<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="">Stellenbosch: A black member in a sea of white</h1>
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<span id="lblByLine" class="">S’Thembile Cele</span>
<span id="lblTimestamp" class="">2016-02-14 15:00</span>
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Michael le Cordeur
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<p>The only black member of the newly elected executive committee on
Stellenbosch University’s convocation says the university cannot
continue to operate exclusively in Afrikaans.</p><p>Although Dr Michael
le Cordeur was elected to the position of “additional member” on the
six-member executive, he is determined to make it count. </p><p>Stellenbosch
University’s convocation election sitting was scheduled for November,
but was postponed as a result of the #FeesMustFall protests.</p><p>Le
Cordeur, the head of the university’s department of curriculum studies –
who was elected along with a white- and male-dominated convocation that
includes president Jan Heunis, vice-president Jacques du Preez,
secretary Nadia Marais and additional member Sonja Loots – said he was
excited about his appointment, although it was “still early days”.</p><p>“It
is something new for me – I still have a lot to learn. But something I
have been encouraging among fellow lecturers is that we cannot just
complain about the issue of transformation at Stellenbosch. We need to
be prepared to serve,” he said. </p><p>“The position of additional member is not a powerful one, but we can work on that.”</p><p>At
the forefront of the quest for transformation at the university is its
language policy, but Le Cordeur said this week that too much time was
spent on debating language, while other equally pertinent issues were
put on the back burner.</p><p>“There are other issues apart from the
language one. The institutional character of the university is
problematic. Black students do not feel welcome. Accommodation is a
problem. There are students who travel by taxi every day from places
like Atlantis and Mitchells Plain,” he said.</p><p>“I was speaking to a
student who travels every day from Atlantis by taxi and it costs her a
lot of money. She has to be up by 5am to get to class on time. Both of
her parents are unemployed. These are the kinds of things that we need
to speak about. I will be pushing for a shuttle service for these
students because this is not just a place for hostel students. </p><p>“The institutional character cannot continue to be allowed to make students feel unwelcome.”</p><p>Le
Cordeur said he did not expect to be elected, and stood for the
position because he believed those who were pushing for transformation
at the institution needed to be proactive and not just “criticise from
the outside”.</p><p>“I think the university missed a wonderful
opportunity to show the world that we are serious about transformation
by not electing someone like [Nigerian-born political sciences master’s
graduate] Lovelyn Nwadeyi. Convocation can play an important role in
changing mind-sets, and voting for Lovelyn would have contributed
greatly to that conversation,” he said, in a reference to Nwadeyi’s
speech on the evening of the elections that since went viral. </p><p>Le
Cordeur said he believed that an additional 10 student or lecturer votes
would have made the difference and would have seen Nwadeyi elected to
the convocation body. She missed out on the position of deputy president
to Du Preez by 15 votes.</p><p>“We cannot be absent from debates on campus as alumni – we need to engage,” he said.</p><p>Le Cordeur, who is fluent in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, said he constantly encouraged his students to be multilingual. </p><p>“Language
is important because it does translate to access, but my motto going
into this term will be that we need to forget about thinking of
Afrikaans as the only language of education,” he said.</p><p>“We need to
work to construct a balance between English and Afrikaans at the
university. We cannot continue to operate as exclusively Afrikaans.
Those days are gone and they should never return. English can add value
because the playing field is uneven and English can level it out.”</p><p><span><strong>In an article headlined </strong><em><strong>No rainbow nation for Stellenbosch</strong></em><strong>,
published on January 30, City Press reported that the convocation
committee elected at the university consisted exclusively of white
members. This was incorrect, as Le Cordeur is black. City Press
apologises for the error.</strong></span></p><p><span><strong><a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/stellenbosch-a-black-member-in-a-sea-of-white-20160214">http://city-press.news24.com/News/stellenbosch-a-black-member-in-a-sea-of-white-20160214</a><br></strong></span></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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