Salisbury House Blog

Wrapping Up

2008-06-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm busy packing up and finalising the last bit of business at the Dormitory. On 29 June 2008 I will be flying to Heathrow, and then if the friendly officers at the British Imigration and Border Agency allows me to, I'll fly onwards to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I will be settling in a small town Banbridge and pastoring two congregations for a few years.

I have been so busy packing and making arrangements that I have not had a lot of time for reflection on my time at Helderberg. I will try to make some time to write about that shortly before I leave, or perhaps when I adjust to my new, hopefully slower paced life.

There has been many farewells. Last night the high school learners organised a fabulous programme to celebrate the fact that I am leaving and Dr. Letseli was there to take some photos. He promptly posted them on Facebook.

We got a photo of several members of the team that has done such a fabulous job of runnign the dormitory. From Left to right: Peter Webster (Resident Assistant), Simone (my wife), Myself, Mrs Isabel Louw (The fabulous new girls dorm dean), Salvador Cena and his wife Luciana (Adventist volunteer workers from Argentina who are helping out in the dorm), Pastor Eddie Appollis (Chaplain), and Dr. Letseli (Vice President for Student Services).

I want to thank the dormitory students for being so kind to my wife and patient with my daughter.

My closing thoughts were that the dormitory job taught me that a person should have a sense of humour about life. This is also a strong theme in scripture. We just should not take ourselves too seriously. When we worry, scripture says that the Lord will provide, When we think that we have arrived, Paul reminds us that this righteousness that we are so serious about is really just filthy rags. And when we think too seriously of ourselves as important people, we are reminded to have the attitude of Christ who thought nothing about becomming a servant who died on a cross. These values all set the basis for a wonderful sense of humour. I ended of with the joke of an Irish painter who was used to cutting corners. Until one day in a terrible thunder and lightning storm the Lord spoke to him and said: "Repaint! Reapaint! And thin no more!". And then Dr. Letseli took the photo.

A few weeks ago the entire RAD team and Worship Committee met at another restaurant to say good bye to us.

What is going to happen to the blog? If I find any more information that is relevant to Salisbury House I will update it. The College is busy migrating to a new website and that website will have some functionality that will allow the new dean to post relevant information there.

It's really been great to work at Helderberg. I have learned so much from the students and the staff. I am going to miss the place.

New College Song

2008-06-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

The news is a bit late. The announcement was officially made at our graduation ceremony in 2007. The other day I was looking for the words of the song, and now that I found them, I think it is wise to publish them somewhere for others to also see.

A Perspective on the Job of Dormitory Deans

2008-06-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

Edit: I realise that the attached images are not clearly legible, So I 'll quickly type out the main sections of the article:

Adventist education includes boarding schools (9-12 and college level) with dormitories directed by professional personnel known as "residence hall deans," a job description with complex challenges. For the dean, every day is different and unique, but there are also predictable routines. Successful deaning requires a high sense of maturity and responsibility, flexibility, commitment, and skills development. While many have found great satisfaction in deaning as a long-term career, others have become disillusioned and quickly left the profession.

Historically, the abbreviated careers of deans have been a problem. In a 1969 study, Weir found the average tenure for an academy dean of boys to be about 2.5 years, and for a dean of girls, about 1.5 years. I do not know of any recent study about tenure and attrition, but there is still a sense that deans, especially academy deans, have short careers. It is also true that many deans were hired with the expectation that they would not last long. They were worked hard and much was expected of them; but not much value was placed in pre-service or in-service training. Many have believed that "deans are born, not made"; and while there may be some truth to that, both natural abilities and training are needed. ... (Article by Donald W. Murray in "The Dean's Column" Journal of Adventist Education. October/November 2007.

This is a perspective and the statistics might be a challenge for College administrators. It might also be important for prospective deans to keep this in mind as they plan their career. From my experience the work of a dormitory dean is an incredibly enriching work and it poses tremendous opportunities for personal formation and growth. Don't let the statistics put you off!

Blogs to Note

2008-01-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

I think the following two blog entries are of relevance to anybody who sometimes take the time to ponder questions relating to what might become of Seventh-day Adventist Higher Education:

Why college and university students act the way they do and what we can do about it.

The issues raised in the discussion are as informative as the article itself. One of the possible solutions suggested in the discussion suggest that a super endowment be created for Seventh-day Adventist Higher Education. I have often wondered how we could accomplish that.

Spare a thought for our students at Baraton University, Kenya

My first thought when I heard about this incredibly worrying situation was, how wonderful it would be to have a pan-African University that could safely and affordable accommodate all of our African students and staff.

Assistant Deans

2007-12-17T03:48:00.000-08:00

I decided to clean out a cupboard in my office that has been full of unidentified objects since I became dean.

I came across the following photos.

I have met many of these gentlemen personally. It is abundantly clear that the Assistant Dean position is usually filled by great leaders. The position probably also does a lot to prepare a person for leadership. I would love to hear some of their stories.

It would be wonderful if these men, or other Assistant Deans and Resident Assistants who might come across this blog could send me a photo of themselves and tell us something about their experiences in Salisbury House and about their lives after living in Salisbury House.

Jannie Bekker 1975-76

Anton van Wyk 1977-78

Braam Oberholster 1979

Werney de Lange 1980

Monty Muhl 1981-82

Peter Krumpschmidt 1983

Martin Bradfield 1984

Jonathon Stockil 1985

Shane Blake 1986

Richard Lovemore 1987-88 (He is currently farming in Paterson in the Eastern Cape)

Sean Botha 1989-90

A Rear View

2007-06-26T12:23:00.001-07:00

Picture taken by Simone

Student Drinking on Adventist Campusses

2007-05-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

I have not often heard frank discussion on this topic in the Adventist schools and colleges that I've been involved with. Our focus is usually on the unambiguous rules at our institutions that prohibit any use of alcohol. It was refreshing when the Spectrum blog posted two vcasts from Pacific Union College in which students and dormitory deans talk frankly about the fact that students on Adventist campuses sometimes have issues with drinking and how they attempt to address the issue.

On Sunday, The Sunday Times published an interview with the newly appointed head of Stellenbosch University about challenges facing this university. (Stellenbosch is a traditionally Afrikaans university with approximately 20 000 students. It is situated about 20 km from Helderberg College.) One of the major themes of this interview was the problem of student drinking. The university of Stellenbosch is currently engaging with student clubs and entertainment spots to close at "reasonable" hours of the night and to co-operate in limiting student drinking.

Why am I mentioning these facts on this blog?

1. There is certainly a temptation to be proud about the fact that student drinking is not such a wholesale problem on our campuses. Adventist campuses are still a safer environment to live and study in if a person wants to make healthy lifestyle choices.

2. But I am under no illusions that we do not have students who drink. In all likelihood we have students who abuse alcohol. (In fact, according to the discussion on the Spectrum blog, it is likely that some Adventist students who come from conservative homes are likely to abuse alcohol more seriously than students who grew up with alcohol being used commonly around them) I am not convinced that we have adequately dealt with this fact. Students who struggle with this issue are usually afraid to raise the issue because they expect immediate punitive action or stigmatization. There is a shortage of communal knowledge of the problem and how to deal with it.

3. So I've started to do some research. The field is very wide. My interest is to try to come to some conclusions of what my role should be as a professional responsible for the health and wellbeing of a number of students.

In the process I found a number of facts that I feel every student should be aware of. Some basic knowledge of the effects of alcohol could save somebody's life:

Alcohol Overdose is a life threatening situation.

Alcohol overdose becomes apparent when a person consumed more alcohol than their body needs to create a pleasant euphoria, and the negative effects of alcohol begins to display themselves. What physically happens is that there is more alcohol in a person's body than the liver can process and get rid of. Levels of alcohol build up in the blood stream and negative effects of alcohol begin to present themselves.

How would a person recognise signs of an overdose?

It usually begins with slurred speech, problems with balance, loss of memory. These symptoms seem common, but they can very quickly become life threatening. Knowing the signs of a life threatening overdose can save somebody's life:

If a person is passed out or semi-conscious and cannot be awakened
If a person vomits while sleeping or passed out and does not wake up
When the rate of breathing seems slow or irregular.
If a person has cold, clammy, pale or bluish skin colour.

Why are these symptoms life threatening?

Alcohol has the ability to shut down centers in the brain that control functions like breathing, heart rate, and the gag reflex, which normally helps prevent you from choking on things like your own vomit.

What do you do when you suspect that a friend suffers from an Alcohol Overdose?

Get help immediately. This is not the time to try to hide it away. Your friend needs help.
Stay with your friend.
Lay your friend on his/her side to keep them from choking on their vomit.
Once help arrives, tell them everything that you know about what the person drank, when they had their last drink, whether other drugs were ingested, etc.

Facts and Myths about sobering up:

There is really only one way in which a person sobers up. The person's liver needs to process the alcohol and get rid of it. This will take time.

The following will not help at all:

Drinking coffee. All you get when you give coffee to a drunk person is a wide awke drunk person!

Taking a cold bath or shower. This could help with hiegiene and the person might smell better, but the will not sober up.

Sleeping it off. This could be very dangerous. It is possible to still have alcohol in the stomach that has not been absorbed, meaning that the person could become even more intoxicated while they are sleeping.

Walking it off. It might help burn off some calories but that's about it.

(Reference: In doing research I downloaded some pamphlets by an organisation, Outside The Classroom. This information comes from one of their pamphlets.)

Another useful resource on student alcohol use is: Facts on Tap.

I would love to hear my readers opinion on this issue. I would also like to offer my service and time to anybody who needs help in dealing with this issue. Would anybody else like to become involved in raising awareness of these issues on campus?

More about Vision

2007-05-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

It is really stimulating and interesting to be so integrally part of the development of a vision statement for the College.

We've published potential version of the vision statement and received some feedback from students and staff. Now we feel that it is important to publish a second possible version as there is some debate. I would love to receive your feedback.

Below is a copy of the two possible versions:

Option 1

Helderberg College will be the institution of choice,

setting the standards of Seventh-day Adventist higher education in Southern Africa,

equipping its students:

to fulfill their calling, to dream great dreams, serving noble causes, and

living fulfilled productive lives.

Option 2

Helderberg College will be the institution of choice, setting the standards of SDA higher education in Southern Africa.

We seek to produce highly skilled, reflective professionals, qualified for effective and compassionate service in church and society.

