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University of Missouri South Africa Education Program

South Africa Program Update

University of Missouri System and University of the Western Cape

January 2011

A report from the University of Missouri South African Education Program Committee

• Dr. Joel Glassman, Chair, 91���ѼSL

• Dr. Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Missouri S&T

• Dr. James K. Scott, MU

• Dr. Judith McCormick, 91���ѼKC

• Mr. Michael Middleton, MU

• Dr. Richard Oliver, MU

• Dr. Lois Pierce, 91���ѼSL

• Dr. Jeanie Hofer, Missouri S&T

• Dr. Nicholas Peroff, 91���ѼKC

• Dr. Linna Place, 91���ѼKC

• Dr. Gwen Turner, 91���ѼSL

• Dr. Ralph Wilkerson, Missouri S&T

• Professor Rodney Uphoff, Director, 91���ѼSAEP

2010 and Beyond

2010 was a banner year for The University of the Western Cape (UWC) and for South Africa. For UWC, 2010 marked its 50th anniversary. Since its founding in 1960, UWC has risen from a small under-resourced institution exclusively for “colored” students to a dynamic, diverse university of almost 16,000 students. It is now the seventh ranked school of higher learning on the African continent and a destination for excellent students from all over Africa and the rest of the world. In 2010, UWC marked the dedication of two new dramatic buildings on campus. The Life Sciences Building opened in August, and it is the finest in Africa. In addition, the new Public Health Building is a state of the art facility that houses one of the leading Schools of Public Health on the continent. The University of Missouri takes great pride in the success of its long-standing partner.

2010 also saw the attention of the entire world focused on South Africa because of the World Cup. The fears of some who questioned the ability of this still developing nation to host such a challenging event with multiple venues were never realized. Simply put, the doubters were wrong. South Africa did a marvelous job hosting the event. Not only were the stadiums terrific and the organization nearly flawless, but the tourists marveled at the beauty of the country and the friendliness of the people. The crime rate was nearly zero and that helped boost the country’s image, as did the stunning images of people, landscapes and animals.

American tourists made up the largest contingent of foreign visitors at the 2010 World Cup. I spoke with many first time American visitors who were amazed at the richness of the experiences Cape Town and South Africa had to offer. Of course, those of us from Missouri who had been to Cape Town before were not surprised by the enthusiastic reaction to this remarkable country.

2010 also marked the first visit of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Ramesh Bharuthram to Missouri. Dr. Bharuthram oversees the academic enterprise at UWC and serves as second-in-command to Rector Brian O’Connell. Although Dr. Bharuthram was only in Missouri for two and a half days, he was able to visit both Rolla and Columbia. He also was able to interact with administrators and faculty from all four campuses via a TelePresence session. Dr. Bharuthram had a fantastic visit and remarked that his short visit gave him a much deeper appreciation for the strengths and value of the 91���Ѽ/UWC partnership. Since his visit, Dr. Bharuthram has remained actively engaged in helping to foster research collaborations between UWC and 91���Ѽ faculty members.

Dr. Bharuthram’s enthusiastic reaction to his warm reception in Missouri in March followed Missouri University of Science and Technology Provost Kent Wray’s rewarding visit to UWC in February. Dr. Wray, accompanied by Dr. Jeanie Hofer and Dr. Franca Oboh-Ikuenobe, visited UWC after a visit to Botswana. Dr. Wray’s reaction to meeting with Rector Brian O’Connell and many others at UWC mirrored that of Dr. Bharuthram after his visit to Missouri. One gains a much richer appreciation for all that 91���Ѽ/UWC have accomplished together by spending time at UWC or on one of the four 91���Ѽ campuses, especially after meeting with faculty members whose lives have been enriched as a result of this partnership. Yet we recognize that there is so much more we can achieve if we continue to build upon our past successes.

Professor Uphoff visits Missouri S&T in preparation for Dr. Bharuthram’s March 2010 visit.

