Thandi Lewin
For the first time in decades, the University of Cape Town is without an elected students representative council (SRC).
Less than 25% of students turned out to vote at the last poll, which, according to the constitution, is not enough to form an SRC, and now new elections must be held next month.
The short-term response to the crisis caused by the lack of an elected SRC has been the formation of a Transitional Students’ Council (TSC), made up of SRC candidates, a former SRC member and a member of the Student Parliament (which was formed in 1994 to broaden student involvement in decision-making processes).
The composition of the TSC now stands, after several resignations, at only six members. This is less than half the number of people required for an SRC.
Low polls are not a new phenomenon at UCT, or at other institutions, where a crisis in student governance is one of the manifestations of the problems accompanying change in the tertiary sector.
But UCT’s 1995 poll propelled both student and administrative bodies to review the student governance system. A Commission on Student Governance has been appointed to find solutions to the crisis and make “recommendations regarding the way in which a future system of student governance should be developed at UCT”.
For several years it has been difficult to rally students around ideological issues and to get large numbers of students to vote in SRC elections.
Lerato Modise, chair of the TSC said: “Political change has shifted the base on which student activists have always campaigned.”
Members of the TSC also point to racial undercurrents influencing the poll. Black students at UCT have been hard-hit by the financial realities of attending an expensive university and the difficulties of adapting to the UCT academic and social environment.
For these students, the SRC is an important channel through which to pursue change. But for many white students these concerns are less immediate, and their interest in the SRC has declined as the body focuses more on issues affecting black students.
Emphasis on the racial undercurrents has, however, clouded other issues. High costs of education, the government’s demands for technical skills and the post-university struggle for jobs have all contributed to a prevailing perception of higher education as a mere chain in the production line.
In this context, SRCs are perceived to be no more than service providers, and student politics are a “luxury” belonging to bygone days.
According to William Rex, a member of UCT’s administration providing support to the transformation process, the new SRC will need to fulfil the normal functions of all SRCs, but will also have to play a role in managing long-term change of student politics.