Here is some of the debate that we've had about the versions:

I received the following e-mail in support of Option 1:

I am going to elucidate a little on the thoughts that I presented before - what
more could an institution want than for its students in Christian context
to fulfill their calling - to be equipped to fulfill their calling as well
trained pastors and ministers, for teachers to be fulfill their calling by
being well equipped to teach with passion and vision, for business men to
be ethical and far sighted in doing their business, for secretaries to be
faithful, supportive of the work done for the institution etc. In other
words - by equipping them to fulfill their calling - we would be fulfilling
our vision as a Christian Adventist institution. Is it not our vision
amidst all the stuff we teach to open up windows for students, to see what
they can become - to dream great dreams. How many great causes have
started because someone helped them to dream - helping students to feel
free to dream - to open those windows of opportunity, to see beyond the
classroom of tests and examinations to what they may be! Is it not part of
our vision to help our students to serve noble causes, not just to waste
their time on pifling things but to dedicate their lives to the great
Christain causes - whatever their calling. Finally our vision is to equip
them to live fulfilled productive lives. That their lives will reflect the
great values that we espouse and that this will lead to living fulfilled
productive lives. It seems to me in a vision statement these ideas do have
merit and should be considered, but if it we find that it does not resonate
with any one else then they need to be discarded and forgotten.

I paraphrase the argument for Option 2 below:

Option 1 is very general. It could be appended to the vision of a Pathfinder club or a women's group, or to almost any community organisation, and it would still sound good and be relevant. It does not really establish a distinctive niche for us to develop a specific identity as a Christian higher education institution.

It would be useful for our vision statement to allude more specifically to the particular product that we would like to produce at the College. What will they do? What values will they have? What impact will they have on society? (Are they entrepreneurs or good corporate citizens? Are they consumers or activists? Can they take empowering initiatives to bring about positive social change? Are they prepared to stand for principles even if they are not popular? etc.

The only question is if option 2 fits best within a vision statement, or is it already encapsulated in the Mission of the College.

I would love to hear the opinions of others who have an interest in the future of Helderberg College. (Please comment).

Vision Statement: Draft One

2007-04-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

They say that Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

So here is our first draft of a vision for Helderberg College. This draft emerged over a period of a few weeks.

See some more discussion here.

We are not sure that we are happy with it yet, but we feel that the Helderberg College community, and those closely related to the community should be involved in formulating the vision. Please send us your feedback, comments, questions.

Vision Statement, Draft 1:

Helderberg College will be the institution of choice, setting the standards of Christian (or SDA) higher education in Southern Africa.

We seek to produce highly skilled, reflecting graduates, qualified for effective and compassionate service in church and society.

We would love to have your feedback.
(Vision Statement Committee)

Cafeteria: Menu for April

2007-04-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

This may not really classify as entertaining reading, but the cafeteria has requested that we look at their menu and see if we can make any improvements. Perhaps we can think of other kinds of food to include. They will appreciate our input.

Menu

Monday 2 April – Sunday 8 April 2007

	Monday, 2	Tuesday, 3	Wednesday, 4	Thursday, 5	Friday, 6	Sabbath, 7	Sunday, 8

Breakfast	Baked Beans	Cheese	Polony	Hotdog ‘smoor’	Mushrooms		Scrambled Egg

Lunch	Rice, Breyani Dhal Schnitzel Tomato Gravy Roast potatoes Potjie Mix Banana & Coconut Onion & Tomato Egg Salad	Rice, Pap, Samp Beans Burger Tomato Gravy Spinach Pumpkin Sweet Potatoes Pasta	Rice, Spaghetti Bolognaise Nuggets Mushroom Sauce Baby Carrots Peas Gem Squash Corn & Cucumber	Rice Beans Curry Mince Pie Roast Potatoes Broccoli Butternut Carrot & Pineapple	Burger/Cheese Chips	Rice Macaroni Pie Lentil Curry Patties Broccoli Pumpkin Pasta	Rice Ribbon Noodles Chicken A la King Roast Potatoes Peas Carrots
			Guavas			Peppermint tart
Fast Line		Burger Potato Wedges
Supper	Mashed Potatoes Sausage Brown Gravy Mixed Veg Salad Bread Fruit	Potato stew Hotdogs Peas Carrots Salad Bread Fruit	Baked Pasta Strips Mixed Vegetables Salad Bread Fruit	Samp & beans Sausage Carrots Peas Salad Bread Fruit	Baked Potatoes Chilli con carne Pumpkin Peas Salad Bread Fruit	Roll Egg Hotdogs Baked beans Salad Bread Fruit	Stewed Potatoes Sausage Mixed veg Salad Bread Fruit

Menu

Monday, April 9, 2007 – Sunday, April 15, 2007

Monday, 9	Tuesday, 10	Wednesday, 11	Thursday, 12	Friday, 13	Sabbath, 14	Sunday, 15
Breakfast:	Baked beans	Scrambled Egg	Cheese	Polony		Sausage smoor
Hotdog smoor	Baked beans	Scrambled Egg	Cheese	Polony		Sausage smoor
Lunch:
Main Meal:
Rice Lasagne Sausage Green Beans Pumpkin Roast Potatoes Coleslaw	Rice, Pasta Lentil Stew Schnitzel Broccoli Julienne carrots Corn & Cucumber	Rice, Samp, Pap Beans stew Patties Tomato gravy Spinach Pumpkin Carrot & Pineapple	Rice, Egg noodles Oriental Stir-fry Strips Burger Baby carrots Peas Mixed Bean	Sausage rolls Chips Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Cheese & Onion Pie Lentil Curry Gluten Carrots Broccoli Potato	Rice Beans curry Burger Baked Cauliflower Pumpkin Peas Pasta
Fast Food Line:

		Pineapple Dessert			Peach Pudding
Supper:
Savoury rice Hotdogs Peas & corn Salad Bread Fruit	Pies Mashed Potatoes Brown Gravy Mixed Vegetables Salad Bread Fruit	Vetkoek Mince Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Egg curry Mixed Vegetables Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Cottage Pie Brown gravy Gem Squash Peas Pumpkin Egg Salad	Fried Egg Baked beans Chips Roll Salad Bread Fruit	Mashed potatoes Hotdogs Mixed Veg Salad Bread Fruit

Menu

Monday, Apr 16, 2006 – Sunday, Apr 22, 2007

Monday, 16	Tuesday, 17	Wednesday, 18	Thursday, 19	Friday, 20	Sabbath, 21	Sunday, 22
Breakfast:	Scrambled Egg	Cheese/Polony	Baked Beans	Braised Mushrooms		Hotdog smoor
Polony	Scrambled Egg	Cheese/Polony	Baked Beans	Braised Mushrooms		Hotdog smoor
Lunch:
Main Meal:
Rice, Fried Rice Ratatouille Lentil Pie Schnitzel Creamed spinach Diced carrots Egg	Rice, Samp, Pap Beans stew Patties Tomato gravy Spinach Pumpkin Corn & Cucumber	Rice, Macaroni Cheese Lentil curry Burger Potjie mix Carrot & Pineapple	Rice, Breyani Dhal Strips Broccoli Baby carrots Banana & Coconut	Hotdogs Chips Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Savoury Rice Beans Curry Mushroom Pie Patties Peas Baby carrots Pasta	Rice Cottage Pie Gem Squash & Sweetcorn Broccoli Pumpkin Mixed Bean
Fast Food Line:
	Pies Chips
		Peppermint Tart			Chocolate Cake
Supper:
Vetkoek Mince Salad Bread Fruit	Spaghetti Tomato Gravy Mushroom Gravy Nuggets Peas & Carrots Salad Bread Fruit	Samp & Beans Sausage Mixed Vegetable Salad Bread Fruit	Rice, Umphokoqo Mince Peas & Carrots Salad Bread Fruit	Rice, Ribbon Noodles ‘Chicken’ A la King Pumpkin Peas Corn & Cucumber	Pies Mashed Potatoes Mixed Vegetables Salad Bread Fruit	Fried sausage Egg Baked Beans Salad Bread Fruit

Menu

Monday, Apr 23, 2007 – Sunday, Apr 29, 2007

Monday, 23	Tuesday, 24	Wednesday, 25	Thursday, 26	Friday, 27	Sabbath, 28	Sunday, 29
Breakfast:	Braised Mushrooms	Scrambled eggs	Baked Beans	Polony	Sack Breakfast	Braised sausage
Cheese	Braised Mushrooms	Scrambled eggs	Baked Beans	Polony	Sack Breakfast	Braised sausage
Lunch:
Main Meal:
Rice, Egg noodles Oriental Stir-fry Lentil Stew Burger Sauce Baby carrots Peas Corn & Cucumber	Rice, Samp, Pap Beans Stew Burger Tomato gravy Spinach Pumpkin Pasta	Rice Spaghetti Mince Green Beans Pumpkin Carrot & Pineapple	Rice, Scalloped Potatoes Lentil Curry Patties Potjie Mix Gem Squash Julienne carrots Waldorf	Pies Chips Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Fried Rice Beans Stew Mushroom Pie Gluten Broc/Cauli Julienne carrots Potato	Rice Strips Roast Potatoes Peas & Corn Pumpkin Coleslaw
Fast Food Line:

	‘The Works” Burger Chips	Guavas & Custard			Pineapple Dessert
Supper:
Rice Nuggets Mixed Veg Salad Bread Fruit	Samp & Beans Sausage Peas & Carrots Salad Bread Fruit	Pasta Hotdogs Mixed Veg Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Egg curry Salad Bread Fruit	Rice, Mashed Potato Sausage Gem squash Peas Carrots Corn & Cucumber Salad Bread	Hotdogs, eggs Baked beans Salad Bread Fruit	Pasta Nuggets Peas, Corn & Carrots Salad Bread Fruit

Menu

Monday, Apr 30, 2007 – Sunday, May 6, 2007

Monday, 30	Tuesday, 1	Wednesday, 2	Thursday, 3	Friday, 4	Sabbath, 5	Sunday, 6
Breakfast:	Braised Mushrooms	Scrambled eggs	Baked Beans	Polony	Sack Breakfast	Braised sausage
Cheese	Braised Mushrooms	Scrambled eggs	Baked Beans	Polony	Sack Breakfast	Braised sausage
Lunch:
Main Meal:
Rice, Samp, Pap Beans Stew Burger Tomato gravy Spinach Pumpkin Pasta	Rice, Mashed Potatoes Pies Brown Gravy Lentil Stew Diced carrots Peas Coleslaw	Rice Bobotie Schnitzel Tomato gravy Mushroom sauce Pumpkin Peas Banana	Rice Beans Curry Nuggets Gem Squash Carrots Broccoli	Subways Chips Salad Bread Fruit	Rice, Potato Bake Mince Curry Patties Broccoli Pumpkin Broc/Cauli Coleslaw	Rice Lentil Stew Schnitzel Roast Potatoes Green beans Pumpkin Carrot & Pineapple
Fast Food Line:

	Pies Chips	Peaches & Cream			Walnut Cake Custard
Supper:
Baked Potato Chilli con carne Mushroom Sauce Salad Bread Fruit	Vetkoek Mince Salad Bread Fruit	Spaghetti Bolognaise Green Beans Carrots Salad Bread Fruit	Potato Stew Pap Burger Salad Bread Fruit	Samp & Beans Sausage Mixed Veg Corn & Cucumber Bread	Hot Pasta Burgers Mixed Vegetables Salad Bread Fruit	Rice Egg Curry Peas Carrots Salad Bread Fruit

Cafeteria Food: Student Feedback

2007-04-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

In my short life, I've experienced the food in several dormitories. I have also had friends from other dormitories. And in all my experiences and friendships there has been a common factor.