Opportunities for Enhanced Research Collaborators

In late 2009, MU Provost Brian Foster announced the creation of a new initiative at MU called the Mizzou Advantage. Focusing on five stragetic areas led by five facilitators, the initiative is designed to stimulate the creation of networks of interdisciplinary collaborators who will seek large grants and contracts as well as to host important conferences. The five areas are:

• One Health, One Medicine: the Convergence of Human and Animal Medicine
• Food for the Future
• Media for the Future
• Sustainable Energy
• Understanding and Managing Disruptive and Transformational Technologies

During his visit to Columbia, Dr. Bharuthram met with Provost Foster and learned much about Mizzou Advantage. Both he and Provost Foster were excited about the collaborative possibilities that the Mizzou Advantage Initiative presented for faculty members at UWC, as well as their collaborators at other 91���Ѽ schools. Professor Uphoff met with the Mizzou Advantage facilitators to give them a better understanding of the history of the 91���Ѽ/UWC partnership and of the opportunities presented for collaboration with faculty members at UWC. In May, Professor Uphoff and Dr. Bharuthram set up a video conference in which the Mizzoui Advantage facilitators exchanged ideas with 14 of UWC’s top researchers. Over the course of the year, several UWC faculty members have worked with professors at MU on projects seeking Mizzou Advantage funding. In addition, we anticipate that most of the facilitators will travel to UWC in May 2011 for the purpose of identifying more avenues for collaboration.

Professor Jimmy Adegoke, chair of Geosciences at 91���ѼKC, is currently on leave and serving as the Executive Director of Natural Resources and the Environment at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. CSIR is one of the leading scientific and technology research centers in all of Africa. Professor Adegoke is also involved in CSIR’s Access Center of Excellence, which focuses on climate change and its impact on the world.  

91���Ѽ Student Study Abroad

In addition to the vibrant program for MU and UWC law students described later in this newsletter, several other student groups are hoping to travel to UWC in 2011. Doctors John Hogan and Greg Gelles of Missouri S&T traveled to Cape Town in late July and early August to work with Professor Uphoff, Professor Jan Persens and others at UWC on a study abroad program for Missouri S&T students. Hopefully the Missouri S&T program will be launched this June.

Professor Arif Ahmed, Adjunct Professor Mike Wood and their colleagues at several departments at 91���ѼKC have been working with Professor Uphoff, UWC Professor Jan Persens and the faculty at UWC’s School of Public Health in the hopes of launching a program for 91���ѼKC students this May. The challenge, of course, is attracting enough students in these difficult economic times. That is the issue that derailed the very successful social work program that MU Professor Margie Sable and 91���ѼSL Professor Lois Pierce ran in 2009. Even though they did not attract enough students to run their program in 2010, they are optimistic that they will be taking a group of students to UWC in July 2011.

Administrative Staff Changes

For the last several years, various administrators from UWC and 91���Ѽ have been exchanging ideas about ways to enhance the effectiveness of the departments in which they operate. For example, Nikki Krawitz, vice president for finance and administration for 91���Ѽ System, has hosted two visits from UWC’s Manie Regal, executive director finance and services. The two have also utilized video conferencing to continue their discussions.

In 2009, UWC’s Dr. Lorna Holtman traveled to St. Louis and to Columbia to observe and to discuss how the graduate school at 91���ѼSL and MU operates. UWC does not have a graduate school structure and Dr. Holtman was given the task of helping to organize such a school at UWC. Her main contacts at 91���ѼSL and MU respectively were Pat Boyer and George Justice. After her successful trip to Missouri, Dr. Holtman remained in contact with Dr. Boyer and Dean Justice via video conferencing. This past May, Dr. Boyer traveled to UWC to continue her discussions with Dr. Holtman and others at UWC, both about the structure of a graduate school and the establishment of “best practices” for UWC’s postgraduate enrollment and throughput programme. George Justice, dean of MU’s Graduate School, visited UWC in July to continue his discussions with Dr. Holtman and to meet with other administrators at UWC. Rector O’Connell and Deputy Vice Chancellor Bharuthram have expressed their hope that more such administrative exchanges can occur in the future as UWC is anxious to continue to build its administrative infrastructure. For 91���Ѽ administrators, the opportunity to exchange ideas has proven to be a rewarding and mutually beneficial experience.

2010 Exchanges

In 2010, as in previous years, 91���Ѽ and UWC faculty members participated in a number of productive exchanges. The following example highlights the diverse activities that mark both the 91���Ѽ/UWC linkage exchanges and the South African Partnership awards:

Professor William Lamberson

Professor William Lamberson traveled to UWC from January 23 – February 5, 2010. Dr. Lamberson is the director of graduate studies in the Division of Animal Sciences at the University of Missouri and has taught at MU since 1984. For several years, Dr. Lamberson has been involved in a continuing collaboration with Dr. David Fisher in the UWC Department of Medical Biosciences to study using medicinal herbs to alleviate the effects of heat stress on male fertility. Heat stress induced male infertility results in lost income to livestock producers. Preliminary studies initiated as a result of an earlier 91���ѼSAEP grant resulted in identifying Artemisia afra as being a possible therapeutic agent. Subsequent animal studies showed that Artemisia afra and the related plant, Artemisia absinthium, improved male fertility after heat stress and also reduced lethargy often observed in animals under heat stress. In their current project, Doctors Fisher and Lamberson are studying the use of these herbs during longer periods of heat stress to determine if the novel results on activity are repeatable, and to determine if treatment alters the metabolic rate of an animal under heat stress. In addition, they are going to extend the initial work completed in laboratory animals to swine, a major livestock species in Missouri and other Midwestern states.

