By Mpho Raborife
The first of March 2010 marked the opening of the Student Representative Council’s annual Community Engagement week which ends 6 March 2010. The launch held in the Eden Grove lecture theatre on Monday, featured talks by Vice- Chancellor Dr Saleem Badat, Deputy Vice-Chancellors Dr Sizwe Mabizela and Dr Peter Clayton, and Dr Margie Maistry, the Director of Community Engagement at Rhodes.
The approach to this year’s Community Engagement initiative has taken a slightly different path in its efforts to aid the rest of the Grahamstown community. The theme recurrent in all four speeches was the need for a respectful and reciprocal relationship between Rhodes University and Grahamstown and the other communities Rhodes engages.
Dr Badat emphasised the fact that community engagement has become a critical third focus at Rhodes University in addition to teaching and learning, and research.
He further emphasised the need to extend the approach to civic engagement. He argued that, “student volunteers should also be getting some kind of learning through their service”.
The emphasis on service learning (which seeks to engage students in activities where they and the community are primary benefactors) was constant throughout Dr Mabizela’s speech. He explained the broad areas of influence involved in such initiatives, stating that “teaching and learning influences community engagement and similarly research influences community engagement, and vice versa“.
The foundation of any (community engagement) projects should remain today and into the future “mutually respectful and mutually beneficial”, urged Dr Mabizela.
He said he hoped that as the spirit of community engagement is embedded in the culture of the institution, students “discover, through involvement in community engagement projects, something inside themselves that they never knew they possessed”.
Dr Clayton, the DVC: Research and Development, highlighted the number of research projects undertaken with the service learning ethos and that, at the same time, enhanced reciprocal relationships.
Some of the departments involved in community engagement and service learning projects included, according to Dr Clayton, Pharmacy, Geography, various Science departments, Journalism and Law. Dr Maggie Maistry, the new Community Engagement Director who officially assumed responsibility for the University’s Community Engagement work that used to be undertaken under the auspices of CSD, said she was looking at implementing a new community engagement path and trajectory for the institution.
Commenting on the presentation and discussions, Alicia Singh said the approach adopted by Rhodes offered “the entire University community to become involved in various projects that truly concerned people in need. It also creates awareness for students who aren’t aware of the less fortunate community”.
Names of people in picture: Dr Saleem Badat, Di Hornby (former CSD Director), Dr Sizwe Mabizela, Dr Peter Clayton, Dr Margie Maistry (Director of Community Engagement), Cameron Stewart (SRC Community Engagement Councillor).