Complaints about dormitory food. It is a fact of life that dormitory residents will complain about dormitory food.

I have a suggestion that the fact that complaints exist is no real indication of the quality of an institution. Quality is measured by the institution's ability to listen to complaints, engage with them and to come up with responses that will either remove the complaint or satisfy the complainant. (Hows that for a lot of complaints in one paragraph :-) ).

I'm excited about the fact that the College has recently asked the RAD committee to serve as an independent body that will listen to student's input and evaluations of the Cafeteria and liase with the cafeteria in order to improve their service. While we serve in this capacity, we will be called the Menu Committee.

So here is an announcement:

The Menu committee is meeting on Wednesday, May 2 at 13:00 in the cafeteria.

The agenda is to evaluate the menu and the service of the cafeteria from a student point of view.

The meeting will be an open meeting and we invite all students who have an interest in the matter to join us and you will be given the opportunity to voice your concerns and opinions.

If you have any complaints or suggestions, we suggest the following: please send me an e-mail (coetserw @ helderberg's e-mail) and we will be sure to put it on the agenda. We will try our best to investigate your suggestions before the meeting so that we can address them adequately when the meeting is in process.

My plea is to students to make use of this opportunity (it will happen once a quarter) to ensure that they have a positive experience while studying at Helderberg College.

In order to help you make constructive inputs, we have requested that the Cafeteria share their menu for the month of April with us. I hope to post it on this blog very shortly.

Open House Time Again!

2007-04-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Salisbury House is different from many other men's residences at Universities in South Africa. As a rule the house is closed to 50% of the population: ladies.

Once a semester, we hold an Open House. During this time the students go to a lot of effort to beautify their rooms and to become hospitable to the ladies that are usually not allowed in.

Our theme was: The Circus. Our worship for the evening was also based on the theme. We described several characters in the circus and asked the students who they would identify with. Each character also had some truths to share about life in general.

This is TJ talking about jugglers.

Pablo talks about Trapeze Artists.

I think we were able to put an accurate identikit of Zandisile on the screen. If he ever commits a crime this could help to identify him.
Neeta felt that Zandisile displayed too much of a eurocentric stereotype of being a clown. He tried to africanize the role slightly.

Peter has a lot of experience with the young lions in our dorm.

Mpho poses with his good friend Shalom.
Mirless being very welcoming in a special friend in Paulo Darcy's room. Guess who comes form Angola.

Photography Credit: Pictures taken by our campus chaplain, Ps. Eddie Appollis.

A New Vision Statment for Helderberg College

2007-04-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've been requested by the College to chair a committee that will revise the vision statement of Helderberg College.

We've met once already and thought that a vision statement should contain the following elements:

The vision statement should be:

Future directed.

It is a "dream" for the College based on the reality of what we are. We
"dream" more or less 10 years into the future.

It shoul outline what we want to become:

We felt that a vision statement would outline more or less what we want
to become in terms of:
a) our values
b) our appeal to our constituency
c) our products and the impact they have on society
d) in terms of the plant that supports us.

We'd like to invite your input. Do you have a vision for the College? Can you put it down on one or two sentences on paper? If you would like, please write it down and e-mail it to me, or leave a comment on the blog, or hand in a piece of paper to put in my postbox in the Admin building (Weiers Coetser).

We can surely think of some reward if we end up using your vision statement.

Some hair raising perspectives on rules

2007-04-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the theme of rules and regulations in the dormitory:

hObbes, comments on some very interesting minutes that he found detailing approaches to hair styles at Helderberg College in the 1970's.

I quote some of his observations. (NOTE: Read his whole blog for more interesting analysis and discussion on the issue)

At the January 11, 1973 Helderberg College staff meeting, it was voted that the following guidelines for a conservative hairstyle be presented to all college students:

a) Side-burns – well-trimmed and not lower than the ear-lobe.

b) Hair must not reach the collar, or have a bushy appearance.

c) Ears must be clear, and foreheads clean.

Further, it was voted that College students be “permitted to grow short, neat moustaches” and that students in their third or fourth year of study or who were 24 years of age or over, “be permitted to wear short neat beards.”

On August 7, 1973 at a meeting of the five member “Men’s Dress Committee” it was voted that a sketch of the “prescribed high school hair style” be provided to the College’s official barber, and that he be requested to “strictly adhere to it.” At the time both the primary school and high school were included under the label “Helderberg College”.

Less than a year later, there were still problems: a memorandum issued by the college principal to “all Department Heads” pointed out that “some students are apparently not abiding by the dress and grooming regulations of the College.” One specific problem was “Non-regulation hairstyles by men.”

By 1975, the rules had relaxed ever so slightly. College students were permitted:

a) “Well trimmed” sideburns,

b) Hair that does not “overhang the collar or have a bushy appearance,”

c) To have “Part of the ear…covered”, (What a radical step forward!)

d) “short neat moustaches”.

e) Students who were in their third or fourth year/over the age of 24, were permitted “short neat beards”.

Obviously at some stage, these rules were relaxed—the current Student Handbook (2005) makes no mention of any specific hairstyle: “Helderberg College students are expected to develop a personal philosophy of dress and grooming that exhibits simplicity and cultural refinement and eschews that which draws undue attention to oneself.” (It should be noted that considerable time is spent detailing the specifics of “modest” and “appropriate”.)

------------------------------------

One thing is certain that the rules definitely portrays a particular cultural slant. They would be completely irrelevant on the mixed campus that now forms Helderberg. Perhaps I need to take some photos of the hairstyles on campus today and post them on the blog. (If you have some, please send them to me.)

Midterm Break

2007-04-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

A great silence has descended upon the dormitory.

We are in the middle of a mid-term break and since it is easter week-end many of our students are at home or at camp-meeting.

About 15 students remain in each of our dormitories.

I spent a quiet Sabbath morning walking in a forest close to Stellenbosh with my family.

There is one student that I am jealous of.

Dante is from Argentina. He is very adventurous and has even joined the local rugby club in the Strand. Yesterday I helped him to book another adventure trip up to Port Elizabeth.

Tomorrow morning Dante will jump onto the Bazz Bus at the Lord Charles hotel. He will then travel towards Port Elizabeth and back over a period of 7 days. His first stop will be in George. At George somebody from the Oudtshoorn Backpackers will pick him up and take him to Oudtshoorn where he will spend a night. The next morning he will go visit the Cango Caves and the Ostrich farm. In the afternoon they will put him on the Bazz bus to Knysna, where he will explore the indigenous forests and lakeside shopping centres. The next day he will travel to Plettenberg Bay. He believes this will be the highlight of his trip where he will do one of the world's highest bungee jumps. He might have time to spend a day in Port Elizabeth and then he will return back to Somerset West.

How much does this cost?

The 7 - day Hop-on-Hop-Off journey costs R950.00.

The first night at Oudtshoorn will cost R70.00 (transport from George to Oudtshoorn is R25.00).

He has no idea how much he will pay for the rest, but this sounds quite affordable.

I wish I had embarked on more adventures like this in my time as a student at Helderberg.

Some more Photos of Our Sir Lowry's Village Outreach

2007-03-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

The pictures do not really cover the full scale of the event. 160 children attended the children's programme. 70 families received food parcels. 100 of our students arrived on busses and began to permeate the township. There was no parking in the street as vehicles of supporters from local churches began to arrive. I wish I could share more pictures, but it would fill several pages.

I've never seen Zandisile so Jovial :-) He is one of our Resident Assitants.

Spectators

Samantha, had about 15 pictures taken with different children from the community. We really got to see her motherly instincts.

Nkosinathi and Baqcine taking a breather after an active children's programme.

These are children from the Sir Lowrys Village waiting for the programme to start.

Some of the community members who received food parcels.

The children's programme in its early stages.

Emily Steward is the leader in the local Sir Lowrys' Village community who gave us a lot of support in organising the programme. She is an exceptional person.

Peter Webster was in charge of the small groups of students who walked through the township, knocked on doors, and handed out copies of "Signs of the Times" .

About 60 students from Helderberg, and other participants lined up with big boxes filled with food. Each student got to hand a box with food to a community member.
A Great BIG thank-you to everybody who made the event a success!

District Mail: Heartbeat of the Helderberg

2007-03-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

I got such a big surprise when I opened the local newspaper today to find that they had covered an event that I regard as one of the highlights of our year. Two Saturdays ago, we took two bus-loads of students down to Sir Lowries Pass Village to do a community outreach. It was very successful.

On Monday morning I wrote a report which I sent to several newspapers by e-mail. I knew that the deadline to get articles into the newspaper was 12:30. I sent the report early in the morning. By the afternoon I was getting worried because I had not received any response from the newspapers. I suddenly realised that I had not received any e-mails on that day! Our Internet service provider had routing problems and none of my e-mails had gone out on time.

I was angry with myself for not sending the report on Sunday. And there were no surprises in last week's newspaper. I bought the newspaper this week and, began paging through it. And then suddenly I got a big surprise. A full page dedidacted to our outreach.

Click on the pictures to read the full report. I took 135 pictures on that day. I will try to post a few more on the blog.

Random Thoughts on Work

2007-03-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

I currently have the privilege of having two high school learners at my disposal to do about five hours of work every week. They "offered" their services to me when they broke one of the more important rules at the College and ended up facing an austere disciplinary panel.

I have this privilege for another two weeks, but I find myself debating what I should let them do. Last week I asked the one girl to rake some grass on the children's playground that we are developing. She came back without the rake and I have not seen it since then.

I recently discovered an interesting news article via the Progressive Adventism Blog in which it is reported that an Adventist school is facing legal challenges to its student work programme. It would seem that the school expects (expected?) students to participate in work programmes for which they were not skilled and without taking the necessary safety precautions.

I guess I would be looking for trouble if I asked these students to get onto a scaffolding without proper instruction on using safety gear and equipment and ask them to clean gutters.

I find myself in a bit of a quandry. I am not sure what I should let the learners do. I don't want them to do meaningless work, like digging a hole and covering it again. (I will probably lose my spade.) I should probably take some time and teach them how to install trunking for the network in the dormitory and how to crimp cables. That would be a good learning experience for them, but I am afraid that I cannot really afford to work through that learning curve with them. (Perhaps I should).

