Campus announcements
UCT SGBV Indaba and other updates
03 August 2023Dear colleagues and students
Throughout this month, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Office for lnclusivity and Change (OIC) will host the 2023 Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Indaba. Read more on this and other upcoming developments on campus.
1. UCT to host SGBV Indaba
The OIC will host the 2023 Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Indaba from Friday, 4 August to Thursday, 31 August.
The UCT SGBV Indaba was curated with multivocality and interdisciplinarity in mind. This is so that UCT hears from various voices that seldom find expression in one space. The indaba will draw from multiple disciplines to interrogate the university’s current practices.
The indaba will also explore multifaceted aspects of response and prevention and will seek to learn from activists and organisations with long-standing formalised programmes. Beyond institutional programmes, UCT will consider alternative community based responses of prevention, education, survivor support and administrative justice.
Throughout the month of August the faculties of Humanities, Engineering & the Built Environment, and Law, as well as residences, will host a dialogue each week centering on topics that challenge the university. Using the UCT Sexual Misconduct 2022 Report as a basis, the university community and partnering practitioners will aim to move beyond current comfort zones and deepen UCT’s learning.
- RSVP to attend the indaba.
- View the programme and speakers.
- Watch: Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) for Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo’s invitation to attend the indaba.
Follow the hashtag #UCTIndaba2023 to receive updates from students who will be participating at the seminars.
For further information, please contact Cheryl Vallay.
2. Reminder: Inaugural Lecture by Professor Mark Engel
Professor Mark Engel, an epidemiologist in the Department of Medicine at UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences, will present the next UCT Inaugural Lecture on Thursday, 3 August 2023 at the New Learning Centre Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, in Observatory.
The lecture is titled “We are here too – Contributing African Strep A research towards eliminating rheumatic heart disease”. Rheumatic heart disease (RHD), despite being largely unseen in developed countries, remains rampant in poorer communities and low-resourced settings around the world. Strep A, the bacteria responsible for the antecedent sore throat infection believed to initiate the immune processes involved in RHD development, is largely unresearched in Africa.
Professor Engel collaborates with colleagues across Africa to apply a wide range of investigative approaches to his work, from molecular to population-based research and to all aspects of RHD.
3. UCT extends closing date for 2024 undergraduate applications
The closing date for undergraduate applications to study at UCT in 2024 has been extended to midnight SAST on Friday, 4 August 2023. The university will not consider applications received after this date.
Prospective students are advised not to wait until the last day to submit, as the high volume of users accessing the applications system simultaneously places undue pressure on the system.
4. UCT Women’s Day commemorative event
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, Professor Sue Harrison, together with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs & Social Responsiveness, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, will host the annual Women’s Day seminar and cocktail event on Thursday, 10 August 2023 at 12:00 at the UCT GSB Conference Centre. The event will honour the recipients of the UCT For Womxn By Womxn research grants and other exceptional women from across the university.
The event is open to the UCT community, and the theme is “The future we want”. Professor Salome Maswime, head of the Global Surgery Division and Chair of the University of the Future project, will deliver the keynote address.
- To attend the event, please RSVP by Friday, 4 August 2023.
- For enquiries, please contact cmdevents@uct.ac.za.
5. Farewell to COO
After many years of dedicated service in various roles, UCT said farewell to Dr Reno Morar on Monday, 31 July 2023. Dr Morar, the inaugural chief operating officer (COO) at UCT, took up this position in February 2019.
As a result of Dr Morar’s departure, Mr Mughtar Parker took up the role of acting COO, with effect from 1 August 2023 until 31 March 2024. Mr Parker continues serving as executive director for the Properties & Services department, while taking on the additional responsibilities as acting COO, with the exception of Human Resources which will report to Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, the DVC for Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness.
6. Reminder: P&S workplace mobile app
The Properties & Services (P&S) department recently launched the P&S workplace mobile app. The app takes P&S one step closer to providing an omni-channel offering to the UCT community to engage with the department through its range of services.
Members of the UCT community are no longer restricted to using their computers to submit service requests to P&S. The mobile app empowers users to collaborate safely and remain agile by using Archibus Workplace.
Archibus Workplace is a comprehensive set of smart, mobile tools that enable employees to easily log and track service requests by selecting the specific service required for a given location. The catalogue of services addresses facilities-related issues including, but not limited to: reporting maintenance issues; cleaning; gardens and grounds; examination venue preparations; Educare enquiries; Irma Stern Museum bookings; graduation gown bookings; etc.
Should you experience any problems in accessing the mobile app, please contact P&S via ps-techsupport@uct.ac.za.
Communication and Marketing Department
Read previous communications:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
