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The Centre for Student Communities at Stellenbosch University (SU) in partnership with the university's Transformation Office has been running a number of ResEd workshops since the start of Welcoming Week. As part of the ResEd programme, every first-year student commencing ​studies at SU attends workshops structured around t​he themes of sociocultural awareness, leadership and intergroup skills. 

The workshops help students navigate a new social environment, which is possibly very different from their high schools and home life. The ultimate objective is to expose students to new ways of thinking and seeing – specifically helping them see through the eyes of others, those different from themselves in every way – be that in terms of race, gender, sexuality or economic circumstances. The sessions addressing sociocultural awareness include the workshops entitled “Be aware of what's fair" and “Dictionary of difference". These sessions build awareness of social inequality and introduce students to the terminology of social inclusion. An entire new session called “Share a room" has been developed that showcases the opportunities and challenges associated with sharing intimate spaces at university, especially as house‑ or roommates. This session focuses on the joys and difficulties of being different and the importance of breaking down boundaries and engaging with one another from the very first day.  

New for 2020 is a focus on film screenings, which include a mix of popular cinema releases and documentaries such as The People vs Patriarchy, Roll Red Roll and Hidden Figures. The latter is a film about three black female mathematicians who played an important role in the US space programme but had to deal with discrimination based on their race and gender at work. Roll Red Roll focuses on sexual assault at a high school football party and the aftermath of that. The film highlights the culture of complicity and the role that peer pressure, denial, sports machismo and social media played in the tragedy. The People vs Patriarchy is a local production that engages people from different backgrounds on what they think patriarchy is and how it can be addressed. The documentary also looks into call‑out culture and the #menaretrash phenomenon. 

Commenting on the ResEd workshops of 2020, Ms Babalwa Gusha from the Transformation Office says the introduction of the film screenings is an important initiative, which gives students a chance to absorb the information and engage in the internal “thinking work" that is often not possible in group workshops. Speaking of her experience at the sessions, she feels many South African learners are still products of their parents; she believes more work needs to be done at school level to help learners think critically about the country, its people, and their own place in our multicultural society. According to Mr Yeki Mosomothane (Multicultural Educator and Coordinator: Centre for Student Communities), around 4 000 new students from PSOs and residences participated in the ResEd sessions this year.