VC Installation 2008
Overview
On 19 August Dr Max Price was installed as UCT's ninth Vice-Chancellor at a ceremony in the Jameson Hall.
This was part of a week-long programme that included a roadshow to meet staff and students on satellite campuses. Significantly, the programme also honoured the late Professor Archie Mafeje, an academic who became a pivotal figure in the university's history. At the installation ceremony a posthumous honorary degree was awarded to Mafeje, which was accepted by a member of his family.
Dr Price says of the programme of events: "The installation is an opportunity to refresh our institutional goals, to rethink how we work, to reflect on the broader role and purpose of the university and our individual roles within it, and to generate renewed energy and hope."
Key events
Sunday, 17 August
A group of UCT students participated in a Bremner sit-in in August 1968 protesting against a UCT Council decision at the time to reverse Professor Mafeje's appointment at UCT following pressure from the government of the day. On Sunday, a group of fifty or so of those students reunited to reflect on and assess the impact of the Mafeje sit-in in the Senate room forty years ago.
Monday, 18 August
The Academic Freedom Committee (AFC) and the sit-in reunion participants then hosted the symposium, Lessons of the Mafeje Affair - 40 years on, which was open to the UCT community and the public.
AFC speakers included Fred Hendricks, Dean of Humanities at Rhodes University; Professor Ken Hughes of UCT's Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics; Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza of UCT's Department of Sociology; and Emeritus Professor of Economics, Francis Wilson.
The event concluded with the renaming of the Senate Room to the Archie Mafeje Room and the unveiling of a plaque which will be erected in the room.
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Tuesday, 19 August
The official installation ceremony took place in Jameson Hall and was attended by Chancellor Graça Machel and the new chair of Council Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane. Here Dr Price had the opportunity to share the main aspects of his vision for UCT.
Wednesday, 20 August
The Campus Conversations, which took place in various venues gave the Vice-Chancellor the opportunity to share the outline of his mission with those who could not attend the installation, and to start a discussion about the university's future.
The Vice-Chancellor's Symposium later that day had the theme, 'The Future Role of South African Universities: Campus ... city ... country ... continents.'
The speakers were: Akilagpa Sawyer, former Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Law, University of Ghana, and former secretary-general of the Association of African Universities; Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former Vice-Chancellor of UCT and executive chairperson of Circle Capital Ventures; and Jonathan Jansen, Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Witwatersrand.
Thursday, 21 August
Dr Price delivered the keynote address at the UCT Stop Stigma Rally held on Jammie Plaza. The event which was organised by HIV/AIDS Co-ordination - UCT (HAICU) aimed to allow the University community to demonstrate that there is no place for stigma and discrimination on their campus and to create an environment in which students and staff living with HIV can publicly disclose their status if they so choose.
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