On a summer’s day late in 2005, Professor Brian O’Connell’s jam-packed diary dictated tea with the directors from The Atlantic Philanthropies, a United States-based donor.
The events that followed still have O’Connell, the vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape (UWC), reeling. They paved the way for the construction of a R440million state-of-the-art science building on a campus where a new structure was last erected 15 years ago.
Work on the project — a six-storey, 120m-long “monument to science” — will begin in just more than a month on UWC’s main campus off Modderdam Road, which runs between Khayelitsha and Belville.
At tea that day, O’Connell told his visitors the story of UWC: how it defied the apartheid rulers by opening its doors to all students in the 1980s, its battles for financial survival as it absorbed the subsequent influx of black students and its proud record of producing more black graduates than any other residential institution in South Africa.
He also told them how UWC was transcending its difficulties and positioning itself as a serious player in higher education in Africa, particularly in areas such as public health.
“After the meeting, the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, Chuck Feeney, asked me to join him for breakfast the next morning. There he asked what my dream was. I told him that part of my dream for UWC was to build a science building that could be a monument to science, a building that could inspire South Africa to develop a strong science culture. It must be a place where the best minds in the world could meet scientists and generate energy for the science project. Black scientists in particular could come here to participate. It must be a symbol of where South Africa is going.”
Feeney said The Atlantic Philanthropies had been involved in a similar project in Queensland, Australia, and invited O’Connell and four staff members to go and look at what a “good science building looks like”. To begin with, though, The Atlantic Philanthropies would donate R80million. “I wanted to jump on the table and scream,” said O’Connell.
Following the UWC delegation’s trip to Australia and visits to the United Kingdom to look at similar buildings, plans were drawn up by dhk Architects. The bill came to a frightening R440million.
UWC approached the department of education, saying that it had R125million in the bag; The Atlantic Philanthropies’ contribution had increased from the promised R80million. Already in the middle of its multibillion-rand recapitalisation process, the department committed R200million over three years — R40million this year, R80million in 2008 and another R80million in 2009.
UWC is now trying to make up the balance by selling naming rights of the building’s six floors to companies, with price tags ranging from R10million to R15million.
Phase one of the new building will house the department of biotechnology, the department of medical bioscience, the South African Herbal Science and Medicine Institute, the South African National Bioinformatics Institute and faculty administration, including the dean’s office.
The building will also provide teaching space, offices for academics and administrative, technical and visiting staff. It will also accommodate a range of special facilities, including an animal house for small rodents, a cold room, an autoclave preparation room, a cadaver room, areas for embalming, a dark room, a radio isotope suite, green houses, storage rooms and certain central facilities, small libraries and meeting areas for different departments, a faculty boardroom and a range of laboratory spaces.
The education department’s R200million injection is the second in recent years. In 2004/05, UWC received R172million, a contribution that had a significant effect on the university. UWC went into overdraft to the tune of R140million from the mid-1980s because of student debt. Wiping it out was a massive challenge — it was not an option for UWC to increase its fees. It had to become more business-like and generate more third-stream income.
But, in the meantime, the debt had to be serviced. This meant there was no money for new programmes or infrastructure.
“When the state decided that UWC would not merge [as was initially announced], there were two conditions. UWC would absorb Stellenbosch University’s dental faculty and would acquire the sole mandate to train undergraduate nurses in the Western Cape,” said O’Connell.
Given its debt, UWC had limited capacity in these two areas. So when it received the R172million from the government, it immediately wiped out the debt.
In addition, the payment culture of students had improved. Coupled with an improved billing system for students, the university had been doing well in collecting fees.
UWC’s much-improved financial status has strengthened the institution and afforded it the ability to reposition itself. “It has given the university an incredible lift and released new energy and creativity at UWC,” said O’Connell.
Inside the building
- Research in bioinformatics is primarily in the genomics of diseases, particularly cancer, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
- In biotechnology, one major project concerns the genetic features of extremophiles, living organisms that survive in extreme conditions such as Antarctica and volcanic craters. This work has major importance, both in advancing our understanding of what makes for survival and in advancing metagenomic theory.
- Significant work has been done on the interface between indigenous knowÂledge systems and clinical science at the South African Herbal Science and Medicine Institute. One of its programmes brings together 30 nyangas and sangomas and a distinguished team of clinical, Medical biosciences concentrate on high-level research into male fertility with the support of the Medical Research Council and the fertility unit at Tygerberg Hospital, and prepares students for dentistry and the allied health sciences.