At the start of each academic year, the Centre for Student Communities (CSC) and the Transformation Office at Stellenbosch University (SU) host several ResEd workshops across residences as part of the Welcoming Week programme for first-years. Over the years, these workshops have focused on themes of sociocultural awareness, leadership and intergroup skills.

To help first-years navigate their new environment, this year's sessions touched on the themes of gender, sexuality and gender-based violence (GBV), universal access, as well as sociocultural awareness. (See below for a list of sessions by theme.) Workshops were facilitated by staff and senior student leaders under the guidance of Shanté Neff, programme coordinator at the Transformation Office, and Yeki Mosomothane, the CSC's multicultural educator and coordinator. On selecting the themes for the ResEd workshops, Shanté says: “Overall, I think the most important consideration is social contextual awareness – to be aware of what's going on in society, whom it affects, and why. For example, when facilitating a session about GBV, it's crucial to know that it's one of the biggest challenges facing South African society, and to ask ourselves why this is the case."

To equip them for their task, all facilitators had to complete the short course in facilitative leadership presented by the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute for Student Leadership Development.

To facilitators Alexander Hochleutner and Luke von Willingh, their participation in ResEd was an opportunity to educate both newcomers and themselves, and to promote an environment where open discussions are welcome. They emphasise that their role was not to lecture students on what is right or wrong, but rather to facilitate an ongoing discussion where everybody could contribute and learn from one another. “When facilitating a ResEd session, it is also important to realise that you don't have all the answers, and don't need to," they add.

Most facilitators experienced the session on the bystander effect as one of the most challenging to navigate, as it dealt with issues of rape and sexual violence, and how to respond in an emergency. To facilitator Sinethemba Dlamini, this workshop and the one on patriarchy were tricky to present due to the sensitive nature of the topics, but also the awareness that some audience members might be victims and others perpetrators of sexual violence.

The facilitators were also pleased to see some significant improvements in this year's ResEd programme. Comparing the 2022 offering to the programme when she was a first-year, Mbalenhle Shandu believes the incorporation of more students in the process made it easier for students to listen and learn from one another. “There is just something about being with other students and seeing them guide the conversation that makes a space feel more comfortable and familiar, as opposed to talking to someone from outside," she says.

Yet there is still room for improvement. Facilitators Hellen Mille and Sabrina Ditsela both believe that language is a potential barrier to communication and participation in ResEd. Hellen notes that not everyone may be comfortable enough to express themselves in English. For this reason, she says, students need to be encouraged to express themselves in the language of their choice, with the assistance of an interpreter for the sake of the audience. Her experience was that many students rather kept quiet than risk making a mistake in English and feeling exposed. Further suggestions for improvement include reconsidering the workshop dates and times to better accommodate students who need to travel back to their residences after sessions, and to provide for Tygerberg students, whose academic programme had already commenced by the time their sessions started.  

“ResEd has two functions," Shanté explains. “Firstly, it sets the tone in terms of getting newcomers to think about the challenges we face as a society, and how they might navigate these on campus. And secondly, it introduces them to the concept of critical engagement and facilitation, which will be part of their journey as students." Already looking ahead, Shanté says: “Now that ResEd has been successfully concluded, we are already planning our next engagement with residences, which will centre on social justice and human rights in commemoration of Human Rights Day on 21 March."

*Workshops under the theme of gender, sexuality and GBV:

• The bystander effect
• The people vs the patriarchy
• Boys' club

Workshops addressing universal access:

• Disable ignorance
• Disability awareness
• Know our space

Sessions on sociocultural awareness:

• “The Anthem Project", which highlighted the connection between language discussions and transformation, institutional culture and identity
• “Say my name", which broadened perspectives on names as a common identifier and denominator
• “Say something", which exposed students to real-life conflict situations to discuss discrimination and prejudice
• “Subconscious bias", which sensitised students to underlying biases we all have 

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