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South Campus SRC uses conversations to break gender bias

01 June 2023 | Story Danelle Fisher | Photo Supplied

On 24 May 2023, the University of the Free State (UFS) South Campus Student Representative Council (SRC) held the Break the Bias Conversations dialogue at Legae Residence on the South Campus to talk about biases faced by the LGBTQI+ community.

Established in 2022, the initiative aims to educate students on the different issues faced by students on a daily basis. "This dialogue aimed to educate students on a wide range of topics related to mental health, safety, and racial disparities experienced by our students," states Gonste Choane, Senior Officer, Kovsie Support.

The SRC has created a safe space for students to address biases towards the LGBTQI+ community, with topics on awareness surrounding the community, including discrimination, sexual health, stereotypes and stigmatisation, and becoming more aware of conscious and unconscious biases and being willing to question ourselves and others. "There was a need to start dialogues/engagements among South Campus students regarding issues they encounter on a regular basis," added Choane.

The dialogue was attended by South Campus students, the Gender Equity and Anti-Discrimination Office, and associations and NGOs centred around the LGBTQI+ community. "It's important for the university community to be aware of these dialogues in order to provide the necessary support mechanisms that will enhance the academic success of all students," said Choane.

Guest speakers from diverse backgrounds were invited to share their experiences with the students.

“The initiative has successfully managed to open the door for open discussions among students regarding issues they face on a regular basis. The initiative's goal now being growth in collaboration with more campuses. "This dialogue aims to collaborate with other campuses in the future," said Choane.

News Archive

'Structures of Dominion and Democracy' by David Goldblatt at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery

2015-08-03

Photograph by David Goldblatt, On August 16 2012 South African Police shot striking mineworkers of the Lonmin platinum mines, killing 34 and wounding 78 within a radius of 350 metres of this koppie, where the men used to meet. Seventeen of the men, seeking shelter among boulders from police fire, were shot with seemingly lethal intent, some with their hands up in surrender, none were given medical assistance for their wounds. Beyond is the Lonmin smelter, which stood idle during the strike. Marikana, North-West Province, 11 May 2014.

The University of the Free State, in partnership with the Goodman Gallery, presents the exhibition, 'Structures of Dominion and Democracy', by renowned South African photographer David Goldblatt.

This exhibition, which runs from 13 July to 7 August 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, is dedicated to the series, “Structures”, one of the major bodies of works by Goldblatt. For over three decades, Goldblatt has travelled South Africa, photographing sites and structures weighted with historical narrative: monuments, private, religious and secular, which reveal something about the people who built them. These sites allow us a glimpse into the everyday. Each place is a repository, a landscape containing an epic story that has involved whole communities: the experience sometimes told through the memorialising of remarkable individuals.

The exhibition, Structures of Dominion and Democracy, traverses two distinct eras in South Africa history. As Goldblatt explains: "Over the years, I have photographed South African structures, which I found eloquent, of the dominion which Whites gradually came to exert over all of South Africa and its peoples. That time of domination began in 1660 when Jan van Riebeeck ordered a cordon to be erected of blockhouses and barriers that would exclude the indigenous population from access to the first European settlement in South Africa and its herds, lands, water, and grazing. The time of domination ended on the 2nd of February 1990, when, on behalf of the government and the Whites of South Africa, President FW de Klerk effectively abdicated from power. Beginning in 1999 and continuing to the present, I have photographed some structures that are eloquent of our still nascent democracy. In the belief that, in what we build we express much about what we value, I have looked at South African structures as declarations of our value systems, our ethos.”

Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, UFS Sasol Library
University of the Free State
206 Nelson Mandela Ave
Bloemfontein

Gallery hours:
Monday to Friday 08:30 – 16:30

Entrance: Free
Enquiries: 051 401 2706, dejesusav@ufs.ac.za

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