WORDS FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR: ALWAYS PROUDLY UDUBS!

PROF TYRONE PRETORIUS, RECTOR AND VICE-CHANCELLOR

WE ENTERED ANOTHER YEAR AMID A GLOBAL PANDEMIC with great care and vigilance for our health and safety. But it was with a note of optimism that sports fixtures returned to our campus in 2022 with the staging of Varsity Cup rugby matches at the UWC Sports Stadium, affectionately known as the Operation Room.

Despite the lack of sporting action for our student athletes and the difficulty endured by those involved in bio-bubbles, we did not sit on our laurels when it came to sport.

THOSE LUCKY ENOUGH to be in the stands for the Varsity Cup matches would have noticed several significant changes to the sports precinct. There is a brand-new track that meets world athletics standards. There is also a refurbished VIP suite for guests and the media and a Venue Operations Centre from where events can be coordinated.

Our High-Performance Centre opened during the COVID-19 lockdown. Across the road from the sports stadium, our indoor Olympicsize swimming pool has re-opened and meets the requirements of the global governing authority of the sporting code.

THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE EXCITING UPGRADES to our sports infrastructure that will help to draw the cream of the crop of student athletes around the country to UWC. But these developments pose even greater possibilities for students to converge the discipline of sport with their respective academic disciplines.

WE PRIDE OURSELVES IN OFFERING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS – a world-class university education where student athletes can excel at the highest level. We have seen the trajectory of global sporting icons emerging from our university. Our priority is for them to leave here as students of the world with a university degree that can facilitate a livelihood beyond their sporting careers.

An important possibility that the new infrastructure holds is how these state-of-the-art facilities can be used to leverage research. It is our wish that facilities like the High-Performance Centre will enable the study by sports scientists, nutritionists and biokineticists of the human condition and how to optimise performance.

It can be argued that infrastructure is simply brick and mortar. It is the intellectual and physical capacity of those within those walls who make use of these facilities that will ensure we bring out the best in our student athletes, scholars, researchers and academics. I look forward to the further development of sports facilities on our campus over the coming months.

SADLY, UWC LOST A MUCH-LOVED COLLEAGUE AND MEMBER OF THE SPORTS TEAM. Adrienne Galagatsi passed away in January and left a significant void in sport administration at the university. As a transgender woman, Adrienne made her mark elsewhere as well as an activist who created awareness of injustices against the LGBQTI+ community. My condolences to her family, friends and colleagues. May her soul rest in peace.

UWC WILL BE PARTICIPATING in men’s basketball, women’s netball, women’s football, cricket and Varsity Cup rugby in the 2022 Varsity Sports tournaments. We had several sporting successes last year, particularly with the Women’s Football team finishing third in the professional Hollywoodbets Super League and being crowned Varsity Women’s Football champions.

NOTABLY, UWC’S DIRECTOR OF SPORT, MANDLA GAGAYI, was nominated for the FISU Gender Equality Champion Award, in addition to being appointed to SASCOC’s Policy Development Commission.

WE ARE PLEASED WITH THESE SUCCESSES but just participating during these unprecedented times in the history of our world already makes you winners. I wish all our student athletes, coaches, administrators and managers all the best for the year ahead. Win or lose, we are always proudly Udubs! B+G