Vista University is an animal with seven bodies and no head. The resignation of the university’s entire top management structure — rector, vice-rector and two registrars — in August last year has left the seven- campus institution floundering with no proper
Executive functions have been taken over by a special committee of the university council. Council chairman Leon Bartell and special committee member Allan Tonkin are both drawing salaries as management consultants to the university. Bartell, whose home is in Bloemfontein, flies regularly between Bloemfontein and Gauteng to fulfil his council duties. Tonkin said that as a council member, Bartell was entitled to claim his flight expenses from the university.
According to the university’s founding statute, the council has supreme authority over the affairs of the university, and has refused to grant anything more than a consultative role to the National Transformation Forum (NTF).
The NTF is an umbrella body for the Local Transformation Forums (LTFs) on the various campuses, which represent staff, students and the local community served by each campus.
Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu stepped into the Vista crisis after the resignation of the executive last year, and is currently overseeing the process of appointing a new acting rector.
But recently NTF members have been troubled by a letter from Bengu to the council in which he speaks of the need to “neutralise the position of some stakeholders who have argued that the council is not legitimate”.
This has been interpreted to mean that Bengu has failed in his role as mediator and is taking sides with council. Bengu’s representative Lincoln Mali denied this allegation, saying that the use of the word “neutralise” was “unfortunate”, and that a word like “satisfy” would have better expressed the minister’s
There is further anger that the post of Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer was advertised by council in last weekend’s newspapers. In terms of the agreement reached by council, the ministry, and the NTF, a permanent incumbent to this position — which is identical to that of rector — should not be appointed until a new council is in place.
The appointment of an acting rector is believed to be imminent, with Dr Julian Sonn widely regarded as the favourite for the position. This will be followed by the selection of a new council, which will oversee the selection of a permanent appointment to the post of
Meanwhile, development of the university is hampered by the lack of leadership: the NTF and LTFs have credibility but little power, while council has power but little credibility.
The absurdities of the situation are well illustrated by the case of American lecturer Frank Wilderson, who continues to teach without a salary despite the university’s refusal to renew his contract at the beginning of this year.
Wilderson is widely respected as an academic, but his radical political stance has aroused controversy. Until credible leadership is established, Wilderson refuses to bow to the decisions of an undemocratic council and an equally undemocratic English Department.
At the level of the campuses, the power vacuum has been filled by the Interim Management Committees, which are responsible to the LTFs and have a large degree of control over the day-to-day running of the campus — but no control over finances, which are still in the hands of council. Academic planning is hampered by the need for uniformity among the campuses, since all Vista students take the same examinations.
Vista’s academic curriculum is still based on a series of slim “study manuals” which encourage rote learning rather than critical analysis and wide reading. Apologists for the system say it is necessitated by the fact of students on seven campuses having to sit the same examinations.
Library stocks remain at the appalling level of two books per student (in contrast to 15 per student at the University of the Western Cape, itself an institution which had to overcome apartheid origins). With no effective leadership to take decisions around funding and academic policy, an institution claiming to be “the RDP university” remains mired in its origins as a series of urban bush-colleges.