MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

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OFF – BUT HE HAS NOT HUNG UP HIS pPROFESSOR PETER FRANKS, WHO VACATED THE POSITION OF DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH EARLIER THIS YEAR, FIRST JOINED THE UNIVERSITY OF THE NORTH (NOW LIMPOPO) ALMOST TWENTY YEARS AGO. That’s a long stretch of continuous service for a man as restless and innovative as Franks. He began his time at the university as senior professor and head of the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology in 1992, but was soon promoted to Dean (1995 – 2001) and then Executive Dean of what is now termed the Faculty of Management and Law. With the Turfloop/Medunsa merger looming, Franks found himself involved with executive management at Turfloop and then across the new university as a whole. He served as Interim Campus Principal at Turfloop, and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Limpopo from January 2005 to 2007 when his portfolio was more precisely defined as Deputy Vice Chancellor: academic and P A G E 1 0 OFF research. He steered these aspects of the university juggernaut through the stormiest of merger waters until a few months ago. He had already passed retirement age when he finally handed the reins to Professor Mbudzeni Sibara. Apart from his steady rise through the administrative ranks of the university and his increasing weight in its managerial affairs, Franks’ innovative flair is particularly visible at Edupark in Polokwane, where the Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership (TGSL) and the Development Facilitation and Training Institute (DevFTI) will remain as reminders of his lively influence. But to more fully decipher the genesis of these innovations, we need to learn a little more about the man himself. Franks was born in Johannesburg during the final months of World War 2. He did his formative schooling in Johannesburg and attended high school at Kingswood College, a highflying private school in Grahamstown where he matriculated in 1963. Back in Johannesburg and after a few years of indecision, he
BOOTS enrolled for a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and political science at the University of the Witwatersrand. ‘People said my choice of majors was unusual,’ Franks said, ‘but it made perfect sense to me. The relationship between psychology and politics seemed obvious, especially in South Africa at that time. Then in my third year we studied Marx, even though he wasn’t on the official curriculum, and I discovered linkages between Zionism and Marxism’. While at Wits he served on the national executive of NUSAS*. After graduating in 1970, Franks went overseas. He got a job in Milan, looking after the children of a heavy-metal rock star. He immersed himself in the nightclubs of London. He worked on a kibbutz in Israel. Then he went to America and entered the State University of New York at Stony Brook as both student and psychology lecturer. Five years later he emerged with a doctorate in Social Psychology. Canada beckoned. He taught psychology as an assistant professor at the Wilfred Laurier University at Waterloo in Ontario for a few years. Then he dropped out. He worked in the commercial theatre in Austin, Texas. Then when his money ran out he found work as a mason’s labourer in New Mexico, a job he did for 18 months. On his return to Canada he worked at Concordia University in Montreal as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and did social and environmental consultancy work for a private sector company. He then lived on the dole for six months, reading books he bought in a shop run by the Salvation Army, before returning to South Africa in 1982. Back home Franks worked for the Human Sciences Research Council for ten years, rising to the position of Manager of the Environment Management Division before joining the then University of the North. His wanderings were over. But his thinking had been deeply shaped by the diversity of his experiences: it followed no popular trends, and he continued to be regarded as something of a maverick by many. ‘Perhaps more of a free thinker and iconoclast,’ he suggested. Asked what his doctoral thesis had been about, Franks replied: ‘ I wrote a history of American social * National Union of South African Students psychology between 1900 and 1940. This was the period in which social engineering developed. A period in which great illusions were created for the American people to believe in. My interest focused on the role played by social psychology in the development of a manipulative social practice and on the dangers inherent in this approach.’ All this experience and thinking came more fully into play when Franks became involved, during the mid-1990s, in the Edupark venture. The story of how the actual facility came into being has been told elsewhere. Suffice to say here that when it had been established, the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Njabulo Ndebele asked Franks, then the Dean of Management and Law to look at the possibility of launching a Business School for the university. The result wasn’t a business school but the TGSL. ‘It was so much more than a business school,’ Franks explained. ‘It brought together the three crucial strands of development: the state, the corporate sector and the civil society in the existing development realities. We were way ahead of other business schools.’ This claim continues to be reflected in the postgraduate courses on offer. Certainly, there’s an MBA, but this basic business degree is supplemented with an MPA (a Masters in Public Administration) and an MDev (a Masters in Development). But Franks didn’t stop there. Thanks to funding from the Mott, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, DevFTI was founded. It has provided management and leadership training for thousands of community, NGO and traditional leaders from many SADC and east African countries as well as locally. Besides this major innovation there were many other initiatives championed by Franks during his period of service. It seems a pity that a man like Peter Franks, maverick though he might be, must sooner or later retire. It happens to the best of us. But the good news is that he’s not thinking of the rocking chair just yet. ‘At the moment I’m taking a break,’ he says. ‘I have a number of writing projects that I’m planning. After that – yes, absolutely – I’ll be looking for something interesting to do.’ P A G E 1 1
Page 1 and 2: LIMPOPO NUMBER 22 WINTER 2010 LIMPO
Page 3 and 4: CALLING ALL ALUMNI: GET IN THE NEWS
Page 5 and 6: IN THIS ISSUE UNIVERSITY cover pict
Page 7 and 8: efforts in this direction by lookin
Page 9 and 10: Changes in the university executive
Page 11: associate professor of Microbiology
Page 15 and 16: Professor Monie Naidoo was to ensur
Page 17 and 18: Gerda Botha environmental health, w
Page 19 and 20: Medunsa upgrades ORAL HEALTH CENTRE
Page 21 and 22: Medunsa upgrades NEW SKILLS CENTRE
Page 23 and 24: heartbeat’, palpate her stomach,
Page 25 and 26: From top to bottom: Professor Dirk
Page 27 and 28: DVC Academic & Research Research Di
Page 29 and 30: Profile: Geoffrey Letsoalo MEET THE
Page 31 and 32: Profile: Regina Maphanga WHAT KEEPS
Page 33 and 34: Profile: Dr Mhlangu FIRMING UP THE
Page 35: Secure Secure your your future futu

MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

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