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12 September 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish
Arbor tree plant
To celebrate National Arbor Week the University of the Free State has embarked on a drive to plant 150 trees during the month of September

If you’ve wondered whether Arbor Month was important, you only have to look at the destruction and long-term damage that deforestation causes to the environment and the world’s inhabitants. To observe National Arbor Month, the University of the Free State’s has (UFS) kick-started a drive to plant 150 trees during the month of September.

To launch this initiative, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, alongside members of the rectorate, assisted the University Estates team in planting the first 10 of 100 trees at the Bloemfontein Campus on Wednesday 4 September 2019. A total of 50 trees will be planted on the Qwaqwa Campus.

Towards a sustainable future

“We have gone through periods of drought in the Free State that have severely impacted not only the plants but the trees on our campuses. The idea is to emphasise sustainability, and as a university, we believe that sustainability is important. As an education institution, we have to look at the generations that are still to come to our campuses,” said Prof Petersen.

He urged the Kovsie community to ensure that all practices across the campuses are linked to global standards of sustainability. “As we develop over the next couple of months and years, we will get much closer alignment between what we are doing as a university and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Drought-resistant man-made forests

Clusters of mini forests across the campuses will be created with a variety of trees including the karee, white karee, white stinkwood, and wild olive. These indigenous trees can adapt well to different soils including those that are poorly drained.

Celebrating Arbor Week

This year’s campaign was held under the theme Forests and Sustainable Cities. As part of the celebration, University Estates made a commitment to the environment by embarking on the green initiative which includes other project such as the upgrade of Red Square on the Bloemfontein Campus.

News Archive

Shuttle services for senior medical students
2011-09-26

 

Senior medical students who make use of the shuttle services are standing next to the mini-bus.

On Friday, 30 September 2011, our university will officially launch its shuttle service for medical students. This function will take place from 12:00 to 13:00 at the Faculty of Health Sciences’ CJC Nel Reception Venue in the Francois Retief Building on our Bloemfontein Campus.

Two years ago. Dr Scarpa Schoeman began working at Internal Medicine at our Faculty of Health Sciences. Early on, he identified the transport problems of fourth- and fifth-year medical students (Phase-3 students) in the English class.
 
There are 65 Phase-3 students in the English class who are currently struggling with transport and who are part of this project. About 90% of them are bursary students at the university who, according to Schoeman, are consequently also struggling with finances. These students used public transport like taxis to move between hospital rounds and classes in the past. On average, it would cost them up to R4 000 per year for these daily travels between the UFS and the various training hospitals.
 
By the end of March 2011, NetCare had donated two mini-busses to the UFS and since 11 April, the shuttle services were available to medical students. Prof. Gert van Zyl (Dean of our Faculty of Health Sciences), Mr Mickey Gordon (Head: Marketing, Institutional Advancement and Sport) and the Rector, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, negotiated with NetCare. Gordon was also responsible for the branding of the busses. PPS and Pfizer are both sponsors who contributed to this.
 
This project is managed by Dr Schoeman, assisted by Mrs Anne-Marie Nel, who handles the administration as the Phase-3 secretary.
 
“It is important for us from the project management that students won’t see this as another taxi, but as a shuttle service of the university. Any senior medical student may make use of it, but it is mainly the under-privileged student from the English class who makes use of it.”
 
The two Quantum mini-busses do the circuit according to fixed schedules each day.  The route starts at the Francois Retief Building on our Bloemfontein Campus and then travels to the National Hospital, the Free State Psychiatric Complex (Oranje), Pelonomi, 3 Military Hospital (at Tempe) and then back again to Universitas Hospital.

 

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