The past week I had the good fortune of travelling to Stellenbosch and socialising with the students at Maties. I had the opportunity to experience what student life in Stellenbosch is like and how it currently differs to student life here in Pretoria. What overwhelmed me was the freedom with which residences operated there. Not once did I hear somebody utter in disdain about a governing power which controls their residences or about traditions getting the boot. Prof. Roelf Visser, in one of the above-mentioned articles you were quoted as saying that Tuks is the only university in South Africa that allows the sale of alcohol in residences. That is simply not true. If my sources are correct Maties, Kovsies and Pukke still allow clubhouses to be run as well as alcohol to be sold. Furthermore, the clubhouses in Stellenbosch are allowed to stay open until 2 am (four hours later than the clubhouses here) with the only exception that loud music must be turned off at midnight.
Regarding first year ontheffing all Maties first years are ontheffed after the first semester. They are, however, still obliged to wear first-year clothing or ienk drag. Has anyone at TuksRes ever considered the value of these first year traditions? I was once a first year too and I look back to those memories with joy. Wearing our ienk drag meant something to us. It said, “I am a part of something bigger.” It was no burden for us. How I see it is that there can come no harm in wearing ienk drag once a week. When I read that ontheffing will be done after a week I was dumbfounded. How can a first year possibly be initiated within a week? First years are ontheffed later in the year so that HC members and seniors can keep an eye on what first years are doing. Just imagine that you are a new first year in residence and after a week you are left to your own devices without anyone having authority over you. As a student coming out of a home where parents dictated my actions I would have let loose and partied all the time, leaving my studies behind. Luckily I had HC members and seniors who kept me in line and taught me how to have a balanced res life. Furthermore, there is absolutely no harm in calling seniors and HC members on their appropriate names and titles. This helps first years to cope with hierarchy which is found in every possible field people work in today and it gives the first years the opportunity to learn the names of the seniors they share a res with. As for the removal of Ienkmelodienk themes, I call upon TuksRes to explain it to the residences as I can see absolutely no reason for these changes.
In the above-mentioned two articles TuksRes tries to give the impression that they are lenient and that other universities are far stricter on res traditions stating that TuksRes is under pressure to align themselves with the rest of the country. However, they seem to be the driving force when it comes to reforming residences. I personally think TuksRes must give the residences some space for one reason: it works. TuksRes is hammering on the fact that they want to create a totally academic atmosphere in residences which we all could understand, but let’s look at the hard facts: TuksVillage is the largest purely academic res at Tuks so surely they should have a superior average above normal residences as they don’t participate in extra activities, yet they don’t. Huis Olympus ended last year with a higher average and the Republic of Olienhout just finished under TuksVillage with 2%, not to mention the ladies residences who had even higher averages. So if we take that information Olienhout only had an average of 2% lower than TuksVillage. This means that the sporting and social res of the year nearly did better than a purely academic one.
As I learnt in school when writing a letter of complaint, it is always better to end with a suggestion, so here is mine: I understand that residence is the cheapest form of accommodation in Pretoria and that it is the only option for some students. I also understand that these students sometimes do not want to participate in res activities. There is, however, an easy solution. I suggest that before students move into res that they sign a form in which they stipulate whether or not they want to participate in res. Then residences allocate a corridor to these students where they can be isolated from the rest of the residence. These students will then not be disturbed in any manner. The rest of the residence can then continue on as always. TuksRes has always had a healthy habit of attracting influential students from high schools like head boys or head girls, academic achievers as well as sport stars. Have they ever stopped to consider that these students are coming to experience these traditions and res life? And if these traditions and cultures are all dead will these students go seek greener pastures elsewhere?
I call upon TukRes to rethink their strategy, and to stop listening to complaints of the minority and start listening to suggestions of the majority. We res students feel we have no voice when it comes to our beloved residences and the changes made to them. If it continues like this residence culture and traditions will be a thing of the past. All we’ll be left with is a residence name and memories of the golden days.
For the love towards my res
Anonymous