Term 1:
Accommodation
- O-week saw an influx of first year oppidan students arriving at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 without accommodation. We managed to resolve this issue through the oppidan offices by finding affordable rent rates around the apartments in Grahamstown. The warden of Grand Res played a pivotal role in assisting with this and by the end of o-week most of the first year students had found accommodation for the year.
Leases
- Some of the first year oppidan students had already signed leases and paid their deposits. This became a legality issue when the students were not satisfied with the conditions of the accommodation so with the assistance of the oppidan legal subwardens to rectify the problems encountered. Furthermore, in future students are suggested to read through contracts thoroughly with a legal advisor before signing contracts. The oppidan offices have legal subwardens on duty throughout the year and an appointment can be made to go through these contracts.
Oppidan Event
- Only one official oppidan event was organized and this was to raise fund for the oppidan union. This was the Valentine’s Day Speed dating event which had a successful turn out and made it break-even. This event was inclusive of the on-campus students and a way to have some sort of integration of the off-campus students.
Term 2:
Renaming Ceremony 26th April 2018
- Three residences were renamed in the steering forward transformation in the university campus. Charlotte Maxenge, Robert Sobukwe and Enoch Sontonga are the names and this prestigious ceremony was well attended.
Oppidan Event
- Again, for the integration of off-campus students an oppidan spit-braai was hosted on the Union lawns on 27th April 2018 for the celebrations of Freedom Day. The theme was surrounded around ‘what it meant to be free in 2018’. This was an open invite to all students. Unfortunately this was not well attended due to so many events happening on the day.
Oppidan Bus
- After reviewing the year budget for the oppidan union, it has come to our attention that the budget for the oppidan bus is at a deficit. The oppidan bus was originally meant for functioning on weekdays and during school terms. This year this has been changed and the bus now functions over weekends without any financial support from the university. The oppidan fee of, R170, that is paid by every oppidan student annually has not increased over the years even though commodities have such as petrol as well as maintenance of the buses, making the budget for the bus tight. This issue is currently being looked at, and hopefully a solution will be found in order to mend the issue at hand.
- A meeting with the VC discussing the funding of the oppidan bus and PGV students was resolved with the notion that PGV students from Gavin Kelly should pay for the services.
- After meetings with the PGV warden and PGV subwardens, we concluded that PGV students from Gavin Kelly will pay the R170 for the uses of the oppidan bus that will be allocated to the busses maintenance.
Accreditation Meeting
- A document was circulated by the manager of residence operations with regards to the involvement of the university to off-campus students. This document is a guideline from the Department of Higher Education and Training for all South African universities as to how to accredit private accommodation. The document highlights the requirements of how a basic accommodation should have for a university student that occupies the space.
- After much debate, the consensus was reached that all parties need to read the document first before we can have a fruitful conversation. It was also concluded that if the accreditation process were to be implemented, Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 would use the accreditation document to recommend the accredited private accommodations to Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 students but would not be a third party in legal contracts between the students and the owner of the private accommodation.
- A concern that circulated the table was legal action being taken against the university conflict arose. Also another concern was the willingness of private accommodation owners to this process and how that would affect the accommodation rates due to private accommodation owners having to meet certain requirements meaning the owners would have to provide certain services.
- It was also agreed that, members should do their research on how other universities use this process and how effective it is. This is an important process which the university has to prioritize as off-campus students are incredibly affected by the living conditions they are under and due to legal ties and obligations, it becomes difficult to get out of.
- There is another meeting scheduled for next term to determine a way forward.
VC meeting 24th May 2018
- Oppidan concerns were delegated to a meeting with Dr Mabizela, Dr Boughey, Dr Lange and Mrs Mrwetyana of the DSA.
- This meeting entailed speaking on a venue on campus for oppidans, financial support from the university and the #CrimeWise campaign to raise awareness of security for students in and around the Grahamstown community.
- This campaign was attended by the head of Grahamstown Business Forum, Hi-Tech members, SAPS member, CPU members, Oppidan Hall warden and SRC councillors to discuss a way forward for all the unfortunate events that have occurred.
- This meeting was resolved with the members present stating that financial support would not be attainable but issues such as venues would be available for use with no hire charge.
- The #CrimeWise campaign proposal is still being drawn up and will be presented as soon as possible.