Perhaps my readers have some good ideas about work programmes for students to engage in.

On another level: it is important to have a work ethic and it is one of the values that we try to instill in our students.

I wonder how students would respond to a request to donate about 10 - 15 hours of their time per semester to help us man a front desk at the dormitory. These students will control who enters and exits the dormitory (visitors sign in and out). They will also provide change for the washing machines and sell phone cards.

HEHE... I guess this is wishful thinking and wild dreams.

But just imagine...

Worship Policies at Walla Walla College

2007-02-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

I'm still busy with a process of benchmarking the dorm handbook and practices in Salisbury House with other Adventist institutions worldwide.

Yesterday I found Walla Walla College's Residence Hall Handbook.

I will quote their worship policies below and then I will make two comments.

WORSHIP POLICIES
All Residence Hall students are expected to attend campus worships. There are several worship options that are available for credit. Turning in worship cards (available at the Front Desk) are the means of keeping track of worships. Worship reeducation forms are available at the Front Desk for students who have conflicting schedules and feel that they need a reduction in the worship requirements. Your RA will post current worship totals.

These are the worship requirements, by academic credits earned:

1-44 credits earned 3 worships per week
45-89 credits earned 2 worships per week
90-135 credits earned 1 worship per week
136+ credits earned optional

Worship attendance is optional for students who are 21 or older. All students are expected to attend chapel.

We encourage you to worship together publicly and privately. It is by coming together collectively that we all experience being a part of God’s family.

As will all policies, there are consequences for noncompliance. If you do not fulfill your worship requirement, you can expect the following:
1. The first time you will be fined $25 in addition to assigned reading and report per credit.
2. The second time you will be fined $50 and will have to meet at Dean’s staff meeting on Wednesday morning between 10:30 and 12:30.
3. The third time you may be asked to take a quarter off of school to reevaluate if WWC is really the place you want to be. A new school year does not start the process over. Anytime you change in class standing, you must have completed one good quarter of attendance before receiving the next level of privileges.

WORSHIP OPTIONS

Monday 9:30 p.m. OPS Sittner Lobby
Tuesday 9:30 p.m. Student Huebach Chapel
Wednesday 9:30 p.m. Fireside Dale Court
Thursday 9:30 p.m. RA Your Hall
Friday Sundown Chaplains Sittner Chapel
7:30 p.m. Vespers College Church
Sunday Sunday Night Live Conard Chapel

Authorized Small Group worships that meet at least one hour weekly count as two credits.

My Two Comments:

Comment 1 I think having worship at 21:30 at night is a fabulous idea. Our worships take place at 19:15. I always feel that it cuts my evening in half and that I lose out on the following: Productivity: What happens between supper and worship? There is not enough time to do anything. Family time: All other families spend their nights together. By the time I come home from worship, my wife and daughter are in bed or on their way to bed. Prime TV. I don't really watch a lot of TV, but I long for a time when I can watch the full installment of news (19:00 - 19:30) or Amazing Race or Survivor (19:30 - 20:30).

Imagine having supper at 17:30 and spending the rest of the evening until 20:30 making maximum use of daylight hours, pursuing leisure activities like sport or watching Television. Then worship at 21:30 and by 22:00 you go to your room to study. High school can have a study hour between 20:30 and 21:30 and then go to worship, and immediately after worship they can shower and go to bed. No more worries for the deans about high school students running around uncontrolled on campus after the sun has set.

Comment 2: Mnn... I'm so excited about this new idea of worship at 21:30 that I forgot the other comment. ... aha ... I love the idea of having worship on Wednesday evenings around a fire. What if we found a spot on central campus where we could do something similar?

I'd love to hear your opinion.

Photo Diary: Lion's Head, Signal Hill Outing

2007-02-25T05:29:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, 24 February 2007 we rented a bus with the intention of exploring a new part of Cape Town. As a college we had not gone to Kirstenbosh in the last 3 years. Our idea was to hike from Constantia Nek to Kirstenbosh.

There was however a slight hick-up. Despite having sent a fax to book the bus a week earlier, and despite the fact that I had received a faxed confirmation from the bus company, the bus never arrived. When I called them, they said that we had not confirmed with them. They had to find a driver quickly and we ended up leaving 90 minutes later than we had planned. I realised that we would not make it to Kirstenbosh on time, and we decided to do an old favorite trip to Lion's Head and Signal Hill.

When we arrived in Cape Town everything was covered in cloud. The walk up the mountain is well marked and our students were not hindered from doing the exciting and spectacular climb ... without the spectacular views.

This was my second trip up Lion's head, but I have yet to summit. This time I had these three kids (The middle one is my daughter) with me and we navigated precarious paths and thick mist to finally stop at this beautiful pine-tree.

At 19:00 we drove to Signal Hill. At first the bus struggled to find parking. It was now cold and the clouds deposited lots of little droplets of water on us. We congregated at a lookout-point which now had no view and let rip with a lovely and lively worship service. I thought I should title the following three photo's "Faces of worship."

Here we were singing, "Walk in the Light"
This is Bradley Golden participating in a lively venacular song. Where else do you see such radiant faces during a worship service? Helderberg is really a good place to be.

(Guess who did not close his eyes during the final prayer.) This is the holiest that I have ever seen Hiimunza. He is generally quite a devil :-).

We became quite a tourist attraction. As we were wrapping up our worship, a group of strangers just came and joined us. Later we realised that they were from one of our churches (Thembalethu). Our rythmic and animated singing attracted the attention of a few visitors from overseas and they were walking all around us making a video of the event. I wish we could have had a Helderberg College banner with us for the international marketing that we were doing :-).

Before we got onto the bus to go to Canal Walk I took the following pictures. It is really satisfying to see so many happy faces.

(By the way, Cecil Errens lived in my dormitory last year. He left the dorm after he got married to this beautiful lady.)

Memories of an Old Student

2007-02-23T02:59:00.000-08:00

One of our old students discovered this blog and left some comments. I think they are really worth noticing, so I decided I would put them on the main blog.

The student is known as K. I hope my current students do not take everything that he recounts to heart. :-) The "barney's" sound like trouble, and so does the idea of giving the dean a hard time :-).

Weiers,

There are so many things that I could tell you. We were quite an active bunch and we really gave Mr. Van As a hard time!

My first days in the dormitory started at the begining of 1988, and back then, the dorm had not been refurnished yet. We still had the old mismatching furniture, with rickety beds, bare wooden floors, antique chests of drawers and ancient ablution blocks...but the dorm's revamp started in that same year, so we were the first inhabitants of the new dorm!

I can still remember that the built-in cupboard in my room had a hole in it's ceiling (as did a couple of my friends' rooms), so after Lights-Out, we used to climb up into the ceiling and visit in each other's rooms or just crawl around and chat in the darkness of the roof! Polla, (the African Grey parrot, is he still there?), used to be a treat too. I used to teach him my name and we used to get him to make anouncements over the intercom, so time and again, Polla used to call me to the foyer! Then we also had regular Barney's, I don't know if the High School guys still do it, but we used to gather in the top floor passage after evening study hour, and we would thrash each other! Only rules being that there's no hitting above the shoulders and below the belt, though kicking a guys backside was ok!

We loved sport obviously. We played soccer in the soaking rain, and would go to the cafeteria drenched and muddy, but very hyped. Basketball, indoor soccer, swimming, squash, not to mention athletics. We were always so competitive, and it was good clean fun. I had 3 records in athletics which actually stood for a number of years. Doubt that it's still there though. Miss. C. Reyneke was my favourite teacher, and Mr A. Pretorius (That is Mr. Joubert) was the most interesting, comes with the biology territory I suppose.

So you can see, I have good memories, but also some that had major impacts which I'm still trying to figure out whether it was for the better or not.

All I can say to the students of today is, appreciate the beauty of your surroundings, climb the mountain regularly, study hard and make a success of it, be kind to each other, respect your elders, love with compassion and make it count. Life on campus is over in a flash, though it doesn't feel like it while you're there. Remember to keep contact with all your friends after you leave, it's been 15 years since I left, and today I do not have contact with a single person that I knew back then. Don't let that happen to you, treasure your friendships and allow it to grow, you won't believe how important networking is when you're on the outside.

But that's enough of my rambling for now, I hope to be able to converse with more of you as time goes by, it helps to ease the nostalgia.

Later,
K.

Values to live by

2007-02-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

One of the major themes that I spend much of my time reflecting about is the theme of Freedom. This is a bit odd for a dormitory dean who needs to lock doors and enforce rules. But fortunately my freedom is not quite the kind of Freedom that Freddie Mercury sings about when he says, "I want to break free!" (although, I think that Queen does in fact grapple with Freedom on a deeper level than we would sometimes care to admit).

Have I mentioned that I am an ardent fan of open source computer technology and the philosophy behind it? One of the open source operating systems based on GNU/Linux is called Ubuntu.

I have version 6.10 of this operating system installed on my computer and as far as I am concerned it is much better than Windows XP or even Vista.

I like the philosophy of Ubuntu. I found this code of conduct for Ubuntu developers. I think they really do reflect the values that I find important in my life. I think this is a useful list of values with which to manage a dormitory as well. (Credit to Christer Edwards for posting a blog about these values)

The UBUNTU CODE OF CONDUCT

Be considerate. Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and we expect you to take those consequences into account when making decisions.

Be respectful. The Ubuntu community and its members treat one another with respect. Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Ubuntu. We may not always agree, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behaviour and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We expect members of the Ubuntu community to be respectful when dealing with other contributors as well as with people outside the Ubuntu project, and with users of Ubuntu.

Be collaborative. Ubuntu and Free Software are about collaboration and working together. Collaboration reduces redundancy of work done in the Free Software world, and improves the quality of the software produced. You should aim to collaborate with other Ubuntu maintainers, as well as with the upstream community that is interested in the work you do. Your work should be done transparently and patches from Ubuntu should be given back to the community when they are made, not just when the distribution releases. If you wish to work on new code for existing upstream projects, at least keep those projects informed of your ideas and progress. It may not be possible to get consensus from upstream or even from your colleagues about the correct implementation of an idea, so don’t feel obliged to have that agreement before you begin, but at least keep the outside world informed of your work, and publish your work in a way that allows outsiders to test, discuss and contribute to your efforts.

When you disagree, consult others. Disagreements, both political and technical, happen all the time and the Ubuntu community is no exception. The important goal is not to avoid disagreements or differing views but to resolve them constructively. You should turn to the community and to the community process to seek advice and to resolve disagreements. We have the Technical Board and the Community Council, both of which will help to decide the right course for Ubuntu. There are also several Project Teams and Team Leaders, who may be able to help you figure out which direction will be most acceptable. If you really want to go a different way, then we encourage you to make a derivative distribution or alternative set of packages available using the Ubuntu Package Management framework, so that the community can try out your changes and ideas for itself and contribute to the discussion.

