it’s their dislike for queues. I am one such person. To start of my day I need a shot of caffeine. Now, waiting in a queue for over 15 minutes when my body is aching for coffee, is not what I consider acceptable. After numerous occasions of having to brace the blazing sun outside Rhodes’ popular meeting spot, the Kaif, to get my coffee, I was getting annoyed. At first it did not occur to me that it wasn’t just that people where getting hungry or thirsty at the same time (hence the long queues), but rather that there were just more people at my university this year.

The situation continued to get out of hand when the dining hall queues grew to unimaginable proportions and the popular book store ran out of books within the first two weeks of term. Okay, first I have to starve while waiting for food in the dining hall, then I have to dehydrate while shaking for my morning dose of coffee, then there are no books for me to use to take notes! Something had to be done. One would think that the situation could not have gotten worse, but after having arrived late for a lecture (because I was waiting for my vital dose of coffee) I found that there were no seats available so I had to sit on the floor. Instead of extending my upper lip at the situation, I got thinking. Together with a class mate of mine, we investigated the reasons why the university was suddenly over populated. Had we missed a baby boom that had caused the influx of bodies onto our campus? Or where more people suddenly addicted to coffee and morning lectures?

During our investigation, this is what we discovered: The reason there were more people on campus was because of the new high school curriculum that allowed for more university entries than in previous years.  (Ahh, that why everybody was looking so young!) Because of this, more first years had flocked to the university and increased its numbers by 10%. This explained many things: more first means bigger lecture venues, so, older students had to use the smaller venues for their classes. This explained people having to sit on the floor and the long queues in the dining hall and the Kaif.

 So if that the case, then surely there should have been infrastructure or at least a plan to accommodate all these new people. This thought led us to a University official who explained what was been done to make us all feel comfortable. As it so happened the university was extending its library and two new residences have been built. Furthermore, the university is planning to be stricter on its acceptance of new students to avoid this overcrowding in future.

In case you’re sitting there thinking I’m just a grouchy coffee overdosed student who has suddenly realised that there are people around me, but alas! Judge thee not! I have proof, check out this article on the topic of overcrowding:

Read the Activate article

As a third year student at Rhodes University I have become accustomed to a certain standard of food. Being in Nelson Mandela Hall I have always commented that our catering is the best on campus, I have compared it with many other halls. Returning to res in 2009, however, I was surprised at the changes to our menu, particularly breakfasts.

But, where is the cheese?
Instead of having hot, substantial breakfasts every morning, there is now a limited option of cereal, toast, a juice or piece of fruit. Students who have been living within the residence system are used to options ranging from savoury mince and poached eggs, to my personal favourite, croissants and cheese. A lot fewer students are booking breakfast meals through the online system as they are simply not enticed by the new budget-friendly menu.

There has got to be an easier way…
While the University has put forward valid reasons for the meal alterations, students are still not satisfied.. They now have to spend more money either at the supermarkets or at the day Kaif. The money that is owed to these students from the unbooking of their meals, breakfast in particular, is only released to them at the end of each semester. This means that students who unbook say R500 worth of breakfasts have to wait till the end of term 2 to get this money back. There should be a system in place that allows students to get this money back earlier, maybe on a two week cycle? See the video below for a SRC’s explanation for the meal changes.
 
I have also noticed the vast increase in student numbers on campus. If I come to the dining hall at half past twelve after my lecture, I get to the front of the queue at around one o’ clock. This was totally unheard of last year and the year before that. See some of the other stories on the RUTV3 blog (particularly “Behind the Crowds”) to find out more information on the overcrowding at Rhodes this year.

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.