UKZN centre 'will cease to exist in present form'

 

 

Academic unit may be integrated

 

 

Latoya Newman, The Mercury, 8 August 2008

 

 

THE University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Civil Society could be integrated into the school of development studies from the end of this year.

 

University officials said yesterday that a recommendation had been made that it "will cease to exist in its current form at the end of 2008".

 

University pro vice-chancellor Dasarath Chetty said yesterday that a review of the centre had been undertaken and a report was produced in February.

 

"On the basis of the review report and of discussions held between the deputy vice-chancellor and head of college, the dean, and the head of school in which the centre is located, it was recommended that the centre will cease to exist in its current form at the end of 2008 due to questions surrounding the sustained financial viability of the centre and the appropriateness of the way in which it is currently structured as an academic unit," he said.

 

Chetty said it was recommended that a "refocused civil society programme" be established and integrated into the development studies school.

 

The Mercury has a copy of the report. The review panel outlines concerns over the centre's financial sustainability, including that staff are on contract and are not all engaged in activities that will generate long-term finances.

 

However, in its recommendations, the panel says: "Closing down or removing the centre from the university does not appear to be an option as it was rejected by all interviewees and panel members. Through its international recognition and standing, the centre has put this university on a world map in social science, a position the university dare not risk to lose."

 

Regarding incorporating the centre, it noted: "This would remove some of the present administrative ambiguities, but would severely curtail autonomy and (international) status of the centre. Although favoured by some school of development studies staff, this option was resoundingly rejected by other interviewees and the panel."

 

Among the final recommendations, the panel said: "The centre should be made a more independent entity within its host school. The school of sociology and social studies appears to be another potential suitor as host."

 

The panel also presented a possible model for the centre as an "autonomous entity" within the humanities faculty.

 

According to the centre's income and expenditure report for last year, while it ran at a slight deficit of more than R91 000, it had an accumulated balance of about R5.8 million.

 

There has been outrage at news of the developments.

 

Jane Duncan, of the Freedom of Expression Institute, said the organisation had been "concerned about academic freedom of expression at the university" for some time.

 

"The centre has been a force of progressive scholarship. Their research output has been remarkable and any university would consider them an asset. So even if, for argument's sake, the centre is struggling financially, the university should fight to keep it alive. One cannot ignore that there has been conflict between the centre's academics, the municipality and university management. And one cannot help harbouring suspicion that there may be other dynamics at play. The university needs to explain why they would want to convert the centre into one of their programmes," she said.

 

Yale professor Immanuel Wallerstein, the former president of the International Sociological Association and founder of the World Systems School of Analysis, was appalled.

 

"The single most prestigious activity of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, at least as seen from a US vantage point, is the Centre for Civil Society. Those of us who try to follow what is going on in South Africa have come to rely upon the centre as the best single source of wide information. Closing it down would not only damage severely the university's reputation, but would set back research worldwide on contemporary South Africa," he said.