1st term
Accommodation
Supplementary exams
-All the accommodation cases that were reported were all a success. We also had emergency accommodations for overnight stays to accommodate those students who couldn’t afford to pay for their stays.
March/April vacation
-We managed to ensure that NSFAS and International students were accommodated and charges where debited to their students accounts.
-Through the engagement the SRC council had with management, students who couldn’t go because they didn’t have enough funds were given an option that if the travelling cost were less than the cost of staying are allowed to debit those travelling cost and go home instead of staying and incurring more cost.
-The main failure that we faced as the Residence office is the system of the partial bookings that we were unable to look into. But to those students, who wanted to have them during the graduation weeks it was possible for them.
Security
-Every Tuesday we receive a report back from the head of CPU.
SOS BUTTONS
-We have 60 SOS buttons across the campus, currently we have 59 working SOS buttons and 1 faculty one by Ellen Khuzwayo but it is currently being fixed.
-We urge all leaders to assist us in communicating that, when you press the SOS button you must press and hold.
Lights
-They are reported on a daily basis, as it stands campus light cables are being damaged during the repair of underground water and other pipes. The repair and replacement of electric cables take a bit longer to implement as they have to check the weather because if it rains they can’t work as they have lay the cables, backfill the trench and restore the area.
Escorts
-CPU do offer escorts for students, as we all know that we are approaching winter and the situation of lights on our campus is a problem.
-The students can call CPU at 046 603 8146/7 or 046 603 8999. In a case where a student doesn’t have airtime they can post on the Rhodes SRC page so that a councilor that is in the office can call on their behalf.
Visibility of CPU
-We have reported areas where there were no patrols of the CPU, if a student also see that there is no visibility in a certain area, they need to alert us, SRC Hall Reps, House Comm members.
Projects
*Noodle Drive: “An initiative created to support students in their endeavors of achieving their goals. Sustaining the one who burns the mid night oil or longer”.
On the 30th of April 2018, we will be launching the noodle drive formally.
7-11 May we will have a noodle week that is aimed at the collection of the noodle, and then on the 10th of May 2018 we will be having a Noodle Thursday under the theme “collective effort”.
*Meal Review
-Currently, we are doing surveys and engaging with the relevant stakeholders. We are hoping to be done with the surveys by the 28th of April 2018, so that we can formally start the process of meal changes.
* House Keeping committee
This is the new committee that is being formed since we notice that we do not have a platform of engaging about issues surrounding maintenance and requisition. The SRC has sent the proposal of the formation of this committee, the key stakeholders have welcomed. Underground work is being done to kick start this.
Other Projects that the Residence office is still working on;
*Hygiene Campaign
*Academic Res Talks
*Pad Drive
Second Term
Noodle Drive
*We couldn’t launch it on the 30th of April due to uforseen circumstances we had to push it to the next day.
*On the 1st of May 2018, the Residence Councillor,SRC and SRC Hall Rep formally launched the project, where a statement was released by the Media councillor informing the Rhodes Community about the project. The Student Benefits and Sponsorship Councillor was the main person that was dealing with the sponsorships of the project.
*On the 7th-11 of May we had a noodle drive week, it was aimed at collecting noodle packets. On the 10th of May, we had a purple Thursday where students were also bringing their donation. We decided to extend the collection by a week, now the new deadline for the collection was the 25th of May 2018.
*This initiative was funded by the following councillors (Top 4, Residence,SBS, Projects, CE, Media, Sports, Oppidan), this is one of our legacy project that are aimed at assisting our students. The Community Engagement Councillor, was the designer of our boxes.
*We also received 500 packets of Noodles from Van Scheik, and we also received donations from Pick n Pay worth R1000.00. The suppliers (Maggie and Fatti) also donated packets of Noodles. We had a trolley at Pick n Pay, where the Grahamstown community was also donating packets of noodles that the have. We received donations from Jan Smuts Hall Warden, we will do a follow-up on the pledges that were made by key stakeholders.
On the 25th of May,we will be counting the packets of noodles that we have and plan the distribution to cover the exam duration.
Main collection points for the noodles:
- CPU- 24/7
- SRC Finacial Administrator’s Office- Normal Office hours
- Per day students are allowed to take a maximum of two packets.
- We will fill up the boxes on Mondays and Thursday (meaning if the packets ran out before Thursday, students will have to wait until we refill).
Meal Review
- We couldn’t start the meal review on time, since we were still drawing up the pettion and engaging with the stakeholders.
- We started the meal review on the 24th of May, it will run-up until the the 31st of May 2018. Based on the results we get, we will further engage on what the petition will show.
HK Commitee
- The proposal was well received by the deputy director of Res Ops, we will offically start with the project next term. The proposal will also be submitted to SSC and circulated to the rest of council.
The Hygiene Project will commence next semster, we still need to go back to the drawing board.
Report Back
- Hall Reps were tasked to conduct surveys around the issue of Supplementary exams.
- Attended Board of Residence, held meetings with the Hall Reps every fortnight.
- The Hall Reps and The Residence Councillor assisted the Activism and Transformation Councillor during Disability Week (we painted the stairs, hyper the social media #MakongInvinsibleVisible)
- Assisted with the planning of the Great Field Party.
- Attended CE public lecture on the 8th of May 2018. Attended CE presentations that happened on the 10th of May
- Attended Cluster Meeting on the 18th of May 2018.
- Attended Cocktail Evening that was held by the Equity office, which was aimed at cloisng off the disability week.
- Attended Naming ceremony of 3 reses (on the 26th April 2018), given a brief insight on what the day meant for the residential system of Rhodes.
- Will attend a Constituonal Review, Mbokodo Caucus and O-Week Programme review working session that will be takong place on the 27th of May 2018.