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development’. 31 The University of Pretoria (and all other universities for that
matter) has the greatest commitment and perhaps even obligation to lead
the notion of the academic project. This, even as a first year student, I
understand to be characterised by continuous learning, exposure to new
ideas and to new ways of thinking and being, individual philosophy (as
opposed to indoctrination), challenging old schools of thought, openness,
and expression. Refusal to display or hostility towards provocative art is a
form of tunnel vision and ignorance uncharacteristic of a democratic-public
university space.
Another issue that stands in this framework is the fact that students are
an essential part of a University space. It is naturally quite puzzling that in
the course of the (disingenuous) debate on procedures not being followed,
there was never an attempt to solicit the views, opinion and perspective of
the law students at the time. Why were the feelings and interpretations of
students towards the etchings also not considered and defended? Any basic
conception of university democracy would support the view that students in
the faculty should have been part of the debate. After all, it was the current
Dean who mentioned that where there is no consultation, ‘there is no sense
of ownership’. 32 Despite these complaints about how the discussions were
conducted, some comfort can be gained from the opportunity it gives us to
stress three important issues:
(i) Firstly, the faculty should be wary of underestimating and undermining
its own students. I suspect that the students were not involved in the process
because of an overwhelming perception in faculty that students couldn’t
possibly understand the complexity of the debate and raise any new points
which weren’t already mentioned or thought of by the legal academics,
human rights experts and philosophers in the Faculty.
(ii) Secondly, the need to give students a real (and not a pretentious and ‘inspeeches’
only) sense of ownership in the Faculty. Faculty staff must use
their expertise to help students generate their own ideas, engage in their
own debates and be an active part of the life of their faculty. Students, in
this way, are not just seen as clients of the Faculty in the sense that a
teaching service is being rendered to them but they are also regarded as
stakeholders.
31 Heyns ;Transformation and the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria’ in
Visser & Heyns (eds) Transformation and the Faculty of Law, University of
Pretoria (2007) 20-21.
32 Heyns (n 3 above) 5.