Page 44 - Transformation Indaba Report

I do take Glen’s point but I’m not sure that this is a prob- special concessions made for certain people, to give them
lem specific to our transformation policy. I do think that it rapid advancement, then that that would create resent-
is the conundrum that you say is faced by academics in a ment. I’m not sure if there’s any alternative, but to accept
comprehensive institution. So, we do have to do all those that. I don’t think we are ignored, and I don’t think it’s a
things - we have to teach / do research / be engaged. I don’t mysterious process. I think it’s quite a transparent process.
think there’s any way around it. If we were going to say “look I’ve helped a lot of staff to tick those boxes and apply for
this university is not going to be research science university, promotion and so on. And they often don’t get promotion
but we can’t do that. We are all in the same boat basically. because they haven’t published enough. That’s the way it
We all go through the same process, and we all have to is. You have to then look at the nature of how the university
tick those boxes. So, unless you’re advocating that there’s defines itself and how it’s understood. (Janet)

Agreed. But the university has set itself a target / ideal for in terms of transformation / a beacon to strive for / a magnet that’s
supposed to pull us. Even though it takes time, there seems to be a disjuncture there, so that you want transformation ideal,
but you aren’t willing to recognize that it’s not possible. (Glen)

Agreed. One can get stuck in Kwezi’s “missing-middle. (Janet)

Not everyone is good at everything. Promotion policy is cookie cutter and too homogenised. It negates the fact that we are
individuals. It should serve the broader. We are individuals striving on an individual basis. (Glen)

In summing up, certain aspects are under-valued in the Promotion Policy. It needs to be reviewed. 1) Appointment policy
and rigid racial quotas/targets; 2) Promotion Policy is rigid, box-ticking and scoring; 3) Academics stuck in the “missing
middle”, struggling along for years without the support they need. (Janet)

To clarify, it’s the requirement of the Department of der so that we can understand and build where we need
Employment and Labour to have stats broken down (race to, have growth, or have the over-representation cut down
and gender) when it comes to our economically active pop- when it comes to the over- and under- representation. It is
ulation. Otherwise, “black” includes everyone (as with BC a legislative requirement, and it assists us as an institution
sense mentioned by Janet). But then for us to be able to to understand where exactly our over- and underrepre-
know exactly where is the under representation in our own sentation is, when it comes to race and gender. (Vuyo)
institutions, we need to break down the race and the gen-

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 38