AIDS seminar coming up

AT THE sixth Academic Freedom Committee seminar on October 17, David Bourne and Professor Rob Dorrington will talk on Issues Related to the MRC Report on HIV/AIDS. The time is 13h00 to 13h45 and the venue is Lecture Theatre 3A, Leslie Social Sciences Building.

The seminars are aimed at stimulating debate on Campus, addressing the perception at UCT that academic freedom as a topic is no longer relevant. The seminars also aim to create awareness of academic freedom and its role in a changing South Africa. These seminars are open to the University community.

Reuben Stander death

UCT extends condolences to the family and friends of former UCT Council member, Reuben Stander. Stander, co-founder of Liebenberg and Stander, consulting engineers and project managers, died last month.

He was active on the University Building and Development Committee (UBDC) for several years. Stander devoted more than 40 years of his life to engineering.

Planting from the top

SPADING earth and mulch around a newly-planted tree doesn't come easy when you're dressed in a suit, a fact that prompted the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Njabulo Ndebele, to ask the assembly from Properties and Services. “Do I need overalls?”

Ndebele and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Wieland Gevers were putting the finishing touches to the earthy homes of two new trees on middle Campus, both Liquidambar styracilfua or sweet gums. Another tree, a semi-mature camphor (Cinnamomum camphora), was planted closer to the cricket oval sheds.

Watched over by UCT's senior horticulturist Noelene le Cordier, the trees were planted as part of ongoing efforts to maintain UCT's sylvan surroundings. According to Le Cordier, the liquid amber is a shapely medium-sized deciduous tree (10m–28m) bearing attractive foliage, especially in autumn when the leaves develop spectacular orange and red tints. “It is an ideal shade-provider and often used in landscape design,” she added.“ The entire University Avenue is lined with these trees.”

In contrast, the evergreen camphor has a huge, round spreading crown and gnarled branch structure. “It is a superb shade and ornamental tree, its beauty much-enhanced in spring by the fresh, pale green of the young leaves and deeper tone of the old foliage,” she added.

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