When you are unsure, ask for help. Nobody knows everything, and nobody is expected to be perfect in the Ubuntu community (except of course the SABDFL). Asking questions avoids many problems down the road, and so questions are encouraged. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful. However, when asking a question, care must be taken to do so in an appropriate forum. Off-topic questions, such as requests for help on a development mailing list, detract from productive discussion.

Step down considerately. Developers on every project come and go and Ubuntu is no different. When you leave or disengage from the project, in whole or in part, we ask that you do so in a way that minimises disruption to the project. This means you should tell people you are leaving and take the proper steps to ensure that others can pick up where you leave off.

For those that feel I have at any time fallen short of this code I apologize. I try as best I can and I am going to continue as best I can moving forward. I try to remember this standard in my day to day and hope we can pass on these ideals to those around us.

I try to remember the words of Desmond Tutu in describing what Ubuntu means:

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness

The Indaba

2007-02-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

I know this is old news, but I just discovered the online version of the Helderberg College student Indaba.

WOW!

Thank you Sanaliso, Otieno and all other contributors. I hope you keep up the good work.

More Rules

2007-02-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

I received an interesting report last night from one of our students who graduated at Helderberg and is now studying at Southern Adventist University.

One of his family members is with him and she is having a hard time because she has been forced to pay a $10 fine for missing worship on two occasions.

I immediately went to browse their website and found their Residence hall handbook. I think it is worth comparing their handbook to ours. They are fundamentally the same. We definitely have the same concerns and we are all dealing with the same issues.

Here is Southern's Residence Hall handbook and here is Salisbury House's handbook.

Let me mention what stands out for me:

1. The issue of single rooms. I saw this policy on Friendensau's website as well. All rooms are provided with furniture for two students. The expectation is that you will have a roommate. If you want to have a room without a roommate the cost for renting the room becomes more (1.5 x the cost of renting a double room). I think that is a fair policy and one that could work at Helderberg. It gives you a choice in the matter.

2. I like Southern's approach to worship attendance, although there are so many small regulations to keep in mind (you only get credit for attending one worship a day etc.) But I like the choice that they give. I also like the fact that they treat mature students (over the age of 23 slightly differently to younger students.)

3. I see that Southern has taken very strong steps to ensure that students look after furniture in their rooms and that they do not move it out. Moving furniture without permission incurs quite a hefty fine. From my perspective as manager of the dormitory that is very helpful because I struggle every December to figure out what furniture belongs where.

4. I am intrigued by the fine system at Southern University. Almost every time you break a rule you get a fine. I would love to ask them how they administer that? I am also trying to figure out how many dormitory deans they have.

5. I would love to know what level of student debate there is about rules and regulations. Do students accept the rules?

I'd love to hear your comments.

College Social Programme: 1st Semester 2007

2007-02-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

Date	Activity
24 February	Kirstenbosh/Signal Hill/ Canal Walk
25 February	Playstation Tournament
3 March	DVD Evening
11 March	Boysdorm Open House
17 March	Interhouse Volleyball
18 March	Robben Island / V&A
21 March	Helderberg Interhouse Gala
19 – 23 March	HIV-AIDS Week
24 March	Barn Party
31 March	Midterm Break
7 April	Easter/ Midterm Break
14 April	Midterm Break
21 April
22 April	Swimming Gala
28 April	Reach for the Stars (Talent Evening)
29 April-2 May	Long Week-end
5 May	Poetry Evening
12 May	Helderberg Street Festival
19 May	Drama Concert
26 May	Acroniques
2 June	DVD Evening

Congratulations

2007-02-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

Kethelo Mazibuko lives in Salisbury house.

He has just been awarded a 100% scholarship. He was one of Five students who applied for this scholarship. In order to qualify you need to have a good record of leadership and involvement on campus. You need to also have good grades (above 65% average). You need to be able to prove that you are in need of the scholarship and that you have tried your best to fund your studies.

Kethelo, we are very proud to have you at the College and in our dorms. We know that you will continue to make a good contribution to our community.

I have been informed that students will be able to apply for a scholarship like this in the second semester.

Transport tips and Suggestions

2007-02-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

Students love to be mobile. How do Salisbury House Residents become mobile?

I have a few suggestions:

1. The college bus service to town once a week. This is the most affordable transport to town. Students who own cars charge approximately R15 per person to drive 6 km's down to town. The college bus, which leaves every Friday afternoon at 14:00 and returns at 17:30 costs only R5 per trip. The only way that is cheaper is to walk.

2. Car ownership is expensive. Many students believe that the only costs involved with owning a car is the cost of putting in petrol. But this is not true. You generally need to pay for the vehicle (Average: R1000 - R1700 p/m). You need to insure the vehicle (average R350 p/m). You need to service the vehicle (Average R4000 per year). And then you need to pay for petrol (average R0.60 per kilometre). If mobility is important to you I have a better suggestion:

Buy a brand new 125cc Motorbike. I bought one for myself (story here). I paid R7500 for it. Services cost R200. My motorbike is insured at R100 per month. Petrol consumption is 42 km's per litre of petrol. The bike does not generally travel more than 80km's per hour, so it is relatively safe, especially if you drive carefully. You won't even have to pay too many speeding fines! You can take a passenger with you. If you are adventurous you can even travel through the whole Western Cape on the motorbike. I cannot think of a better mode of student transport.

3. One option that is almost always a possibility for a foreign student who plans to spend a year or so at Helderberg, is to buy a used vehicle in South Africa (you could get a reasonably good one for 3000 Euro) and drive it while you are here. When you leave you should be able to sell the car for almost the same price.

4. Finally, the healthiest way to go, the way that I am thinking of more and more these days, is to just go the pedestrian way. I don't think I've been to a single town or city where there are not several hiking trails or footpaths available. I don't think there is a better way to get to know a place than by getting to know it on foot. Buy a nice walking stick (R200) and good shoes (R400) and go for long walks. It keeps you fit, and you get to truly experience the beauty of a place.

Talking about Transport

2007-02-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

I find that this year we have less student cars on campus than in previous years. This is impairing general mobility!

One bit of good news is that Moyo (a student who graduated last year) wants to sell his car. It is currently parked behind the men's residence and it is available for R3500.00 to the first person who deposits the money into his account.

The car is licensed. There is one small snag. Before it is allowed to be on the road, it needs to be put through a road-worthy test. My estimate is that it will cost a minimum of R3500 - R4000 to put the Green Mamba through this test.

If you are interested, please contact me as soon as possible.

Warning Letter From: Chief Comrade

2007-02-12T12:31:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to convey this message to the second year students by a few of the first year students:

You Strike a Comrade you strike a Rock

Forget about the pool

Or you will be in the pool.

You have been warned.

(Mnn... I wonder what that could mean. I was told this is particularly meant for: Clementine, Peter, and Mpho.)

The author of this message appears below.

I will rather not mention his name. I don't want to be held responsible for what might happen to him.

South Africa Rocks

2007-02-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

This is an exciting new website that I will certainly be keeping an eye on. It is filled to the brim with positive stories, pictures, art and experiences.

Unfortunately Fortunate

2007-02-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

Zolani was back for 1 week when he was involved with a nasty accident.

He was travelling with three of his friends and needed to turn across a stream of oncoming traffic at a traffic light. He waited in the middle of the interesection until the traffic light turned red and then crossed. Unfortunately another impatient driver had decided to skip the red traffic light and collided head-on with Zolani. The other driver ended up in hospital. Nobody in Zolani's car was hurt.

Zolani's car is insured and we are all hoping that his new car will look something like the picture below. In the mean time the whole college is suffering because there is one less vehicle to transport students to town for snacks at 22:00 at night.

Coming out of hibernation

2007-02-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

Technically the title for this post is not quite correct.

It is the middle of summer here and we've had some very warm days.
College has also been up and running for about 3 weeks and a lot has been happening.
So much that I have in fact not been getting a lot of sleep!
So I finally have a quiet hour to reflect on everything that happened.

First of all I spent a large portion of my holidays preparing a computer laboratory in Room 9 in the dorm. The laboratory is connected to the internet. It consists of 5 computers running Suse Linux SLED10. (Have I mentioned that I am a linux enthusiast? It was quite a triumphant feeling everytime that I deleted Windows off a computer and put free software onto these machines.)

Then the high school students began to arrive. All 20 of them. And a whole bunch of new ones. Guys like Joseph and Thabo, and Natangwe, Dimitrio, Tella, Diitsetso, Rehabetswe. It always takes some time to get the new guys used to the culture at Helderberg, but these guys are nice guys and we are having a lot of fun with them.

This is Dimitrio. He is from Oranjemund. Mnn... what else should I say about him. I'm worried that his mother might read this blog, and then he will be in trouble :-).
Diitsetso. He is the social guy. He still needs to understand that holidays are the times when he goes home. School is for work. Fortunately his brother, Tella, is looking after him.

This is Tella. He shares a room with Diitsetso. Did I mention that they are twins? Tella got 86% for his first Mathematical Literacy test. He looks serious, but he is a lot of fun. They come from Bloemfontein.

Joseph is from Port Elizabeth. He is a really cool guy. He has a good sense of humour. I don't think it is possible to get him angry. And he is almost always one of the last ones to be ready for school or church.
Rehabetswe's name has immediately been rehabilitated to "Rehab". I feel a bit sorry for him. His brother has been at the dormitory for two years. Rehabetswe is in Grade 10 and his brother is in Matric. The two have quite different personalities and we often feel a bit surprised when Rehabetswe does not respond in exactly the same way to things as Regaugetswe (the brother). They come from a town in North West called Hartswater. They must have very good parents because they are such nice guys. (Regaugetswe will probably growl at me when he reads this).
Natangwe joins us from Windhoek. He completely dislikes the idea that he has to attend worship every night, but he has fortunately not given us too much of a hard time because of it. I like him because he seems very accepting of people and he has immediately made many friends.

We do of course also have a few old students. I'm not quite sure what Peter and Bulumko are doing here. They might be practicing for a special item.

Soon after the high school arrived, we took all our Resident Assistants and Assistant Deans on a camp. We coined the term, RAD. We had a lot of fun at a place called Breede River Escape.
We subjected them to five hours of leadership training seminars. They subjected us (the deans, and Ps. Letseli, to other more heinous forms of torture.)

Jody taking a plunge.

Baptism by flower and stones.

PS! I hereby give every citizen of Salisbury House and Anne Visser house to use whatever means you will to revenge yourselves upon these two perpetrators of crime.

A lot more has happened. But I will have to write more later as I have another appointment.

