Mungo Soggot
THE selection of Professor Sam Nolutshungu as the University of the Witwatersrand’s new vice-chancellor may have grabbed the headlines in South Africa, but it passed by the United States university town of Rochester.
The local newspaper had not heard of Nolutshungu, a political science professor at Rochester, never mind his sensational victory before the 28-member selection committee which has almost certainly landed him the top job at South Africa’s most famous university. The only entry in its archives connected with the academic was that a child of his had been nominated a black scholar by the Urban League of Rochester, a town 400km from New York City with about 250 000 mostly white inhabitants.
Rochester University’s public relations office had not heard the news when approached. After Nolutshungu informed them he had not officially been appointed, the office decided it was inappropriate to arrange comment from students or colleagues.
Nolutshungu said he felt the selection process for the post had been “long, cumbersome and tiresome”. He said such an excessive commitment to transparency was unlikely to have succeeded anywhere else. However, after having been through it, he supposed it was the correct approach to have taken. “It gave everyone a chance to be heard, and convinced all concerned that the selection process was done fairly.” Nolutshungu and his two competitors delivered a speech in the university’s great hall, and were then interviewed on closed-circuit television by the large selection committee.
Nolutshungu, who was born in King William’s Town and lived abroad for 31 years, said he had been surprised that so many South African commentators and newspapers had been so certain of the outcome of the selection considering the strength of all three candidates and the thorough selection process.
He said he was an admirer and supporter of the ANC, but that he would not necessarily toe the party’s line on education policy. “I will not be a representative of its politics.” Asked about his political leanings in the United States, he said if he could vote there – he is a British citizen and recently regained his South African passport – he would “probably not vote Republican”.
He said he was well aware of the difficulties facing Wits, which put it worlds apart from the quieter campus of Rochester. “Maybe the task is beyond me, maybe I’ll manage it.” The two universities, Wits and Rochester differ vastly in size. The American college has just 6 800 students to Wits’s 20 000. He said it was crucial the university and commentators on its “transformation” stopped thinking permanently in “crisis mode”.
Nolutshungu said he had been an active anti- apartheid campaigner while in exile and had written copiously on apartheid.
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