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18 May 2022 | Story Lunga Luthuli
East College - Eco Vehicles Team
Overall winners of the 2022 Eco-vehicle race, East College, hard at work to get their car ready for the race held at the Odeion parking lot on the Bloemfontein Campus.

For the first time, the University of the Free State’s 2022 Eco-vehicle race – held on the Bloemfontein Campus on 14 May 2022 – had students from all three campuses participating in the programme and race; a cup was awarded to the college with the best support.

Although the annual event did take place in 2021, only team members were allowed access to campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown regulations, and therefore the race was streamed live. 

Karen Scheepers, Assistant Director: Student Life, said: “To have the students back on campus supporting their teams was incredible; this event will become bigger and better every year.”

With the Eco-vehicle race project, the UFS aims to use an innovative skills development approach that will enable students to develop basic knowledge and skills on sustainable energy.

This year, 130 undergraduate students enrolled for this co-curricular skills programme that runs for nine months and culminates in the Eco-vehicle race. A total of eight teams competed in the energy efficiency race, speed race, obstacle course race, and the main event – the endurance race. For the first time in the main event, the teams raced against each other for 18 laps. 

The winners of this year’s event were Central College (Akasia, Karee, Kagiso, Soetdoring, and Wag-’n-Bietjie residences) for Spirit Cup, South Campus took home the Pit Stop, North College won the Smart Lap, and South College won the Endurance Race. The overall winners of the Eco-vehicle race were East College (Legatum residence). 

The driver for East College, Lebakeng Motlotlo, said: “Even though I have always been part of the KovsieACT Committee in my residence, seeing that the focus this year was more on energy saving and saving resources, it pushed me to participate.”

Motlotlo believes the practice he and his team went through worked for them, as they were able to practise “how to turn, slow down around corners, and save energy”. 

“Our team was very dedicated and knew how to improvise when faced with challenges. As a small residence and most of us living off campus, the race taught us the importance of teamwork.” 

Motlotlo believes “initiatives such as the Eco-vehicle race are important, as we learn other skills outside of lectures, which we sometimes think are not important”.

Scheepers said the plan is to “grow the programme, motivate other universities to also invest in their students through this programme, and race to become a national and maybe an international event”.

“The programme adds value to the student experience to ensure that they do not only obtain a degree during their study period, but also undergo practical application of acquired knowledge and skills through real-life situations and meaningful learning encounters,” said Scheepers. 

News Archive

Kovsies proud of a gold PRISM Award for safety campaign
2015-05-05

Stefan Lotter, Leonie Bolleurs and Lacea Loader. All three are from the Departement of Communication and Brand Management at the UFS.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

The University of the Free State, takes pride in the gold PRISM Award (from the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa) for the B Safe Take Action safety campaign that has been rolled out on the campus since 2013 by the Department of Communication and Brand Management.

The campaign earned the Von H Brand Provocateur gold award in the internal communication category.

“The UFS is the only tertiary institution to receive a gold award. The award is a great honour for the department, considering the cream of South African public relations took part in the competition, and the standard was naturally very high. It was also a feather in the cap for us that the uniqueness of the campaign received national recognition from our peers in this manner, said Ms Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Brand Management at the UFS.

The university is responsible for about 32 000 students and 4 000 members of staff on its three campuses: the Bloemfontein and South Campuses in Bloemfontein and the Qwaqwa Campus in the Eastern Free State. It is of cardinal importance for the university that its students, staff, and assets are safe.

Apart from safety measures that have been implemented by the UFS Protection Services, the B Safe Take Action campaign has also been rolled out on the three campuses of the UFS. The campaign supports the safety strategy of the university. It is aimed at developing a culture of safety awareness in students and staff alike. The purpose of the campaign is for staff and students to take ownership of their own safety. In addition, it creates awareness of the safety measures that are in place at the UFS.

The campaign has been rolled out on various communication platforms. These include placards, pamphlets, lamp-post advertisements, an advertisement board, emails, and messages on student communication portals such as Blackboard, the UFS web and intranet, social media, information boards in the campus parking areas and on the pedestrian walkways as well as messages on refuse bins around the campus. “The fact that a variety of communication platforms has been deployed, the striking design and character of the messages, and the number of target audiences that have been reached further contributed to the success of the campaign,” said Ms Loader,

The campaign also received a merit award from the International Association for Business Communication (IABC). The award will be presented on 15 June 2015 in San Francisco, USA.

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