The holiday is coming to an end

2007-01-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

I said good-bye to the last of my family members yesterday. I've had three sets of family members visit my home (and Salisbury House) during the holiday. They are now all safely home, thanks to the services of a big flying Mango.

I still have a few days of leave left, (technically until next week Friday, but that won't be practical because then nothing will be ready when the High School learners return). My phone has started ringing constantly again (on average 1 call per hour).

So I've decided to make a duck. I've drawn the last bit of money from my bank-account and I'm off to Robinson to go camp next to a river in a little tent, until the money is finished. (Probably only two days).

When I come back I will try to figure out where we will place the 28 new college students and approximately 8 new high school students who have applied for residence in Salisbury House. I will also try to complete the installation of the new computer lab (5 computers) in room 9. I also need to try to install a roof mounting for a video projector in the worship room as we might be receiving an anonymous donation! Yippee.

My logs tell me that not many people have been reading Salisburyhouseblog over the holidays, so I'm probably talking to myself.

Oh, by the way: I received 17 new years SMS's. If we estimate that one SMS costs 70 cents, it means that I've contributed: R11.90 to the coffers of Vodacom, MTN and Cell C by the mere fact that I exist. I should market myself to them as a potential source of revenue. I still need to reply to those sms's. I might do that while I am pretending to be fishing with my daughter next to the Breede river at Robinson :-).

Have a happy new year.

What regulations do other dormitories have?

2006-12-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

Few people get a kick out of reading policy documents. I am probably an exception. I find them very interesting.

I discovered the following regulations for the residences in the University of the Western Cape, just 30 km's away from our campus.

I actually think that our dormitory information book compares very well with what they have.

Helderberg Students are Blogging

2006-11-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

I experienced a very interesting coincidence today:

Over the week-end a distant relative visited our dormitory. He is a fire-safety engineer who specialises in installing electronic equipment to detect and warn of fires. He gave me some very good advice. He also left his e-mail for me to contact him. His name is Adrian Erasumus, and I must have taken his e-mail address down incorrectly. aerasmus@XXXX.XX

So I started e-mailing him. He never responded. Until this afternoon when Andre Erasmus responded. He tells me that I've been e-mailing the wrong person, but that he also studies at Helderberg. That is quite a co-incidence.

And in his e-mail signature I found the following address. http://aerasmus.blogspot.com .

It is exciting to know that our college students are also blogging. It is a pity he is not a resident in our dormitory. He does not know how much he is missing. He still needs to be truly converted. The fact that he does not live in dorms make it a bit difficult to take his blog very seriously.

But it is still nice to know that he is blogging. I'll be checking up on him every once in a while.

Vodacom Rant: Poor coverage at Helderberg

2006-11-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

If you are a prospective student who plan to come to study at Helderberg College, I want to make one very practical suggestion to you.

Try by all means to use MTN as your cellphone service provider. MTN recently installed a transmitter/transponder/antennae? (whatever) on top of one of the buildings on our campus and you can have hours of leisurely conversation.

I have the misfortune of being bound to a contract by Vodacom and since I have arrived at this College cellphone communication has been a real nightmare. You might even have noticed it if you tried to call me or send me an urgent SMS. I frequently have my cellphone with me, and it is switched on, but I just cannot receive a signal. If I move about 200 metres up or down the hill, the signal is perfect, but in Salisbury House, there is almost no signal.

To the best of my knowledge, CellC, and the new Virgin service providers also make use of the Vodacom network. The signal for these service providers is equally bad.

Switch to MTN. I plan to do so, and with the latest regulations, I will be able to do so without changing my telephone number.

I might change my mind, however if Vodacom improves the signal on our campus.

I just discovered a tool that might help speed this up:

Vodacom allows a person to make requests about network coverage on their website in order to improve their service.

If you are a resident at Helderberg College, I want to encourage you to send your request for better Vodacom Coverage to this website. I would love to see them improve their service in this area.

UPDATE: Tuesday, 28 November

It turns out that Vodacom's customer care people have been very friendly. I received an e-mail asking for more information. I provided this to them and this morning I received a phone call asking for even more information. They said that they would try to send out a technician to assess the situation. The requested me to provide them with the names of a few other people who experience the same problem. I was at a staff function, so I managed to get 12 names in 4 or 5 minutes. I am sure that with a bit of effort I would be able to push this number up to 100.

I am hopeful that I will be able to give an excellent report of Vodacom Customer Service when the problem is solved.

Nostalgia

2006-11-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

I am not really a sentimental person. I am therefore surprised that I am actually a bit sad about some of the students who are leaving.

Last night I had two phone calls within a short time of each other from two Matric Students who have finished school and are leaving. Musa, called and told me that he arrived safely in Durban. Joshua SMS'd to say that he just crossed the border into Zimbabwe. He apologised for being such a pain. That is interesting because we did have some fights, but both of these guys were also some of my best friends and I would describe myself as one of their biggest fans.

This evening I heard a great noise in a room below me and found the Argentinian and Brazilian students having a party with Alcohol Free Champagne made in the western cape and chocolate biscuits made in South America. They were saying good-bye to Carlos, who is leaving tomorrow after two semesters of studying English at the college.

Again I am going to be missing these guys. They came with such an open spirit and a sense of adventure. I really enjoyed their fun-loving natures.
This is the party in room 14 as Carlos gets ready to leave tomorrow. All five of these guys are leaving in the next week. They all come from South-America. Not one of them ever regrets coming to South Africa.

These are all the graduating English Language Institute students at the informal graduation ceremony held last week Thursday.
And this is TJ. He is only leaving for a few weeks. When he returns he will be the Assistant Dean. We won't miss him too much. We know he will be back full of ideas and energy.

Outing to Beach

2006-11-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

Well, there is not much to be said about an outing to the beach. All the usual apply: wind, sunsets, food, volleyball, and some more wind ...

We advertised this outing by appealing to the romantic side of beach outings. The pictures below tries to capture some of that. It was our last official college outing for the year. Next week is graduation, and then everybody will hopefully go home for the summer-break.

This is what TJ and Matodzi, two of my Resident assistants must look like to a Grade 8 boy who comes to the dormitory. VERY BIG!

Aldo and Stacey further away from each other than they normally are.

Luvuyo Veli, one of our graduating students for 2006. He was particularly romantic this evening. (I have another photo of him that I promised I would not put on the blog, unless he misbehaves in the next week or so.)

Lukhanyo is going to be in Grade 12 next year. Here he is wishing that he had a girlfriend that looked like this.

Refilwe is in a contemplative mode. Usually he is incredibly active.

Did I mention that the wind was blowing? This is the most sheltered spot we could find for Sabbath closing worship. And yes, that is TJ in the pink shirt telling us to live life to its fullest (or something like that).

A typical feature of high school romance is that there is a lot of bullying, bumping, chasing, and pinching going on. I'm not quite sure who went into the sea over here. The problem is that both got wet.

And in every group there are the guys who are just pre-ordained to be alone. So they develop different strategies. These three formed their own group and decided to become street musicians.

This one (Otto) became involved with all the technicalities of the evening: setting up Volleyball nets. It came right down again because the wind was too strong.

The Angolan guys decided to use ultimate stylishness to try to attract the girls:

My name is Darcy. I'm from Angola and I'm trying to attract the girls.

"We are Mirless and Eshmael. We wear cool sunglasses and Nike shirts. We hope the girls will fall for us."
And if the girls aren't interested, there is always food from Nando's!

The evening was very successful and by the time that we were on the way back home on the bus, several eyes were drooping. Thanks guys for coming with us!

(Sleep well, Mirless, Bulumko and Zwakhele)

Near Tragedy

2006-11-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

Whew!

Today was one of those wild days, made even wilder when I received a phone call from a member of the Helderberg community that one of my dorm students went through the windscreen of a car. I rushed down to the 4-way stop at the Spar, at the intersection of Helderberg College road and the Steynsrust road.

And there I found three police vans, a tow-truck, a badly dented Toyota Tazz, and a smiling, but shaken up Musa Wilken Khumalo sporting a huge gash in his eye-brow (at least 3 cm's long and open right to the bone).

Musa had just written his last Matric exam on Friday. He was on his way to Pick & Pay to buy some things. He was on a bicycle. He must have picked up a lot of speed down the steep Helderberg College road and somehow he misjudged the strength of his brakes. He found himself in the middle of the intersection at the same time as the Toyota Tazz. He rammed into the driver's door. His arms went through the driver's window and he bumped his head into the metal part of the door.

It seems as though the driver was also injured. She went to the doctor to have her injuries tended to while Musa had to make police statements and while we waited for an ambulance. The driver's husband came to manage the situation on her behalf. Their side of the story is particularly tragic because the car was in the process of being sold. Apparently the new owner was going to collect the car on the next day. I am feeling very sorry for the owner of the vehicle.

I am however grateful that Musa was not hurt more badly, and that he lives to tell the tale. He almost died when the doctor injected him with the anesthetic to administer 6 or 7 stitches.

Musa was not wearing a safety helmet. This incident re-iterates the importance of taking the proper safety precautions when riding on bicycles or any other vehicle for that matter.

Oral History Wednesday

2006-11-08T02:19:00.000-08:00

Salisbury House received a most interesting visit yesterday from Dr. Gerladine T. Hess. She is the Vice President of the Adventist Heritage Ministry and a Marriage and Family Therapist. She lives in Florida.

Her father, was Frank E. Thompson. And he was the person responsible for building the structure that we now live in. He built it in 1927.

In some ways the structure remain the same. The beautiful high ceilings and extremely thick brick walls (go have a look how thick the wall is at the entrance to the bathrooms!) The wooden floors etc. But in the early years the dormitory did not have 58 rooms as it has today. It had several large sleeping halls.

Dr. Hess told an interesting story about Ps. C.C Marais, who was the first dormitory dean to ever work in the dormitory (1928, 1931, 1933-38, and 1940-45). He had a very big nose (In fact, there is a rock outside Maluti Hospital that has earned itself the name: Henry's Nose).

Ps. Marais was very strict about the kind of music that students listened to and he was able to exert full control. He would watch the students as they listened to music. If they were tapping their feet to the beat of the music he would tell them to switch it off. The students quickly learned that they could listen to almost any music as long as they did not tap their feet.

I was an honor to be visited by Dr. Hess. It would be nice to get some more of these anecdotes from the past.

Dr. Geraldine Hess and her son (who works as Business Manager at Maluti Hospital in Lesotho)

Student Career and Money Matters

2006-11-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs that I regularly read is: Get Rich Slowly. It provides practical advice on personal money matters and finance. In my own life I have made a few very silly financial choices and I am still trying to recover from them. I wish I had known better at the time that I graduated. What I like about Get Rich Slowly is that the author emphasises the fact that students can determine a lot of their financial future during their time as students.

Here is one interesting article about student work and the opportunities that it provides: How to Get the Most out of a College Job.

Here is another interesting article on how to handle your money matters as a student: 27 Money Tips for College Students.

I often get to sort students' mail and I realise that many students have several credit accounts at clothing stores. Students also tend to fall behind in payment of doctors' bills and credit accounts. Such accounts are incredibly damaging to a person's financial health. In South Africa they usually cause a person to pay more than 20% interest. If you have fallen into the trap of opening these accounts it might be worth reading about the Debt Snowball Method of getting rid of them.

Let me know if you need some support and advice on your money matters. Maybe we can find creative ways to tackle the problems that you experience. It also helps to sometimes have more than one person think about the problems that a person face.

We came, we saw, we were thrown into the pool!

2006-11-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Katleho is the Assistant Dean for 2006.

Katleho is one of the biggest and strongest students in the dormitory. You do not want to be in his way when he loses his temper (although this does not happen all that frequently).

Katleho is actually quite fun loving. Sometimes he tends to get involved with some questionable activities, like throwing an unsuspecting student into the swimmingpool (This sometimes happens when the person has a birthday).

In fact, earlier in the year Katleho was involved with a spate of these activities and several students got really wet. I eventually had to put a stop to this behaviour because it is potentially dangerous and it infringes on people's human rights.

The interesting thing is that in the four years that Katleho studies at Helderberg, nobody has ever put him into the pool. HE MADE THE MISTAKE TO TELL SOMEBODY ABOUT THIS! And last night I chose to just turn a blind eye when a few of the strongest students of Helderberg College decided to work together to put him into the pool.

This was very entertaining and almost the whole dormitory was involved (another indication of Katleho's formidable strength.)

A very brave high school student (whose identity I will rather not reveal) took some photos:

This photo depicts the effort involved. At this point Katleho is thinking, "Why, o Why did I ever brag about the fact that nobody has ever taken me to the pool in 4 years!"

I count twelve people who are actively involved in the actual process of getting him into the pool. There were about 50 people watching from the stairs.

He Swims!

Disclaimer: This activity is potentially very dangerous. We do not encourage it. In fact it is strongly discouraged. As dean I am strongly of the opinion that it can do more harm than good and I am committed to protect all students from this kind of behaviour. (But secretly I must admit, that Katleho deserved it! )

The A-team for 2007

2006-11-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the suspense is over and I am more than happy to announce a really interesting team that will help with the management of the dormitory for 2007.

The Assistant Dean:

Theodore-John Knipe:

TJ worked as RA for this year and it was felt that his service was of such a nature that he could be promoted to AD.

Resident Assistant:

Peter Webster:

Peter is quiet, but he has a passion for the dormitory and a vision. He gets along well with the High School guys and he is very excited to be part of the team who organise worships on campus. We are happy to welcome him to our team.

Resident Assistant:

Zandisile Ntshiza:

Zandisile was so surprised when I asked him if he would do this job that I could not get a final answer out of him for about 4 hours! When he applied he never thought that he would get it. He has been unable to stay in the dormitory, but his leadership and contribution in other areas of the campus was noticed by almost all the members of the Deans' Council. We are very happy to welcome him into the dormitory and we trust that he will continue to be of a good example and leader to us.

I hope to post some photos very soon.

Setting up a management team

2006-11-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

It is the time of the year where we say good-bye to a number of our students. I hope to spend some time in the next two weeks developing profiles of the students that are leaving. We are going to be sorry to lose them.

This year I am losing two of my resident assistants. (If you don't know, the College appoints three students to assist the dean with the management of the men's residence.)

These resident assistant positions are some of the most responsible student leadership positions in the College. They come with some status, but they are also accompanied by a lot of very hard work. Work hours are irregular, responsibilities are quite large, and most RA's remark that other people do not really appreciate how hard they work. (In the last 10 years the College awarded two rewards to students who have made an exceptional contribution to life at the College. In both occasions these students were Assistant Deans - Sinneh Koroma, and Andile Masuku. This is another indication of the possibilities that the positions give for leadership)

Interestingly enough there is always great interest in this position! I like this. It means we are succeeding in one of the goals in the College. We are inspiring people with a passion for service and a vision to become leaders.

Because of the responsibilities that the College place on these students, the College management (Dean's council) generally does not appoint these positions on the basis of popular vote. We don't even follow the normal application process. We nominate names based on previous involvement and interest in the dormitory and then we decide. (In the social climate that we live in, this is not always accepted, and sometimes students feel that the process is unfair. It would be nice to have some debate on this.)

Anyway: Tomorrow the Dean's council will be meeting to discuss the following names. Some of them were suggested by the Dean, others were nominated by various students and leaders in the College. Some even came to me and expressed interest. In my mind each one of the following names will make excellent assistants. It is going to be interesting to see who eventually gets the position.

We will in all likelihood ask TJ Knipe to become the Assistant dean as he is the only one of the assistants who are not leaving, and because he has proven himself to be an involved and reliable leader.

The other two positions will be filled by one of the following people:

Thulane Mkhize
Sduduzo Blose
Nkosinathi Maneli
Mpho Mtombeni
Peter Webster
Loyiso Manga
Zandisile (Not a dormitory student)

The fact that these students names are on the short list is already an indication that we see them as having great potential. Hey! You can even point your prospective employer in a year or two's time to this blog and show them that somebody thought highly about you.

It is going to be interesting to see who will make part of the team. To those who don't make it: take comfort in the fact that we appreciate you and that there will be further opportunities for leadership in the future.

(I'd love to hear your comments on these guys.)

Philosophical Thursday: Discipline

2006-10-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

One of our bright third year students, Sdu, sent me a thought-provoking e-mail today. I thought others would like to comment as well.

I want to know how you feel about
the fact that the people,in the college,
who are supposedly there to help students in times of need also sit in
the disciplinary committee?The most prominent of these being the
AD's,the Deans themselves, the VP for Student Services and,at least the last time i
checked.the chaplain.

I guess your double role does make it kinda difficult for you to be one
or the other.In other words you cannot be both the
counsellor and the disciplinarian.I don't know if you're getting me.Say
a guy here in the dorms is having a problem with
imbibing fermented drinks but they are finding it difficult to stop and
they are looking for help,but the one office they can find help is
occupied by the chairman of the DC.My question is two fold.In such a
case;who does the youngster turn to?and should you be approached with
such a problem;how do you handle it?Now i'm not talking about you
catching the individual in the act,but rather they come to you to
confess,that they have been drinking in your dormitory.Do you yield to
the beckoning of your conscience or do you give into the demands of
school policy?

I've written this response... although it is not very coherent and clear as yet.

I sympathize greatly. I've experienced this same conundrum a few times in my life. It gets worse when you are a pastor in a conference and you are facing issues in your personal life or in your faith life, and you know that if you go talk to your pastor (The conference president) about it, it could effect your career, your ordination, your next job placement etc. The church has tried to solve this issue by voting in a policy recently that allows pastors to see a psychologist. The psychologist may then send the bill to the Conference to pay without disclosing who the pastor is that saw her.

I think your point is definitely valid that the College should put in place structures where problems can be dealt with confidentially. I think the chaplain agrees with this because he specifically requested to be taken of the disciplinary committee. In 2005 the psychologist was also not on the disciplinary committee. This year she is there. I think it is worth petitioning the College through student services to change this.

In terms of the roles of the Deans and the Student Services Director, I feel slightly different though. But the role definition of the deans are very complex and sometimes even confusing to ourselves, and I reserve the right to change my mind as the discussion continues :-).

We are definitely seen as parents. Now that immediately makes things challenging because parents, by definition, have the dual functions of discipline and care. Many parents actually fight quite strongly for the right to administer discipline themselves. I remember when I got myself into trouble with the law when I was a high school kid, there was a very real possibility that I could have had to face courts and the harsh penalties of an uninvolved justice system - my parents intervened and spoke to the authorities and asked very nicely that they be allowed to administer discipline at home. In this case it worked and I got some good discipline - but at least I did not have a criminal record (In those days the police still gave lashes to juvenile offenders).

Also, I think it is a good principle in the process of discipline to have it administered by somebody who is involved and caring, rather than by somebody who is completely removed and clinical. The purpose of discipline is seldom to come up with vengeful acts of retribution. The purpose is to act as an influence in the life of a student that will guide him in the right way in life. Here it helps to have somebody who is involved and, in a sense, not objective. Cold objectivity could easily result in two situations: Punishment can be harsh and punitive (as opposed to restorative) or alternatively punishment can be irrelevant and not take into account the real issues that the student needs to face. In either way it can undermine the main purposes of discipline (character formation, re-building relationships etc.).

It happens once in a while that there is a clash between the interests of the student and the interest of an institution. Eg... when a student leader drinks in public and damages the public's opinon of the institution. It is interesting that I've experienced this almost every single time that the deans bring balance in a disciplinary committee - arguing for discipline to address the needs of the student before they address the needs of the institution.

I actually think we are a very useful resource on the disciplinary committee. (By the way, do you know that the College Management did not want us on the dc this year?... one or two cases were handled without us, but we found ourselves just becoming involved almost by default by virtue of our contact and interest with the students who were facing diciplinary action)

On a slightly more technical level - the role of the dormitory dean is also a management role that requires that things be in order and running smoothly - this requires discipline. Eg. stealing or violence or bullying, or insubordination, or drunken parties, or excessive noise levels ... all conflict with the management priorities in a dormitory and the manager needs to make use of discipline at various levels of intensity to be able to create and maintain an environment that is condusive to study and healthy development.

-----------------------
Anyway... I can probably go on.

Time does not allow for much more, but let me say one more thing:

One: I do not buy the argument that being college rules should necessarily (and without question) lead to discipline. Eg. I've dealt with at least two cases this year where students came and told me that they unlawfully took girls into their rooms. They did this because they were affraid that somebody was going to find out about it and that they would then be in trouble. When they told me (it was an admission of guilt) and committed to change their behaviour, I saw absolutly no need to take punitive action. Punishment is really only ever effective if it can bring about a change in behaviour.

I've had people asking for help with drugs and sexual issues (both in terms of girlfriend/boyfriend sexual relations and in terms of sexual orientation) - This is where the other side of being a parent comes in. Care, counseling, advice, guidance. In fact... in one case it happened that a cold outside observer made a charge against one student based on behaviour that seemed completely out of line to him, but because myself, and my assistant knew this student and the challenges that he was facing we were able to prevent disciplinary action from being taken against the student.

I am not sure that we always succeed in this. I certainly do not have everybody's trust. And, yes, I think I think I've made one or two bad judgement calls in the past.

......but thanks for the questions.... keep talking to me. You're making me think.

What is your opinion on the issue?

