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17 June 2020
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Story Dr WP Wahl
The Division of Student Affairs (DSA) prioritises innovation to meet the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition among students. To this end, several student volunteers and student governance structures are collaborating with the DSA on various initiatives.
During 2019, various conversations were held about the possibility of creating a health-promoting food environment at the UFS where students and staff are well informed and empowered to take appropriate action regarding their food and nutritional needs. These conversations resulted in an institutional strategy to address the food environment at the UFS. Student representatives serve on a technical committee that directs the implementation of this strategy. In this regard, several initiatives have already been launched.
Students from residences and other student communities have planted vegetable gardens on the Bloemfontein Campus with the assistance of KovsieACT and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Students and staff are already harvesting and distributing vegetables to needy students every week. Measurements were put in place to continue this during the COVID-19 period. The following vegetables were planted: spinach, cabbage, beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.
Food parcels, donated by Tiger Brands and Gift of the Givers, are continuously handed out by DSA staff and student volunteers. In this regard, 540 food parcels have already been handed out on the Bloemfontein Campus during the COVID-19 period alone. During the same time, 117 students received food parcels on the Qwaqwa Campus. The innovation of this food parcel project rests on the fact that business, NPOs, UFS students, and DSA staff are collaborating to address food insecurity and malnutrition.
More collaborative initiatives will be implemented over the next 12 months. The DSA staff and students are already working with the Department of Dietetics and Consumer Sciences to create information packages about the preparation of low-budget nutritious meals.
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Rector's book rated among the best
2009-12-10
The University of the Free State’s Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jonathan Jansen’s book Knowledge in the Blood: Confronting Race and the Apartheid Past has been listed among the best 31 books of 2009 by the Library Journal.
In its listing the journal says of the book: “This is the story of how commitment to enlightened pedagogical principles can bring divergent populations – the historically dominant and the historically victimized – into engagement.”
It refers to the time when Prof. Jansen became the first black dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria in 2000, where he administered a white-majority student body in an officially Afrikaans-speaking institution.
The Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field. Considered to be the “bible” of the library world, the journal is read by over 100 000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries.
It is the single-most comprehensive publication for librarians, with groundbreaking features and analytical news reports covering technology, management, policy and other professional concerns. Its hefty review sections evaluate nearly 7 000 books annually, along with hundreds of audio books, videos, databases, web sites and systems that libraries buy.