JONATHAN JANSEN: Is there really a 'race row' at UCT? Let's look at the facts ...
'Professorial titles are academic rankings that signal status in your discipline, not evidence of your capacity for senior leadership'
Is there really a race row “again” at UCT as one media outlet would have us believe? “Facts are stubborn things,” someone once said, but that is where this raging debate should start and end. Two accomplished women academics, one black and one white, are finalists in the senior management position of deputy vice-chancellor (DVC): teaching and learning. The Council of UCT, the highest decision-making body of the university on such matters, appoints the white candidate on the recommendation of the selection committee (50% black), chaired by the esteemed struggle activist Dr Sipho Pityana.Some black academics, under the umbrella of a body called the Black Academic Caucus, cry foul. UCT is racist. Why? Several reasons, but the main complaint is that the black candidate is better qualified. Is this so? But first an acknowledgment. UCT like all former white universities has a long history of excluding excellent black scholars before and since the disgraceful decision not to appoint the re...
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