Languages: 
Pride and discipline were the key fundamentals in an address delivered by the University’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Rushiella Songca during a heartfelt plea to varying institutional stakeholders at an engagement session held at the Mphekweni Resort on Friday, 28 May.
Significant in that it formed part of her first 100 days in office initiatives. The occasion, dubbed the ‘Vice-Chancellor and Principal’s Official Dinner with the ISRC’, preceded by an engagement session with labour unions, was but one of a series of events planned by the VC’s office in an endeavour to intimately engage and deliberate candidly with critical stakeholders ahead of her inauguration, and indeed into the future.
Addressing a small group under the theme ‘Celebrate Africa Day: We are an African University as per our vision 2030’, Prof Songca called on all WSU stakeholders, including the student leadership and its constituency, to participate and contest robustly within the confines of the university’s official internal processes to try and overcome challenges that arise.
“Where is our sense of pride as the WSU community? What I see at our university is a tendency of wearing our problems on our sleeves so the whole world can see we’re troubled. I’m not saying we must hide them, but we also don’t need to wear them on our sleeve.”
“Other universities have the same problems as ourselves, if not more, but you hardly ever find our counterparts going around and speaking badly and writing badly about their institutions in public. At WSU we have a tendency of doing that, and we need to manage that,” she said.
Central to Prof Songca’s utterances was the material impact such a sustained verbal public assault has on the university itself – its ability to attract investment, as well as the negative perception about the quality of its graduates.
ISRC member and BCC secretary-general Vuyo Langeni said as student leadership, ISRC would do everything in its power to work hand-in-hand with management in overcoming the challenges facing students.
“Ours is not to understand you VC, but to push you hard and to work with you in ensuring the university delivers on its mandate to create a conducive environment where the primary stakeholder, the students, can study with all the necessary resources in place for learning and teaching to thrive,” said Langeni.
By Thando Cezula