Professor Lamberson traveled to UWC to meet with Dr. Fisher and his colleagues to present their current results and to gain information on possible mechanisms of action of Artemisia, as well as to identify alternative methods for administering Artemisia to pigs. In particular, Professor Lamberson and his UWC colleagues explored possible mechanisms of action through which Artemisia may have an effect on infertility. In addition, he was able to learn methods of extraction that will result in producing a powdered form of Artemisia that will be more easily administered to livestock. Finally, Professor Lamberson presented a seminar on their reproductive biology research to UWC faculty and students.

The current status of the research projects is that two projects have been completed with the initial 91���ѼSAEP and USDA Animal Health funding. Three research presentations have been made at annual meetings of the American Society of Animal Sciences and Professor Lamberson gave an invited presentation at the Reproduction Symposium at the same meetings. The collaboration also produced an abstract from the first part of the project entitled Mitigation of effects of heat stress in mice by Artemisia sp. accepted for the American Society of Animal Science meetings this March. One M.S. thesis (Heather Smith) and an undergraduate research project (Amy Desaulniers) were completed last year and another M.S. project is in progress (Catherine Selby). Doctors Lamberson and Fisher are joining with Kristi Cammack, a postdoc on the original 91���ѼSAEP grant, now at the University of Wyoming, to seek NIH funding.

Adam Craig

Although UWC and 91���Ѽ faculty exchanges have been the main focus of our relationship for the past 25 years, students from UWC and each of the University of Missouri campuses have also benefited. The Henry Mitchell Scholarship was created in 1997 to help support travel to deserving students to have an opportunity to study in South Africa or Missouri. MU’s Adam Craig was a Henry Mitchell scholar in 2010 and his report speaks to the value of such a study abroad experience for our students.

“As the end of my six month stay in Cape Town, South Africa, approached, I experienced a mix of emotions I could not have predicted at the beginning of my journey. While I had previously traveled to South Africa and had seen the incredible sights of Cape Town and Kruger National Park, the lure to return had not been simply rooted in the country’s beauty or the thrill of going on safari. I had been exposed to the country’s widespread poverty and lingering cultural tensions, yet I was fascinated by the development and spirit of the young, evolving nation. As I departed the United States for my semester abroad, my primary goal as a Henry Mitchell scholar and a student at the University of Western Cape was to be immersed in the ongoing cultural transformation and unyielding progress of South Africa following the end of apartheid less than 20 years ago.

My experience at the University of Western Cape far exceeded all my expectations. Arriving at UWC I was amazed at the beauty of the campus and the friendliness of the faculty and students. Unsurprisingly, there were challenges and frustrations in the registration process that students in the United States are fortunate to avoid, but the staff in the UWC International Office always did their best to assist and resolve any problems or issues I encountered.

The history and political science courses I completed were an integral part of my successful semester and positive university experience. My history courses focused on Africa during colonization and Africa post-colonization and were especially interesting as it was not presented from a Western perspective. Additionally, I had a professor from Namibia who was able to offer his own personal stories and experiences that illustrated the course subject matter far beyond the scope of any textbook. My political science courses related to international politics, and while the coursework was not challenging or difficult, I enjoyed learning the information in a manner that was not American-centric as it seemed to offer a more objective, less-biased appraisal of international political events, institutions, and relations.

Beyond the classroom, being at the University of Western Cape allowed me to interact with students from all over South Africa and the world. I became good friends with many of my classmates and had more than one memorable conversation with strangers who enjoyed the opportunity to randomly introduce themselves to an exchange student. It was rewarding to speak with these individuals about life as a student in South Africa, their vastly different experiences growing up, and their future goals and aspirations. I met university students from South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and exchange students from all over the United States and Europe. The relationships I forged at UWC helped me explore South Africa outside of the university in a manner much more rewarding than that of a normal tourist. The real value of these friendships was the window it provided into the true, unbiased nature of South African culture. I heard firsthand of the socioeconomic hardships and racial conflicts far too many students had encountered. These students amazed me as they were resilient, optimistic, charitable, and held steadfast beliefs in tolerance and equality, despite the unimaginable adversity many of them faced.

