Team:Pretoria UP/HP/Silver
Human practices
In our human practices portfolio, we took the opportunity to engage with a number of industrial partners in the energy sector, develop synthetic biology skills at our university, stimulate interest in applied science among secondary school learners, collaborate with other iGEM teams on social projects and expose the general public to the principles of synthetic biology and our project through radio and social media. Here, we document how our engagement with the energy and business communities in South Africa alerted us to ways in which we can better apply synthetic biology in our project to avoid the release of genetically modified organisms. We describe our involvement in organising the first synthetic biology workshop at our university in partnership with the African Centre for Gene Technologies. We report our fun UP with Science day with secondary school learners and how we reached out to over 50,000 people over radio and other social media platforms. Finally, we reflect on the challenging learning environment that we had to face which trying to complete our project as a result of nationwide #FeesMustFall student protest movement, in many instances violent, that led to the suspension of academic activities at at least 17 universities.
#FeesMustFall Student Protests
A group of students raise their hands in the air to signal that they have come in peace.
In 2016, the movement has awakened with renewed energy. The protests started at the University of KwaZulu-Natal before the announcement of the fee increments for 2017. On the 19th of September the minister of Higher Education Dr. Blade Nzimande announced an 8% cap on fees for students from households of an annual income of more than R600,000 and a 0% fee increment for students who are recipients of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme loan as well as those who are part of the “missing middle”. The “missing middle” is described as families with an annual income of less than R600,000.
This announcement received mixed reactions from students. The South African Students Congress welcomed the announcement, but minutes after, protests on various university campuses started. Students who are pro-#FeesMustFall argue that the 8% increase for students from “wealthy” families will further escalate racial tensions as the rich are mainly white and further argue that the 0% increment does not help students from poor and “missing middle” families as the current fees, together with accommodation fees still remain too high.
As expected, University of Pretoria also experienced disruptions. The evening of the announcements, we were evacuated as the fire alarm went off. The alarm was set off by protesting students who were demanding that we, together with everyone in other labs, join their protest. This resulted in us having to readjust our schedule and this resulted in a 2-day setback. Campus was then evacuated on Wednesday the 21st of September and this resulted in us locking ourselves in the lab to avoid forced evacuation by security. On Thursday 22nd September, classes were suspended and we received messages that classes will resume on Monday the 26th. This resulted in us being even more behind schedule.
Classes indeed did resume the morning of 26th - however, under heavy security. The South African Police Service, private security, and campus security could be seen everywhere. Despite all the precautionary measures taken to ensure teaching and learning, protesters disrupted classes which resulted in security having to evacuate the remaining ongoing classes. Later during the day we received messages that recess would commence a week earlier. The access to campus was limited to staff and our advisors had to make arrangements for us to gain entry. Even this was not enough as there were days during the two-week recess period when we were not allowed entry despite the lists generated and approved by supervisors and the head of the Genetics Department.
With the spirit of iGEM and our dedication to our project we put in the extra effort in order to complete our project. We worked each day we were able to get onto campus and worked until late evenings and sometimes well into the next day. We faced many difficulties in the 2016 iGEM period, but with the power of teamwork we achieved many of our goals.
iGEM Pretoria_UP working during FeesMustFall Protests - University of Pretoria.
During our project we gained valuable knowledge from experts in the field. Click here to read more about our interview with Dr Surridge-Talbot, our stall at the Women in Energy Business Summit, and our interview with Ms Dikeledi from the Lesedi Power Project, as well as how we decided to adjust our project to address these issues.
We organized the first synthetic biology workshop ever held at our University, presented by an international leader in the field. We also presented to 40 high school learners from the larger Tshwane area, educating them about synthetic biology and its applications. Click here to read more about how we met our objective of educating, informing and making people aware of synthetic biology and its applications.
We reached out to over 50,000 listeners on radio, informing them about synthetic biology and our project. We also created two videos on our project which was posted on Youtube in addition to maintaining active Facebook and Twitter accounts. Click here to read more about how we used media to keep society up-to-date with our project progress as well as with the events we are hosting and taking part in.
The #FeesMustFall movement started in 2015 following an announcement of a fee increment of 8% in most universities. Students of the Witwatersrand University set the movement in motion by starting protests at their Braamfontein campus which soon spread to their other campuses and a few hours later, other universities. The University of Pretoria could not escape this wave of protests, and this resulted in a shutdown lasting an entire week.
