Nota bene

13 June 2005

Calling all macebearers

The university urgently needs macebearers (staff or student volunteers) for the graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 24, 2005.

The macebearers will lead the platform party (procession) in and out of Jameson Hall at the start and end of ceremonies, and assist with providing academic dress to staff members joining the platform party.

Macebearing is voluntary and there is no payment for providing this service.

If you would like to be a macebearer, please send your name and contact details to Denise Benjamin at e-mail denise@bremner.uct.ac.za or tel 650 2187. Please state whether you would like to assist at the morning or the afternoon ceremony.

The morning ceremony is at 10h00 (commerce faculty) and the afternoon ceremony is at 14h30 (engineering and the built environment, health sciences, humanities, law and science).

Alumni from across SA get together

UCT graduates from around the country got together recently as part of Vice-Chancellor Professor Njabulo Ndebele's initiative to meet with alumni.

Some 210 alumni from Gauteng, 30 from KwaZulu-Natal, 65 from Port Elizabeth and 35 from East London took up the invitation and attended the road-show functions, which aimed to lay the foundations of building sustainable relationships with alumni.

According to Ndebele, these foundations are essential for building the global UCT alumni network in the future.

"We were encouraged by the energy, pride and expression of interest by our alumni to keep their relationships with UCT alive. It was also wonderful to see diverse alumni representation in all the regions," he said.

Speakers at the regional functions included Nkosinathi Biko, executive director of the Steve Biko Foundation whose topic was Embracing transformation - becoming a change agent, and Philipp Gutsche, non-executive chairman of Coca-Cola Sabco (Pty) Limited, who reflected on the positive economic trends in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. Ndebele's topic was A Reflection on UCT and our Vision for the Future.

Alumni in the UK will get together on June 22 at South Africa House in London, while a trip to visit American alumni has been planned for October.

"Successful visits have taken place over the past five years, but this time we have a long-term plan in mind. The alumni global network aims to provide alumni with benefits in the future, and at the same time reflects UCT's vision of being a world-class African university," Ndebele added.

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