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13 August 2020 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Charl Devenish
Gugu believes in empowering students to successfully complete their higher-education journey.

Gugu Wendy Tiroyabone is Head of Advising, Access and Success in the Centre for Teaching and Learning. She says she is on a journey to become a champion womxn, with her advocacy for student access with success in higher education being the vehicle that is propelling her. Gugu says her superpower is “knowing how to win without being loud”.

1. Please tell us about yourself: Who are you and what do you do at the university? 
Self-awareness, simplicity, and service is who I am and what I, Gugu Wendy Tiroyabone (née Khanye), embody. My Zulu name, loosely translated, means ‘precious’, and I firmly believe that the work I do at the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning — academic advising and RPL — align with my name, serving students in this invaluable experience of being afforded the opportunity to access higher education and ultimately being guided to success.

2. Is there a woman who inspires you and who you would like to celebrate this Women’s Month, and why?
Mmm … tricky to single out only one. There are a few — top of the charts is most certainly my mother, a servant leader — in everything she does; she is there to listen, hear and understand, empathise, heal, build, and is committed to the growth of others. Aunty Basetsana (Bassie) Kumalo is another womxn I celebrate – television personality, businesswomxn, and philanthropist — a brand that inspires me to be the best version of me so that I can reach my dreams.

3. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your life that have made you a better woman?
I would say one of the biggest challenges I faced in my early 20s would have to be low self-confidence and a low self-esteem. Those who know me would disagree, but unfortunately it gets the best of us and it was my reality. I struggled with acceptance, and when I took some time out to check in with myself, I learned that knowing how to win without making a noise is my superpower; since realising this, I refuse to live below my potential.

4. What advice would you give to a 15-year-old you?
You don’t have to change your dreams to realise them; rather, as you grow, adapt and adopt your approaches to the season/year — these small adaptations will propel you towards fulfilling your dreams. Someone else can make your dreams come true, but only you can realise your dreams.

5. What would you say makes you a champion woman, or a champion woman of the UFS?
I would like to believe that I am still becoming a champion womxn, not there just yet. But my advocacy for student access with success in higher education is what is driving me towards being a champion womxn – without meaningful access, student success is hollow. So, we need to work collectively as a sector and institution to achieve this.

 

 

 

 

News Archive

Urgent notice: critical shutdown of UFS IT system
2014-08-20

ICT Services is experiencing a degradation of service due to a technical fault in one of our key mass storage devices, which calls for a critical shut-down of the facility as soon as possible. The implication of the error condition is of such a nature that we need to decommission in excess of 550 servers before the actual error can be addressed. In failing to do so in a structured manner, we run the risk of a total system outage and a prolonged repair process of the total server infrastructure due to possible damage to disks and processing facilities.

It is foreseen that ICT will commence with the decommissioning of the servers from 14:00 on Saturday 23 August 2014, repair the error and recommission the facilities by 20:00 on Sunday 24 August 2014.

The following services will therefore be unavailable during this period:

• All learning platforms (BlackBoard, etc.)
• All administrative systems
• Internet access
• Email services

PLEASE NOTE: Students are requested to retrieve all information they require from BlackBoard during this period, before the systems are shut down.

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