Parts of the University of Cape Town are alive and well

I would like the opportunity to comment on RW Johnson’s “Can UCT be allowed to die?” published on Politicsweb 29 April 2016

I agree that UCT is now “under siege” by a minority of profligate professors, other academics and non-academic staff and “radical black nationalists” driven not by ‘pain’ but by hatred of anything they find limiting or challenging, especially if it requires rational debate and peer-reviewed deliverables.

Contrary to Johnson, I firmly support “all sorts of new measures … to attract, nurture and retain black staff including the appointment of new academics on an opportunistic basis, even when no vacancies exist.” 

I also believe that these incumbents and new appointees could be paid more if they produce top quality/quantity under-represented graduates who can fill the existing gaps at UCT and elsewhere.  But, once again, if they don’t deliver, after counselling, try to fire them and certainly do not promote them ad hominem. 

With regard to getting donations in general, and major bequests in particular, have something to ‘sell’ rather than empty or ideologically toxic rhetoric.

Yes, it is essential to “forge a new identity for the university…. fully embracing our African identity” and to “interrogate the role dominant epistemologies play in constructing curricula”. But, be careful with whom and with what you ‘identify’.  If this leads to an ‘inclusive’, but isolated, parochial and internationally second-rate UCT, those who led it in this direction and those who stood by and did nothing while it happened will bear the responsibility. 

By all means, “redress the legacy of colonialism and apartheid”, but be careful to retain elements of these regimes that may be useful to redress their horrible effects. By all means, “network” with other African entities (even beyond universities). But, don’t stop at continental boundaries and be careful on what might be assimilated.

With regard to ‘transformation’ officers and committees, if they have to exist, those involved must have some demonstrable professional competence, their terms of reference must be clearly defined and acceptable to those being transformed and, most importantly, their actions must be transparent and subject to scrutiny and criticism by (and accountability to) those affected.

With regard to language and culture, encourage their roles in helping students’ achieve their career needs. Those who choose to diversify in both, could benefit enormously. But, it’s their choice, not that of some biased university executive, identity-driven academic, media magnet, political messiah or aggressive subset of the ‘community’.

I most definitely do not agree with Johnson’s “one logical alternative” for UCT’s future – remake it in the image of the top universities in the North. If Africans since Sebokwe have learned anything, blindly applying solutions that might have worked in England or the USA, e.g. trying to transform UCT into the Cambridge of the Cape (academically and/or financially), is at best a dream and at worst a nightmare.

The dream might (just might) satisfy the ‘some’ who long for the ‘old days’. The nightmare will only exacerbate the hatred of those who continue to be (or will come to be) oppressed, regardless of their ‘identity’.

Sure, UCT is currently in “an incredibly favourable market position”. But, it is not a business that should be driven by some nebulous, ‘market-based’ notion of ‘profit’. Universities, regardless of their geographical or historical provenance, stand for something much better than that.  But, that doesn’t mean that sound business principles have no place.  I could expand on this.

“The aim should [NOT] be for UCT to be able to decline any further financial assistance from the South African state”. Citizens pay tax and are entitled to benefit from doing so. A UCT that declares unilateral financial independence from the bulk of society is horribly reminiscent of the long-gone Rhodesia. Those that can and want to, will send their kids to be educated overseas. We need to cater for the rest of the kids.