Links

2006-10-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Today I heard that our ladies residence also started a blog! This is really exciting. My experience is that it takes a bit of time to get the whole thing up and running and to gain momentum. I hope they are going to have lots of fun. And I will definitely be checking in there frequently.

Somebody who lives in my dormitory and who has a regular presence online is Reynolds. Reynolds is spending a semester at our College from the United States. He is lamenting the fact that he cannot stay longer. It is worth exploring his blog which contains many photos chronicling his experience, travels, and life in general.

More Pictures from the Dome (4th Peak)

2006-10-24T01:41:00.000-07:00

Conrad Zygmont kindly provided us with photos that he took of the group on the Dome.

Maybe we should carry some paint up on our next trip to beautify the beacons somewhat.

Wow! I can't believe it! Even Nokothula made it to the top :-) She was complaining that she could not breathe from the second contour already! You GO Girl!

If only the photographer could capture the fear in the hearts of the students as they walked on this exposed ledge. (The sheer cliff face in front and below is very imposing and frightening. But what would a mountain be if they did not allow us to confront our inner fear from time to time?)

Conquering Helderberg Mountain: Report

2006-10-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

It is strange to think that there are so many students at Helderberg College who would have passed through three or more years of study at Helderberg without making it to the top of the mountain even though it is literally in our back yard.

On Sunday, 22 October, 24 students, did however make it to the top of the mountain.

This is how it happened:

We said we would leave at 07:00, but as usual, the girls from Anne Visser House (we usually just call it: the Girls Dormitory), spent an extra 30 minutes putting on their make-up, and making themselves look fashionable. So we left at 7:30.

We followed a less common route up along the Spanish Farm boundary of the College, and not the more common route that goes up straight against the protea farm. This route provided varied terrain and different views.

As expected the group quickly divided into two sections, an agile section and a slow section. The agile ones reached the top of the mountain while I was still sorting out somebody with cramps at the foot of the cliff face (Oom Sias, our farm manager drove up with a 4x4 and gave her a quick way down.)

The agile group met up with Conrad Zygmont, one of our adventurous staff members, who guided them to the top of Fourth Peak (The Dome) while the rest of us relaxed on West Peak. I was with the group who relaxed and therefore my photos are limited to those who stayed with me.

The day was not entirely without drama.

One of our girls who attempted to climb Fourth Peak twisted her ankle. Our Salisbury house guys were so eager to climb the mountain that they did not pay her much heed. Thankfully a group of climbers attached to the Hottentots-Holland section of the Mountain Club of South Africa were also climbing on the mountain.

They were able to provide treatment. At one stage, as they were assessing the problem they even had a helicopter on standby to evacuate her. Fortunately a little bit of loving attention helped her relax and she was able to walk down to Disa Gorge where a 4x4 from the local Search and Rescue organisation was able to pick her up. We really need to thank the Mountain club for their very kind assistance. They rightly remarked that several of our students did not have correct footwear for the mountains and that we must not ever underestimate the dangers on the mountain.

The biggest drama, which I did not want to mention to anybody out of sheer embarrassment is that I (the one who organised the trip) was so busy packing first aid kits and cameras that I left my food for the trip on my diningroom table. I only discovered this when I opened my bag on top of First Peak! It is amazing how appetising a packet of licorice Allsorts can be when there is nothing else to eat. I consoled myself with the fact that I know many mountain climbers who survived days without food in mountains.

The whole exercise was very enjoyable and I hope that we can do this more frequently. I hope that a few students will develop a passion for such activities in the process.

Mike and Bulumko relaxing at the top.

On the way down there is a beautiful exposed area. Clementine is accompanied by Will from the Langa Adventist Church.

A small group about 1/4 of the way down the mountain.

We could see some of our other group of climbers walking on top of the Dome. They were small like ants. The camera did not pick it up, but it is possible to use one's imagination.

Dormitory Food

2006-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

I think this is typical of most people's experiences in a dormitory. The food in the cafetaria just never taste like the food you get at home!

So what this student and his friends did was to begin to support the local pizza shop. And the evidence is put on display in their room.

I wonder what kind of bacteria is growing inside those used boxes.

Perhaps the pizza shop can thank us for our patronage by sponsoring a flat screen TV for the dormitory :-)

Conquering Helderberg Mountain

2006-10-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog post I mentioned that we plan to climb Helderberg mountain with a number of students from Salisbury House and Helderberg College on Sunday 22 October.

In preperation for this climb, I took a day off work this week-end and walked up the mountain myself.

(A picture of the rest of the Hottentots Holland Range from West Peak)

A few notes on the walk:

1. I did see one snake. A 90cm long puff adder. The good news is that she got such a big fright that she is now at least 10 farms away from us. (I would say that I could vouch for it because I met it in the Nature reserve on the way down, but I think that would frighten people off.)

2. It took me (with a 110 + something kg. frame 2 hours to walk to the top of the mountain. It took another 1hr 50 minutes to walk down.) I feel a bit intimidated by the fact that the students, who are young and fit might feel the need to do it in less time.

(A view of The Dome from the beacon on West Peak. To get there we will have to descend about 300 metres along a steep little path down West Peak and then walk about 1 km on a countour path that leads to the ascent part of The Dome.)

3. It is definitely worth it. The scenes are really beautiful. I am unhappy with myself that I waited two years to do this trip up the mountain. (I did climb the Dome last year though.)

There was a bit of hazyness in the air. Down below is Helderberg College.

This is what Helderberg Nature Reserve looks like from the top of West Peak. We will eventually finish our hike down by the large dam - right at the bottom of the hill :-).

If you are a Helderberg Student, I hope to see you on top of the mountain.
Read my previous post to find out what to bring with you.

Conquering the Helderberg Mountain Range

2006-10-04T22:51:00.000-07:00

We All Know this View!

But who of us know the view from the top of these mountains?

Join us on a trip to the top of the Helderberg Mountain Range.

Date: Sunday, 22 October 2006
Time: 07:00
Place of Departure: Computer Lab Entrance

Route:
We will hike from Helderberg College to the top of West Peak. Enjoy as you get to see new images and perspectives of the College as we climb up the slopes.

The hike up West Peak will take approximately 2 hours. At this point the ones who are less fit will be able to return via the same route that we came.

The more adventurous climbers will traverse past the 2 central peaks and then climb the more challenging Dome (4th Peak). The Dome is the highest peak in the Helderberg Range (Higher than Table Mountain). You will enjoy beautiful views of Stellenbosh and the Winelands, and of the Helderberg Basin. We are likely to see a pair of Black eagles and some small wildlife.

We should reach the top of the Dome by 11:30 - 12:00. We will eat lunch on the Dome and return with the beautiful winding path down Porcupine Buttress to the Nature reserve where transport will be waiting to bring us back to the College.

What to bring:

1. Good Walking Shoes.
2. At Least 2 Litres of water.
3. Some snacks to eat on the way. Watch for further announcements about what you can get from the Cafeteria.
4. Bring a warm jacket or sweater to wear in case the weather becomes unpleasant on the mountain.
5. You will need something to carry all of your things in. A small day-pack will be perfect.

If you are interested in this you might want to explore the following links.

A map of the area (although it does not indicate the path on top of the mountain.)

Other people have been up there before.

Social Programme for the end of 2006

2006-10-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

We have a very full social programme planned for Salisbury House (and Anne Visser House) for the rest of the year. I will post individual articles and reports on these social programmes, but what follows is a quick summary:

Sat 7 October: Board Games in Gym, followed by dvd's projected against the Gym wall.

Sun 8 October: Business Club Banquet

Sat 14 October: Senior Class Banquet

Sun 15 October: Prison Break! (Salisbury House Open House)

Sun 22 October: Conquer Helderberg Mountains (Climb up West Peak and the Dome).

Sat 28 October: Money or the Box! Live game show with many prizes to be won.

Sat 4 November: Camp Fire and Poetry Evening with Mathodzi (Mieliebraai).

Sun 12 November: Survivor Helderberg! (Watch this space!)

Sat 18 November: Volleyball on the Beach

If you live in Salisbury House, or study at Helderberg College, there is no better place to be.

Pictures of Salisbury House

2006-10-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it is just a building, but for many over the last 50 years, it has been home.

2006-10-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

Once a year we say good bye to our Matrics. We recently had our Matric Banquet at Neethlingshof, a wine farm near Stellenbosh.

Attached are some of the pictures taken at the meeting. All the photographs are of people who live in the dormitory.

This is Joshua about 45 minutes before the banquet, playing playstation in the Salisbury House foyer.

At the same time, Jean Luc is in a slightly further state of readiness, but he has to clear up something with one of his girlfriends on the phone.

The sun had just set when we arrived at the venue. Steve, one of the Grade 11 hosts waits for us.

Another two of the evenign hosts. Reggie is a proud resident of room 50 in Salisbury house.

Musa, is the Shaka Zulu of the matric in our dormitory this year.

Joshua looks a little bit better by this time. His parents live in Zimbabwe and could not make it for the function.

This is Jean-Luc with what appears to be his main girlfriend. Jean-Luc is from the Seychelles.

Jean Luc with another attachment (Tashlyn who lives in the girlsdorm).

This is Ndile with his girl. Ndile is Xhosa and has recently completed his initiation cermony into manhood. We would probably have forgotten about it if he did not remind us on almost a daily basis :-).

Jean-Luc, Musa and Ndile.

Thedore John (TJ) is one of my resident assistants. He is just one of Jean-Luc's ornamental attachments. (Although he officially accompanied Tashlyn that evening).

Ah, Cute :-).

Man! We have a good looking Matric Class! I just had to get in as well to ruin the picture.

Oh, I completely forgot about Dudu, who also lives in the Girls Dormitory.

And then there was the food.

It is strange that everybody left when the food was finished. Perhaps there was a lively after party somewhere.

It was a lovely evenign. Thanks to the Grade 11's for organising it so well. And Good luck to the Matrics for their upcoming exams.

2006-10-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

I am the current dormitory Dean at Salisbury House, Helderberg College, Somerset West in the Western Cape in South Africa.

The College is run by the Seventh-day Adventist church.

I envision this blog to be a dumping ground for just about anything that happens from day to day at the dorm. I'm not advertising the dorm or the College. I'm just going to talk about life in the dorm.

We have 4 Matrics in the dormitory. They recently had a matric banquet and I got to take some photos. I thought I'd just publish them here.

We plan some fun socials during this semester and why not write about them here, and perhaps take some pictures as well.

I've been thinking that if some ex Salisbury house residents discover this blog they could perhaps send some anecdotes about life in the dormitory when they were here. I will certainly publish it.

Hopefully I won't be the only contributor. I might ask some of my assistants if they would like to be co-contributors to the blog. We might see some posts from them as well.

I hope you will enjoy this blog.