South African Association of Senior Student Affairs Professionals
RECOGNITION OF SAASSAP MEMBER ACTIVITIES
JANUARY 2020
• In January 2020, following SAASSAP’s lobbying of Universities South Africa (USAf), a meeting was held between the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the higher education sector to discuss NSFAS-related matters.
APRIL 2020
• In April 2020, the SAASSAP NEC had engagements with Higher Health (HH) to brainstorm HH’s strategy towards COVID-19 within the post-school education and training (PSET) sector. SAASSAP members provided inputs to the Protocol on Screening, Testing, Linkage to Care for COVID-19 Programmes within PSET and on Student Volunteers.
• In April 2020, the SAASSAP NEC engaged with USAf on issues concerning leased student accommodation. SAASSAP representatives formed part of a Task Team convened to engage with Private Student Housing Association (PSHA).
• SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu and SAASSAP Deputy President, Mr Luthando Jack, were nominated to serve on the joint task team established by USAf and the Minister of Police, to develop a national action plan to fight all forms of crimes on our campuses and the surrounding communities.
MAY 2020
• On 14 May 2020, SAASSAP Research and Development Officer, Dr Matete Madiba was a panellist in the Association of African Universities Webinar for Deans and Student Affairs Practitioners.
• On 25 May 2020, SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu was a panellist in the Higher Health Webinar on PSET Guidelines and Protocols.
• SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu’s co-authored article was published in the Council on Higher Education journal, Kagisano No. 12.
JUNE 2020
· In June 2020, SAASSAP Deputy President, Mr Luthando Jack’s article entitled “Our COVID-19 world: How to integrate students into universities”, was published in the Mail & Guardian online newspaper.
· In June 2020, SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu’s article entitled “The vexed question of political party involvement in student politics”, was published on the Daily Maverick online newspaper.
JULY 2020
• In July 2020, SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu was interviewed on an online radio station, Salaamedia.
SEPTEMBER 2020
• SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu participated and represented SAASSAP in the International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS) Global Meeting which took place in September 2020, in which a total of 23 Student Affairs and Services (SAS) associations across the globe, were represented.
NOVEMBER 2020
• SAASSAP member, Dr Paulette Naidoo’s co-authored article, “Where to from here? Contemplating the impact of COVID-19 on South African students and Student Counselling Services in Higher Education”, was published by the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy in November 2020.
• In collaboration with Universities South Africa (USAf), Higher Health (HH) and the South African Union of Students (SAUS), SAASSAP has contributed to the development of a social contract document from which higher education institutions can develop their own social contracts in dealing with health and matters related to COVID-19.
• On the 10 November 2020, SAASSAP Secretary-General Mr Pura Mgolombane was a panellist at the Stellenbosch University Experiential Learning Conference 2020. He further presented an academic paper titled ‘Navigating Uncertainty: Peacebuilding Post Covid-19 within Higher Education Institutions.’
DECEMBER 2020
• On 10 December 2020, SAASSAP President, Dr Sibusiso Chalufu participated and chaired one of the parallel sessions in the USAf’s Higher Education, Leadership and Management (HELM) Virtual Conference themed “Leading and Managing the University in Africa for Disruption, Complexity and Crisis.”
• SAASSAP Projects Officer, Dr Pakiso Tondi and SAASSAP member and Dean of Students at the Durban University of Technology, Dr Maditsane Nkonoane, contributed a chapter: “The messages and actions of the 2015—2016 Student #MustFall Movement and its relationship to the South African Higher Education transformation agenda”, in a book entitled: Tertiary Institutional Transformation in South Africa Revisited.