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Unombuzo? Tloho o tlo botsa adviser ya hao

23 July 2024 | Story Teboho Mositi | Photo Yonela Vimba

Academic Advising Office 2024 — Bongumusa Zwane, one of the academic advisers, giving advice to students.

The Academic Advising Office in the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus hosted an Academic Advising activation under the theme: Unombuzo? Tloho o tlo botsa adviser ya hao for undergraduate students on 12 July 2024 in preparation for the second semester.

The event was aimed at assisting students to reach their full potential and strive for academic success. It marked the starting point for students to prepare for the second semester of their academic year in stride.

Increase student use of academic advising services

CTL aims to advance evidence-based innovation that promotes excellence in learning and teaching for student access with success.

The objective of the activation was to increase the visibility of academic advising on the Qwaqwa Campus. The goal was also to increase students’ use of the various general academic advising services. The Advising Office noticed that not many students attended general advising sessions in the last semester, which inspired the activation as well as the introduction of the newly appointed transition advisers.

The Advising Office urges students to attend time management and study strategy sessions. The office also assists students in collaboration with the faculties, Student Counselling and Development, residences, the No Student Hungry office, Career Services, and other stakeholders at the university.

Success of the event

The event was a great success, as 120 students showed up and had the opportunity to speak face to face to the advisers. Alongside the advisers, a curriculum adviser from the Faculty of The Humanities, representatives from University Estates, the CTL office, and Transition Development and Success were in attendance.

The advising team was able to introduce advising to students, listen to their concerns, and provide short general advising opportunities. Students were treated to some goodies at the event and were given a chance to enter a competition through a survey, which will result in four lucky students winning exciting prizes. Students had a great time, taking pictures, videos, and dancing to the music at the venue.

If students missed this opportunity, there will be more opportunities to meet the team through advising pop-ups:

• 26 July 2024 – Dining Hall

• 2 August 2024 – UFS Taxi Rank

• 16 August – Outside Fulufhelo Residence

• 13 September – Notice boards near the Intsika Building

Where to find your advisers

• Intsika Building, Ground Floor, Offices: 0030, 0043, 0044

• Email address: AdvisingQQ@ufs.ac.za

The activation’s objectives were to

• increase the visibility of academic advising on campus;

• increase student use of academic advising services;

• make students aware of the services offered by Academic Advising; and

• share different ways with students to connect with the advising team and how to set up appointments with their advisers.

News Archive

President of Spelman College delivered Second Annual Reconciliation Lecture

2013-08-12

Dr Beverly Daniel Tatum
12 August 2013

Dr Beverly Tatum lecture (pdf)
Photo Gallery

The United States have much to learn from South Africa about reconciliation. This is according to Dr Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College, the oldest college for African American women in the US. Delivering the Second Annual Reconciliation Lecture on our Bloemfontein Campus, Dr Tatum –an internationally-acclaimed educator and expert on race relations –said five years after the US elected its first black president, the country still finds it difficult to make peace with the painful truth of its past.

Drawing inspiration from a speech made by former president Nelson Mandela at the adoption of the South African constitution in 1996, Dr Tatum said it requires courage to engage in a meaningful way with those we have been socialised to mistrust.

Dr Tatum highlighted the shooting of the US teenager Trayvon Martin, who was killed in Florida in an incident many attributed to racial profiling. The unarmed Martin, while out walking in the evening to buy a snack, was accosted and shot by neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman who suspected him to be a potential thief.

“How do we move beyond stereotypes to more authentic knowledge of one another?” she posed the question to a packed Reitz Hall in the Centenary Complex.

Dr Tatum, author of the critically-acclaimed books, Can We Talk about Race? and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? said we have to be brave enough to have our assumptions challenged.

“If we want a better society, one characterised by strength, trust and unity, we must interrupt the cycle and there is no better place to do it than at a university like this one, where the next generation of leaders is being prepared. But it requires intentionality. It takes practice.”

During her two-day visit, she also met with postgraduate students from the Faculty of Education to discuss social cohesion at schools. She also took part in a roundtable discussion with educators from the UFS and other universities, deliberating the topicLeading with/for/against differences on university campuses.

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