“We are moving from ideas to action." With these words, Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU), opened the first staff assembly of 2020.
Addressing staff members in the auditorium of the Adam Small Theatre Complex on Thursday, De Villiers also made mention of the special date, 20-02-2020. He said 20-20 vision wasn't always perfect but at least it was clear. “And that is what we're aiming for this year – clarity of vision."
He referred to the first big strategy meeting for the year, the Institutional Planning Forum, which took place last week, and said the overhead theme of their conversations at the IPF had been to put their words into action. “We're good at making plans, we have a solid strategy in place but we are now moving from plans to action."
De Villiers touched on some of the most exciting developments at SU, following the structures of SU's six core strategic themes.
Institutional highlights included:
- As a thriving university, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) has been chosen as the venue for the Nobel Foundation Symposium in October this year. The Symposium will be a yearly event, with plans already in place until 2023.
- The inauguration of Judge Edwin Cameron as the 15th Chancellor at SU will take place on 8 April.
- SU's commitment to cultivating a transformed student experience has seen management take a strong stand against the scourge of gender-based violence on campus. The Rectorate has set up six joint working groups.
- SU has been selected as a founding member of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC). SU is the only African university on this list. SU is working to establish a School for Climate, similar to Data Science.
- SU launched its School for Data Science and Computational Thinking last year, with the Research Chair being sponsored by Standard Bank. The University has appointed Prof Kanshukan Rajatnam as Director of the School on 1 January 2020.
- Research chairs at SU have more than doubled from 23 in 2013 to 48 in 2019, and an additional six from last month.
The Rector also provided an update on the brand refresh process that is currently underway.
According to De Villiers, the purpose of refreshing the SU brand is to facilitate institutional transformation in the direction of the desired future for SU as expressed in the Vision 2040.
He said the first steps have been completed, and their next step is approval by June, which will be followed by a new brand manual and toolkit by August of this year.
The University has also embarked on a web refresh project and the Rector urged staff to participate in the process by providing feedback via the web refresh survey distributed earlier this week.
Another important discussion point at this year's staff assembly was staff health and wellbeing.
Prof Nico Koopman, in his capacity as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, said SU wanted to be an employer of choice, therefore the institution prioritises the health and wellbeing of its staff.
“We are working on a task team for Staff Health and Wellbeing led by Dr Pierre Viviers; there will also be an advisory team for Staff Health and Wellbeing and lastly there will be a symposium on Staff Health and Wellbeing."
Dr Ronel Retief, Registrar at SU, gave a brief update on the new SUNStudent portal, which will go live in the beginning of 2021.
SU's Chief Director of Finance, Mr Manie Lombard, gave an update on the SUNFin, a new user-friendly, web-based interface to the financial system. SUNFin will replace what is known as the 'black screen' and is expected to go live in January 2021.
The next staff assembly will take place on 3 August 2020.
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