In addition to the friends I made at UWC, I made several close friends living in Observatory in a youth lodge with 10 other residents. The house typically had a few long-term South African occupants along with several students and interns from North American, Europe, and the Middle East who generally stayed a few weeks or months. Living off campus with similarly minded people made it easy to find groups to explore the attractions in Cape Town such as Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, and Camps Bay. I also enjoyed the many local shops and restaurants that were within walking distance of my home that provided delicious and affordable meals. While safety was a constant concern and transportation to Bellville for classes took nearly 45 minutes, I was pleased with my decision to live off campus.

While my University of Western Cape experience was itself a rewarding experience, being located in Cape Town allowed me to easily take advantage of school breaks to travel around the country. Over spring break I traveled up the Garden Route to the Gold Coast and jumped off the world’s highest commercial bungee jump. Over Easter break, I was able to visit Kruger National Park and spend a day in Swaziland. After finals in May, I traveled to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. These trips provided a further opportunity to explore African culture and make acquaintances with people from all over the world with immensely different ways of life.

As my departure from Cape Town loomed, I realized satisfying my initial goal was far more than just an objective success. I finally understood my experience would not come to an end when I left the country, rather the lessons and experiences I had would continue to challenge and influence my personal growth for years to come.”

News in Brief

Linkage Awards

The 91���ѼSAEP Committee met with Professor Jan Persens, UWC director of international relations, via video conference on September 10, 2010, in Columbia to select particpants for 2011. The committee authorized awards to two UWC faculty members and six 91���Ѽ faculty members.

UWC faculty receiving91���ѼSAEP awards (91���Ѽ hosts in parentheses)

• Pradeep Brijlal (Professor Hung Gay Fung, 91���ѼSL)

• David Fisher (Professor Doug Bowles, MU)

  91���Ѽ faculty receiving 91���ѼSEP awards (UWC hosts in parentheses):

• Vicki Carstens, University of Missouri-Columbia (Loyiso Mletsche)
• Ronald Bieniek, Missouri S&T (Dr. Lorna Holtman)
• Melanie Mormile, Missouri S&T, (Dr. Ronald Cowan)

• Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy, Missouri S&T (Professor Henry Nyongesa)

  2011 South African Partnerships Program

• Meenakshi Iyer and Glen Heggie, University of Missouri School of Health Professions

Comparative Law at UWC

For the seventh year, the University of Missouri School of Law joined with the law faculty at UWC to offer a comparative law program for American and UWC law students.

The program was held at UWC from June 9 – July 10, 2010. MU Professor Rodney Uphoff and UWC Professor Craig Bosch directed the program, which was attended by 22 American students and 20 UWC students.

The students took comparative courses in constitutional law, criminal justice administration and alternative dispute resolution. In addition to Professors Uphoff and Bosch, MU Professor Jim Levin and UWC Professors Patricia Lenaghau, Andra Le Roux-Kemp and Jacqueline Gallinetti taught in the program.

UWC Law Fellowship

In August 2010, UWC students Sentebale Makara, Kelly-Anne Laetitia Cleophas and Samukelisiwe Nozipho Dlamini enrolled in the MU School of Law’s Dispute Resolution LLM Program. The three UWC students are attending MU as recipients of fellowships supported by gifts to MU School of Law from Fred White, Geoffrey Oelsner and Robert Lande. Six previous UWC students have received an LLM as a result of this fellowship.

Two other UWC students have been awarded similar fellowships to study at MU starting in August 2011.

91���Ѽ and UWC Visitors

2010 91���Ѽ visitors to South Africa include the following: Professor Rodney Uphoff, Dr. Jeanie Hofer, Provost

W. Kent Wray, William Lamberson, Patricia Boyer, Kathy Goggin, Matthew Taylor, Greg Gelles, John Patrick Hogan, Jim Scott, George Justice, Delwyn Catley, Franca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Mary Leuci, Beverly Coberly, Michael Ouart, Neil Anderson, Jane Armer, Vicki Parker, Jimmy Adejoke.

2010 UWC visitors to Missouri include: Henry Nyongesa, Ramesh Bharuthram, Professor Kelvin Mwaba, Dr. Nicolette Roman, Quinton Johnson, Kathy Nadasen, Ehimario Igumbor, Sentebale Makara, Khaya Magopeni, Lorna Holtman, Gail Hughes, Pradeep Brijlal, Kelly-Anne Laetitia Cleophas, Samukelisiwe Nozipho Dlamini.

91���Ѽ/UWC Faculty Exchange Summary Update: