Morwe Luescher Wilson-Fadiji 2022 Restoring Wellbeing SAS Manual

RESTORING
WELLBEING
AFTER Student PROTESTS
Lessons from #FeesMustFall
and its aftermath
Keamogetse G Morwe, Thierry M Luescher and Angelina Wilson Fadiji
A manual for Student Affairs and Services professionals

RESTORING
WELLBEING
AFTER Student PROTESTS
Lessons from #FeesMustFall
and its aftermath
A MANUAL FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS AND SERVICES PROFESSIONALS
Keamogetse G Morwe, Thierry M Luescher and Angelina Wilson Fadiji

‘Understanding violence and aggression within the context of the
2015/2016 student movement in South Africa: A wellbeing perspective’
is a research project funded by:
The National Research Foundation of South Africa grant no. 118522 and
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant no. 1802-05403.
© 2022 KG Morwe, TM Luescher and A Wilson Fadiji

First edition published in 2022
ISBN 978-1-928332-87-9
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system – except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper – without permission in
writing from the authors. For information, please contact the authors.
This publication was made possible by the generous support from the National Research Foundation of South Africa,
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book are solely those of the authors in their private capacity and do not in any
way represent the views of the HSRC, or any other entity of the government.
Open access ebook copies of this publication are available from the HSRC website. Printed copies of this publication
can be requested from the HSRC Division: Inclusive Economic Development, as well as from the authors, while stocks
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IN MEMORY OF
Wandisile Sixoto
1990–2021
B Agric, B Agric (Hons), M Agric Fort Hare

PhD candidate in Agriculture (Agricultural extension)
University of Fort Hare, South Africa
Former deputy branch chairperson of the Alice Branch of SASCO,
President of the Post-Graduate Student Association of the University of Fort Hare.
Participant in the project
‘Violence and Wellbeing in the South African Student Movement’ workshops
held in Alice in March 2020.
Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests iii

CONTENTS
Dedication vi
Praise for the manual vii
Foreword ix
Background and introduction 1
A typology of violence 4
Restoring wellbeing for learning 7
This manual 9
Purpose of the manual 10
Student Affairs and violence 11
The research questions 13
Results of the world café discussions 14
The roles that Student Affairs can play in preventing violence 15
Prevent and Process Theme 1: Accountability vs. impunity 15
Prevent and Process Theme 2: Engagement vs. detachment 19
Prevent and Process Theme 3: Responsiveness vs. indifference 22
Prevent and Process Theme 4: Care 25
What roles can Student Affairs practitioners play to promote and restore
the psychological wellbeing of students in the aftermath of violence and
aggression on campus? 29
Wellbeing Theme 1: Counselling 30
Wellbeing Theme 2: Mindfulness 35
Wellbeing Theme 3: Objective wellbeing 37
Wellbeing Theme 4: Innovation 39
CONTENTS
Key discussion points 42
Postscript: The research project 46
Case studies 47
World café method 47
Ethics and trustworthiness 49
Research team 49
Acknowledgments
Funding acknowledgement 51
Reviewer acknowledgement 51
Photo acknowledgement 51
About the authors 53
References 54
DEDICATION
‘Great leaders will tell you that courage does not rule like a lion. Leaders
that are coming together understand that most of the challenges we face,
which is poverty and inequality, were not necessarily our fault;
they were inherited from the past.
We don’t have to strangle each other. We just have to sit around the
table and look at where do we go from now?
What we need: we need grown-ups. We need political leaders to be

grown-ups and lead the way in terms of what kind of society are we
building because the kind of anger that we are peddling is gonna come
back to bite us, all of us.’
Interview of Prof. Thuli Madonsela with Steven Grootes on

SAfm Sunrise, 7 October 2021
We would like to dedicate this manual to
Prof. Thuli Madonsela
Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Professor of Law,

Chair in Social Justice at the University of Stellenbosch,
Public Protector of South Africa from 2009 to 2016.
May your wisdom and courage be a shining light to all our future leaders
and those who take part in supporting and educating them.
vi Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

PRAISE
FOR THE MANUAL
The book Restoring wellbeing after student protests: Lessons from #FeesMustFall and its aftermath starts
with a moving historical account of our collective trauma of student activism and university unrest of
2015/2016 in South Africa, but even more so it offers us lessons learnt - lessons that are critical for Student
Affairs and higher education in South Africa and beyond.
Restoring wellbeing after student protests is a powerful and unique read for higher education leadership –
indeed for everyone, not only in South Africa but also up continent and beyond, who seeks to create a
context for higher education living and learning that is conducive to the development of engaged, responsive
and responsible citizens. The levels of violence experienced in South Africa are among the highest in the
world, devastating and brutalising our country and feeding into a vicious cycle of violence. This violence
also finds itself onto our university campuses, creating conditions that are traumatising to all: students,
administration, academic staff and leadership and staff
Styled as a ‘Manual for Student Affairs and Services professionals’, the book proposes four practices for
Student Affairs and higher education leadership to minimise violence: accountability, engagement,
responsiveness and care. It also reflects on practices that can restore and enhance student wellbeing in the
aftermath of exposure to violence: counselling, mindfulness, objective wellbeing and innovativeness. These
offer a coherent framework for engaging with students and university leadership prior to escalation and
offer ways of resolution in the aftermath of conflict. The concepts are familiar to Student Affairs theory and
practice and, as presented here, could be developed into a de-escalation framework for higher education.
Student Affairs may want to develop this quasi-framework and consolidate it with practices and programmes
that equip students, student leaders, Student Affairs practitioners and university leaders to observe and
practice these steps.
Dr Birgit Schreiber
Vice President, International Association of Student Affairs and Services
Member of the Africa Centre for Transregional Research, Freiburg University, Germany
Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests vii

This manual for SAS professionals has significant global appeal and applicability. The lessons learned,
presented in such an accessible way, makes this manual easy to read with obvious prompts for meaningful
discussion and action. I will use this right away particularly with my SAS staff, and also in my classroom
with graduate students. Thank you for creating a research-based manual that is immediately useful across
many cultural contexts!
Brett Perozzi, Ph.D.,

Vice President for Student Affairs, Weber State University, USA.
PEOPLE, NOT
STONES!!
Anonymous, UFS
Beautifully written! I love everything about this manual. The research methodology is a positive example of
action research for SAS. The lived experience of students and staff during the #FeesMustFall movement are
reminders of the need for mutual understanding and wellbeing. The authors leave us with a written resource
and steps to take to create campus communities where students are understood, feel heard, and our
respectful advocates for dissent. They also call us in instances of violence to take a leading role in the
healing process to ensure our campuses return to places of learning.
Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo

Executive Director of Student Experience, American University of Sharjah, UAE
Secretary-General, International Association of Student Affairs and Services
viii Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

FOREWORD by Prof. Teboho Moja
Opening the debate on student activism,

wellbeing, and the role of Student Affairs and
Services professionals in the field
The democratisation of the country and its education institutions not only opened
up access for a majority of students who were underrepresented in the system,
but also expanded the range of issues that needed to be addressed for students’
wellbeing and success. As a new generation of students entered the system, the
numbers of students from the lower socio-economic strata, mainly black
students, increased gradually. The politics on campuses changed and the
approach to voicing student grievances also changed. Students wanted their
PROFESSOR
voices heard, and knew from experience that institutional leadership responded
TEBOHO
much quicker to student protests.
MOJA
Student protests are not new. Students have historically raised their opposition
to apartheid, their concerns over academic and financial exclusions, and more
broadly social justice issues through protests, boycotting classes, or trashing
their campuses. However, over time protests have taken a more violent turn and
have become an annual affair, particularly at the beginning of each academic
year. The range of grievances is all too familiar and mainly relates to the increasing
and high cost of fees, student debt and financial exclusions; academic exclusions
due to poor academic performance; administrative problems – whether caused
by the university or by national bodies like the National Student Financial Aid
Scheme; matters related to student housing and accommodation; and so forth.
The 2015/2016 #FeesMustFall-related protests took this annual affair to a

different level in the sense that protests started and were happening mainly at the
metropolitan, historically white universities rather than in historically black
universities, rural institutions, and universities of technology. Secondly, with the
presence of public media representatives and the use of social media, the violent
nature of the protests which targeted both university leadership and government
Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests ix

was also broadcast to the public like never before – and the violent response by police and security
services was equally omnipresent in the public realm. The violence impacted all members of the university
– students in general and staff – in various ways as they became the collateral damage of the protests
and protest responses. It is in this context that a study was conducted to understand the impact of
student movement related violence on students and to highlight issues that student affairs professionals
need to be aware of and find a way to continue to support students and make sure they succeed.
Activism is something that universities indirectly nurture as students learn and develop a critical mind.
There are scholars who argue that higher education needs to prepare students to contribute to a
democratic society and work towards social justice within local, national, and global contexts (Pasque et
al., 2006; Mattes & Luescher-Mamashela, 2012). The preparations take place in the classrooms where
the critical mind is developed as well as through co-curricular activities that involve student affairs
professionals. Altogether, this is a core role of higher education as it to prepares students to participate
and contribute in a democratic society by addressing social justice issues on their university campus and
in their local communities and future workplace. The co-curricular activities on campus and overall
engagement in campus activities such as in student governance and activism play a major role in the
development of leadership, diversity, and critical thinking skills. There are studies that point to the
important role that co-curricular collegiate experiences in particular, such as involvement in campus
organisations and student government, play in fostering civic engagement (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005;
Kgosithebe & Luescher, 2015). It is in this context that student affairs professionals need to appreciate
their role and understand the negative impact that violent strikes and police brutality have on student
leaders and the broader student community.
Betrayal of hope
Xola Zatu, UFS
x Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

What price do students who partake in protests pay? Studies have shown that student activists at times
do suffer all kinds of mental stress especially if the protests are violent. Conner et al (2021) conducted a
study interviewing 42 students who identified as ‘activists’ from across the United States. One-third of
the students responded with positive effects while 60% noted negative effects on their mental health.
However, there are not many studies on the mental health of student activists and how activism affects
their wellbeing. Based on what we know and what this manual presents to us, student affairs professionals
need to take a more proactive stance in preventing future damage arising from violent protests.
How can violent protests and its damaging effects on student wellbeing and success be prevented? For
starters, since there are not many studies done on the mental health of student activists, this manual
provides information that highlights the issue and the need for more research in this area. Secondly, the
manual aims at educating the staff and administration on how to teach students the how to stay safe and
what to do in case a protest turns violent in order to protect their mental health in such an incident.
Thirdly, it addresses the kind of support that SAS professionals need to provide to students who have
been impacted by violent protests. Suggestions are made on organising student events that have practice
drills on what to do in aggressive situations should a protest turn violent. The manual also offers education
on voicing concerns without being violent. If students know that they can receive support in their activism
and their concerns would be addressed, then violent actions that can cause serious mental distress
could be avoided.
The manual presented here is a first of its kind and aims at opening a debate on student activism, student
wellbeing and their preparation for participation in civil society, and on the role that student affairs and
student development plays in this respect. It can serve as a resource for student affairs and services
professionals in the field. Although the manual uses narratives from the past as its context, it also provides
suggestions on how to remedy the damage caused to students’ wellbeing and provides guidance on how
similar situations may be prevented in the future. In the bigger picture, some of the narratives and
discussion points in the manual are a call to rethink and reform the values, policies and practices of
Student Affairs and Services in South Africa and beyond, calling for both restorative and open-minded
approaches to students’ political engagement and wellbeing.
This manual has the potential to serve as a great resource in training events and discussions among
student affairs professionals, student counselors, and other members and leaders of the university
community. Being grounded in student narratives of their experiences, it provides a ready-at-hand
manual to engage with the voices of students who experienced the violence, whether as observers,
victims or perpetrators, and consider the implications of narratives for professional development
and practice.
Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests xi

References
Conner, J.O., Crawford, E., & Galioto, M. (2021). The mental health effects of student activism:
Persisting despite psychological costs. Journal of Adolescent Research, September. doi:10.1177/
07435584211006789
Kgosithebe, L. & Luescher, T.M. (2015). Are African flagship universities preparing students for citizenship?
Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 3(1): 49-64. https://doi.org/10.14426/jsaa.v3i1.92
Mattes, R. & Luescher-Mamashela, T.M. (2012). The roles of higher education in the democratisation of
politics in Africa: survey reports from HERANA. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 10(1): 139-170.
https://codesria.org/IMG/pdf/7-JHEA_Vol_10_1_2012_Mattes_Luescher-Mamashela.pdf
Pasque, P. A., Hendricks, L. A., & Bowman, N. A. (2006). Taking responsibility: a call for higher education's
engagement in a society of complex global challenges. In National Forum on Higher Education for the
Public Good (NJ1). National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. 2239 School of Education
Building, 610 East University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research
(Vol. 2). Indianapolis: Jossey-Bass.
Dr Teboho Moja is a Clinical Professor of Higher Education at New York University

(NYU), an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, and a
Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the
University of Pretoria. She is the recipient of the Martin Luther King, jr. Faculty
Award (2019) at NYU, the prestigious National Research Foundation- Lifetime
Achiever Award (2019), Women in International Education Award (2019), and
Graduate Students Star Award (2019). In 2021 Prof Moja received an Honorary
Doctorate from the University of Pretoria. She is a founder and the editor-in-
chief of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa.
xii Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

1.
BACKGROUND
AND
INTRODUCTION
Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 1

The #FeesMustFall (#FMF) student campaign that started at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in
October 2015 was a historic episode in South Africa’s student movement and a culmination of student
frustration that had been expressed in protests for many years, especially at historically black universities
(HBUs), where students contested unaffordable fees and inadequate financial aid amongst other grievances.
These protests occurred annually, typically at the beginning of the academic year, and were mostly limited to
HBUs. Often, they occurred beyond the eye of public media. Conversely, protests at historically white
universities (HWUs) tended to be smaller and more ad hoc. The reasons for this are that (1) academic admission
criteria and tuition fees at HWUs were prohibitively high so that students who were accepted there tended to
have the necessary financial means and already came from elite high schools; (2) in instances where these
students could not afford fees, they did not form a sufficient critical mass to persuade the university
management to reduce or cap tuition fees; or (3) students who faced financial exclusion did not receive
support from their peers in numbers because the student political and protest culture was different and
protests were termed embarrassing (Dawson, 2006; Ray, 2016; Luescher, Webbstock & Bhengu, 2020).
Black and working-class students at HWUs like Wits were essentially expected to assimilate into an inherited
institutional culture of whiteness and middle-classness, in order to be identified as part of the student norm.
However, the massification of higher education in South Africa and, along with that, the deracialisation of the
universities meant that a greater number of black students, not only from ‘black diamond’ families and elite
schools but also from rural and township high schools and poorer backgrounds, made it successfully into the
metropolitan universities and HWUs. Some gained access to financial aid through private, public or university
scholarships, others through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). However, there was also an
increasing group of students without financial support; students who came from poor, working-class and
lower middle-class families who for various reasons could not get NSFAS or other financial aid and
scholarships. Those who fell through the gap between being ‘too poor for fees but too rich for NSFAS’ were
called ‘the missing middle’. Many students faced unacceptable hardship while hoping for a higher education
that would help lift them and their extended families up a few rungs on the socio-economic ladder. To achieve
their educational goals, they ended up sleeping in lecture halls, libraries and computer labs, in open sheds
and toilets (DHET, 2011). Student leaders, through their affiliation with the South African Students Congress
(SASCO), an affiliate of the African National Congress (ANC), made the government leaders aware of the
challenges that many students faced (Ray, 2016). Similarly, university leaders lobbied government to increase
university subsidies and financial aid so as to better cater for the increasing number of students from less
well-to-do backgrounds who entered the universities (Habib, 2019). Yet, these efforts were not successful.
Growing discontent among the increasing numbers of black, poor, working-class and lower middle-class
students at HWUs was bound to erupt eventually in protest action as no resolution of the issues had been
reached. When a politically charged Wits Students’ Representative Council (SRC) took the lead to oppose yet
another round of double-digit fee increases in September 2015, student leaders from across the university
landscape took note. Eventually, in October 2015, SRCs, student organisations and student leaders across
the universities joined the national university shutdown, the #FeesMustFall and #OutsourcingMustFall
campaigns. Their activism produced the first internet-age networked student movement in South Africa and
the largest student mobilisation in the democratic era (Luescher et al., 2021b).
The #FeesMustFall campaign started as a noble cause; like many of its related campaigns such as the
#RhodesMustFall and #OpenStellenbosch campaigns in 2015, and the #RUReferenceList campaign in
2016, it had social justice at its core, seeking to address inherited and new injustices as they manifested in
the higher education sector. In most places, the protests started out as peaceful disruptions. Activists
presented their ‘Fallist’ ideology as three pillars: Black Consciousness, intersectionality and Pan Africanism.
The diversity and inclusiveness of the #FeesMustFall protests were different because they involved all the
public higher education institutions: universities of technology, comprehensive universities and traditional
2 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

universities. Even students from some of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges
joined the protest. Initially, the protests were described as non-partisan and the movement as leaderless,
and participants were largely representative of the diversity of student demographics, even if later studies
showed that this was not quite the case, especially not after October 2015.
Workers and students unite

Kamohelo Maphike, UFS
© Lihlumelo Toyani
With great unity of purpose, the #FeesMustFall campaign of 2015 was highly successful. Its achievements
included the creation of a space for students to express their concerns, policy change on the threshold for
NSFAS eligibility to include lower middle-class students and the conversion of NSFAS loans to full bursaries.
The movement was also a catalyst for universities to review their curricula, especially in the Humanities, in
keeping with students’ demands for ‘decolonisation’.
The success of #FeesMustFall was not without its costs. Most troubling was the increasing level of violence
on the last days of the 2015 campaign and escalating violence in the course of 2016. The violence was
manifold. It included violence exerted against persons and properties. It included violence exerted by
adolescents and adults; university students, staff, security personnel and police. It ranged from various
forms of violation and psychological degradation to the threat or actual use of physical violence to cause
personal harm and the destruction of property. It included burning things, throwing things, shooting at
students, tear-gassing students, raiding the residences and private rooms of students. Forms of protest
included presenting manifestos, chanting slogans, singing struggle songs and creating protest performances;
making demonstrations, sit-ins and occupations; erecting and defending barricades (some with fire) and in
some cases, it involved assaulting officials and even keeping them in meetings against their will. These
protest actions were met with a show of police force, armoured police vehicles with water guns; the shooting
of stun grenades; the tear-gassing of students; arrests and incarceration; suspension and expulsion. The
presence of police and security officers resulted in heightening tensions and increasing violence.
There was also a great deal of intimidation between activist students and other students who distanced
themselves from the protests, and in some cases, students were coerced by other students to participate
in meetings and protests under the threat of violence. In other cases, there was also the deliberate exclusion
of students who were ‘othered’ and expelled from meetings for not being one of ‘us’. Intimidation, threats
and violence also affected staff members from different quarters – those who sympathised with the students
and others who opposed the student protests.

THE GOALS OF THE This manual is not meant to give a comprehensive narrative and
account of the #FMF-related campaigns or the violence that
PROJECT ARE TO: occurred. It also does not deal in great depth with the effects of
violence – psychological or other – on students, staff and others who
• expose the unacceptable, may have been involved as witnesses, perpetrators or victims of
high levels of violence on violence. In order to give a more comprehensive account of that, the
university campuses and research team who conducted this study developed a book called
the impact this has on The Aftermath of #FeesMustFall, which accompanies this manual. In
student wellbeing; all respects, the project that has generated the material for this
• create awareness in the manual and the Aftermath book is not trying to be ‘balanced’; as an
public, in government and action research project, it has specific advocacy goals which the
among higher education participants in the project – student activists from a cross-section of
policy makers and university universities – have workshopped.
leaders to ensure that
student grievances are Student protests have been a persistent feature at many South
taken seriously without African universities for decades. They attest to the inability of
the need for protesting; leaders in the sector – national government, the sectoral leadership
• ban riot police and security and universities’ executives, students and staff – to come together
services from university and, in the words of Madonsela (2021), act as ‘grown-ups’ who can
campuses; ‘sit around the table and look at where we go from now’ rather than
• de-stigmatise student ‘strangle each other’ (Madonsela, 2021). The persistence of student
mental health protests and the shocking normalisation of violence during protests
issues at must never be taken as acceptable; and the impunity with which
universities; persons at all levels and in all spheres of society apparently get
• expand student away with their criminal and violent behaviours must be reversed
counselling services urgently.
to better support
students who The unprecedented violence that occurs during student protests is
struggle with a threat at all levels of society: to democracy, the education sector,
mental health individual students and staff wellbeing. Hence, the research team
issues. resolved to investigate urgently the subject of student movement-
related violence and its impact on student wellbeing.
A typology of violence
Violence manifests in different ways and is experienced and

understood differently depending on the person. It does not have
the same effects on all those exposed to or involved in it, whether
as victims, perpetrators or witnesses.
Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi and Lozano (2002: 1048) define violence
as the ‘intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or
actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or
community, which either result in or has a high likelihood of resulting
in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or
deprivation’. This definition captures the different levels at which
violence occurs, the types of violence and the effect of violence on
those subjected to it. Added to that must be Khanyile’s important
point that the way a person understands violence depends on their
lived experience of it, namely, ‘whether the individual has lived with

or had bodily encounter(s) with violence that disrupt the experience of personhood and other aspects of
human life’ (Khanyile, 2021: 1).
It is well documented that not only in South Africa but globally, student protests have become increasingly
violent ( Cini & Guzmán-Concha, 2017; Fomunyan, 2017). This can be seen in the wave of student and youth
protests that occurred in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa over the last few years (Altbach & Luescher,
2020). Student protests typically don’t start out with violence. Rather, they typically move through a continuum
of non-violent to disruptive and eventually to violent forms of protesting (although there are campuses where
a student political culture has entrenched itself which anticipates and incorporates violence).
Petitions and memoranda are examples of non-violent protests. These modalities, unlike disruptions, cause
little or no harm to the recipients. Serious disruptions of university life and the academic process such as
lecture disturbances or campus shutdowns may employ indirectly violent tactics, such as littering,
barricading gates and property damage, which some proponents may consider violent and others may
deny are violent; and others again experience this as very frightening and violating. Property damage can
lead to deprivation; it can also cause psychological harm and at times it may even cause physical injury of
persons (e.g. through burns, smoke inhalation or otherwise).
For example, Qukula (2015) reports that in a student protest at the University of the Western Cape (UWC),
windows were smashed during an examination session. A student who witnessed this regarded the event
as the scariest day of his life.
The justification for vandalism is often that property damage rattles the status quo and its inherent
inequalities and therefore presents a necessary sacrifice.
Shackville
UCT 2016
© Wandile Kasibe
Rutherford, Zwi, Grove and Butchart (2007) share that structural violence is the physical and psychological
harm that emanates from unjust economic, social and political systems. For students from historically
disadvantaged groups – such as black students, female students, poor and working-class students,
students from other historically marginalised groups like LGBTIQ+ students, students from rural areas or
students with disabilities – an experience of alienation, deprivation or exclusion can have a powerful
personal historical dimension. It can be conceived as a perpetuation of historical injustice. Hence, during

the #RhodesMustFall protest and core to the ‘Fallist’ ideology is the notion of ‘Black Pain’, which is deeply
enmeshed with the current lived experience of black persons in South Africa (and resonates with the
#BlackLivesMatter movement in the USA). According to Chikane:
It is the vocation of lived experiences which bring to light how black people are
marginalised, disenfranchised or stripped of their dignity due to the dominance of
whiteness – whose gaze perpetuates racial power dynamics in various aspects of
a black person’s life.
(Chikane, 2018: 200)
On the back of this, the proposed fee increment, which sparked the #FeesMustFall protests in 2015,
represented a violation of the (largely unspoken and unacknowledged) post-apartheid social contract that
part of the social, economic and political restitution would be to make higher education equitably accessible
(and affordable) to all, and thus provide for the social mobility of predominantly black communities, families
and their descendants, who were historically disadvantaged by colonialism and apartheid.
The excerpt below from workshops with student activists illustrates the use of the term ‘violence’ to refer
to experiences of being unacknowledged or disrespected. In the student’s words:
Violence can be when somebody treats people as if they are unworthy. That is also
violence. Or ignoring them in class, or treating them as inferior. And quite a few of
the students come from backgrounds where they have experienced that, and now,
they are coming to university. There is a considerable expectation.
(Uni-2 Student Activist)
The student activist’s attribution of the lack of respect for another and not acknowledging social norms
illustrates that the meanings of violence and violation are contextual. It also shows that such experiences
of violence do not start at university, and that there is an expectation of the university – good or bad – in
relation to prior experiences.
As much as students’ views do not require any validation, it is also important to acknowledge that the
student perspective on events and situations is not the only valid perspective. For example, the ‘targets’ of
student protests, which initially in 2015 were the university vice-chancellors, have also offered their
perspectives on student movement violence. In their respective reflections of #FeesMustFall, the former
vice-chancellor of Wits, Adam Habib (2019), and of the University of the Free State (UFS), Jonathan Jansen
(2017), note that in some instances, protest violence turned physical when a group of student activists
attacked police, security officers, students from an oppositional partisan student organisation, staff
members and even paramedics who were meant to help the injured. In the above scenarios, students
would try to justify their actions as a response to the discharge of stun grenades, rubber bullets and teargas

by public order police (or the threat thereof through the presence of armoured police vehicles and armed
public order police and security officers). Thus, exertions of violence seem to be justifiable as long as one
can blame another party for ‘having started it’ and thus may be considered as ‘hitting back’. In soccer, the
one who commits the first foul gets the yellow card – a warning; the one who retaliates gets a red card and
is sent off the field. What are the rules of the game on university campuses? What society are we aiming
to build?
The battle of liberty

Siyasamga Ndwayi, UWC
© Asraf Hendricks
Be it disruptions or actual violence, irrespective of who is to blame for starting it, the important matter is
that anyone at the receiving end of violence tends to be emotionally and psychologically affected and
needs to find means to cope with the violence witnessed, perpetrated or subjected to, in order to be able
to move past the experience and flourish.
Restoring wellbeing for learning
The detrimental impact of violence on learning is evident from research involving students at all levels of
education, in studies with students from majority or minority population groups, in different contexts and in
relation to different forms of violence (Isaacs & Savahl, 2014; Raats et al., 2019).
Wellbeing, as defined in positive psychology, refers to a sense of personal wholeness, irrespective of the
challenges that one faces; it comprises the experience of positive emotion, psychological functioning and the
absence of negative feelings (Huta & Waterman, 2014). Wellbeing, as research shows, has an overwhelmingly
positive effect on learning (Amholt et al., 2020). Students who are socially well-integrated, adequately supported
and resourced, show higher levels of student engagement which, in turn, correlates positively with academic
achievement (Tinto, 2014; Strydom et al., 2017). Redressing the detrimental impact of experiences of violence
and restoring wellbeing are therefore a necessary part of learning support in the context of student protests.
Workshops with student activists show that in an effort to cope with the emotional and psychological
challenges presented by protest-related violence, students use adaptive and non-adaptive strategies. For
our purposes no distinction of this kind is made here as the focus is on students’ efforts to restore their
wellbeing holistically.

Wellbeing is a state of contentment that includes having good mental health, life satisfaction, a sense of
meaning or purpose and the ability to manage stress. Wellbeing does not mean living a problem-free life,
but it is a state of being appreciative and content with life despite the challenges experienced (Lomas &
Ivtzan, 2016). Thus, elsewhere we have called this understanding of wellbeing ‘the dance of the positives
and the negatives’ of life (Wilson Fadiji et al., forthcoming).
Within the university context, wellbeing can be promoted through provision of mental health and counselling
services that can enhance students’ ability to manage stress (Davis, 2021). The assessment of wellbeing can
either follow the objective or subjective approach, with the former more applicable to the macro realm (quality
of life indicators) and the micro level for the latter (Western & Tomaszewski, 2016). Sirgy’s (2019) list of
subjective wellbeing includes economic concerns, and personal and contextual factors. Since the trigger of
the #FeesMustFall violent student protests was dissatisfaction with the lack of affordability of higher education
as well as other exclusionary institutional factors, areas of life satisfaction would be in the personal realm.
The measure of subjective wellbeing is based on one’s own evaluation of life satisfaction (cognitive
evaluation) and overall happiness (emotional state). Life satisfaction is a relative measure of one’s perception
of life, when comparing aspirations and acquisitions. Dalton and Crosby (2007) point out that the
massification of higher education, advances in mental healthcare, and the pressures of university life have
increased the demand for mental health and counselling services at universities. Considering that the
majority of South African students accepted at university are first-generation (also called first-in-family)
students who are mostly from modest family backgrounds and that they may have been subjected to many
of the social ills that beset the country prior to their arrival at university, one may assume that these students
need support to thrive at the university (Boughey & McKenna, 2019). Thus, this group of students ought to
benefit the most from the professional services offered by Student Affairs and Services (SAS) as they
transition from their home environments to university, from high school into higher education and from
adolescence into adulthood.
Students often have to adapt to very unfamiliar environments, often with little guidance and support from their
social networks and only limited available support from the university. When students are thrust into new
spaces, their levels of adaptability might be overstretched, and for those with limited capacities, illbeing is a
potential outcome. Conversely, adapting successfully to the university environment produces a backlash, in
that the family and local community may now tease the student for having become ‘different’, ‘haughty’ and
‘acting white’. One socially stressful situation thus chases another.
The university has the potential to reshape the trajectory of student wellbeing. It is also a potential real-life
laboratory for trying out a variety of innovative approaches to student mental health and well-being – from
individual interventions, counselling and therapy to collective ones; from purely psychological approaches to
more holistic ones; from traditional Western psychology to indigenous African ways of mental healthcare.
This manual makes a case for a professionalised, student-centred, restorative and open-minded approach
to student wellbeing. It considers the role of SAS in helping students to voice their grievances without
resorting to violence, and in restoring student wellbeing in cases where violence does occur, to support
students to excel in their academic and personal development and social lives.

2.
THIS MANUAL

Purpose of the manual
The purpose of this manual is to serve as a starting point for discussions and a training resource for SAS
practitioners and student leaders. It is based on the practical insights that were gained during the research
project ‘Violence and Wellbeing in the Context of the South African Student Movement’ (V&W), which
explored how students experience protest violence and the resources that fostered their wellbeing in
its aftermath.
The manual is specifically targeted at SAS professionals because they typically find themselves involved in
the full cycle of student life in general, and student activism in particular. The latter generally starts with
student grievances not being heard or not being responded to adequately, leading to various forms of
protest activity and responses to it and its aftermath. It addresses SAS professionals, irrespective of
whether they are in the therapeutic and counselling services, in training or advisory services, or any other
services that SAS offers (Ludeman & Schreiber, 2020). It can be used by SAS professionals in peer
workshops and training sessions or as part of the materials to train up-and-coming student leaders.
UWC: Walking for a

Just Cause
Sphelele Khumalo, UWC
Overall, the V&W research project sought to understand violence and aggression in the context of the
2015/2016 student movement in South Africa from a wellbeing perspective. Key issues that were explored
included not only those directly related to violence and wellbeing, but also ways of preventing violence,
enhancing collaborative relations of trust between students, student leaders and university leadership, and
the roles that SAS professionals, university leaders and students can play to avoid violent confrontations
and restore the wellbeing of students and staff in the aftermath of violence.
To the student leaders, activists and ordinary students who contributed to the V&W research project, this
manual represents a safe space to share their experiences and advocate for better collaboration with SAS
professionals and, by extension, with the university leadership.

The manual provides some answers to the following questions that were explored with former student
activists, researchers and SAS practitioners during the V&W world café sessions:
• What roles can the SAS professionals play in preventing violence?

• What roles can SAS professionals play in promoting the psychological wellbeing of students in the
aftermath of violence and aggression on campus?
Groups of students, staff members and SAS professionals from three different institutions participated in
this part of the project (see the Postscript for more information).
The answers to the questions posed above are given mostly verbatim. They form the core of this manual.
They are followed by a section that summarises the key discussion points noted in the manual.The
postscript outlines the V&W research project’s methodology that generated the findings.
Finally, two SAS experts reviewed the manual and gave advice on improving it.
Student Affairs and violence
As Ludeman and Schreiber (2020) and many of their contributors emphasise in the new international
handbook of SAS, the overarching function of SAS is to level the playing field for diverse students to
succeed academically, personally and socially in their pursuit of higher education. Today, students come
from very diverse backgrounds into South Africa’s diverse public universities; they have varied and divergent
ways of understanding and they have different priorities, needs and wants. Often, there is a heavy burden
of expectation on them, and their resources, whether material, academic, socio-cultural or psychological,
are fragile. SAS plays a crucial role in helping to meet the personal, material, socio-cultural and academic
needs of students as they transition into, through and out of higher education and into the world of work.
This purpose of higher education is well illustrated in the following quote:
By promoting student engagement; enabling living and learning contexts

conducive to higher education and development; providing healthcare and
counselling services; offering catering, housing and residence programmes;
facilitating social, learning and personal safe spaces; implementing co-curricular
programmes for students to learn beyond their discipline to develop as complex,
healthy, whole people; by mapping learning and career pathways and supporting
students to overcome their unique challenges along the way, Student Affairs and
Services ensures a measure of equity and fairness on the campuses of institutions
in our massified higher education systems.
(Schreiber et al., 2021: 3)
Across the world, student protests have become a major feature of the political landscape, sometimes as
part of larger social mobilisations and sometimes specifically focusing on education-related grievances
(Cini & Guzmán-Concha, 2017; Klemenčič & Park, 2018; Altbach & Luescher, 2020). As far as education-
related student protests are concerned, they are considered a less desirable way for students to voice their
concerns, grievances and demands, as there ought to be other, less academically disruptive and potentially

traumatising avenues for doing so, such as the university governance structures established by law and
statute. However, research for the 2020 book Reflections of South African Student Leaders, 1994 to 2017
found the following:
Despite the formal means provided by the HE [Higher Education] Act and NSFAS
Act for students to represent their interests in the ‘boardrooms’ of formal decision-
making bodies, student protests ‘in the street’ remain a recurrent, if not normalised,
and frequently violent part of university life on many campuses.
(Luescher et al., 2020: 2)
The worldwide resurgence of student protests has renewed interest in understanding the effects of such
violence on university students. Matthies-Boon (2017) and Morwe (2020) reveal insomnia, depression and
insecurity to be some of the impacts of protest violence on students. Certain impacts are differentiated
according to gender. For example, female students, as opposed to their male counterparts, faced sexual
molestation either as verbal threats or as actual sexual harassment and even rape, which occurred during
the protests. Morwe (2020) shows that sexual harassment and assault were pervasive in student movements.
Female activists who voiced these crimes were ostracised, ‘demonised’, blamed for the rape or not believed
when disclosing the incident. For instance, in response to a sexual assault allegation at the University of
Cape Town (UCT), male activists submitted that women must ‘dress appropriately’, a response that belittles
and humiliates the trauma experienced by the female activists (Mokwebo, 2018). Consequently, these
female students were depressed and felt helpless and unsupported; their academic performance
deteriorated and some resorted to abusing alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.
The state of Izwelethu

Siyasanga Ndwayi, UWC
© Wandile Kasibe

These effects show the important role that SAS counselling services can play in helping student activists
and ordinary students to deal with traumatic experiences. They also indicate the importance that SAS-run
student courts can play.
The V&W research project also found that SAS professionals and academics were often not aware of the
full extent of students’ mental wounding and trauma resulting from direct or indirect exposure to violence
during protests. The findings validate the importance of SAS counselling services to assist students in
dealing with their various traumas.
This manual highlights the issues that student leaders, former activists and ordinary students, and SAS
professionals raised to promote greater awareness of students’ psychological wellbeing. They advocate for
greater responsiveness, trust and less violence, and an increase in the provision and visibility of SAS
services. Overall, the hope is that the manual will contribute to enhancing cooperation between students,
SAS professionals and the university management, and ultimately reduce the incidences of violent protests
and promote the wellbeing of all members of the academic community.
The research questions
The following section looks at the answers that students and SAS professionals gave to these research
questions:
• What roles can the SAS professionals play in preventing violence?

Spaces of strength
Asandiswa Bomvana, UWC

3.
RESULTS OF THE
WORLD CAFÉ
DISCUSSIONS

The roles that Student Affairs can play in preventing violence
The first set of issues to address with reference to student-movement-related violence and student
wellbeing is what roles SAS can play in preventing violence. Many of the comments made by student
activists and SAS staff in the course of the V&W research project address matters beyond the immediate,
focusing on matters of principle, structures and processes. The themes in this section provide a number of
discussion points that can be used in staff development and student training.
Gregory, Broderick and Doyle (2020) note that SAS should develop policies, plans and infrastructure that
minimise the effects on students of harmful events, including protest violence on campus. Hence our
question around what roles SAS can play to prevent violence on campus. Four themes emerged from our
discussions with students and SAS professionals: (1) accountability, (2) engagement, (3) responsiveness
and (4) care.
Prevent and Process
THEME 1
Accountability vs. impunity
Accountability is the act of accounting for and taking responsibility for one’s actions (or non-actions). It
goes hand in hand with open communication and transparency. Accountability is an acknowledgement of
interdependence and respect, whereby the person being accountable models behaviour that is deeply
social and democratic.
Accountability has emerged as a central theme for the way in which SAS can help prevent violence on
campus. In the world café workshops, student activists frequently mentioned that SAS, university
management and leadership had to communicate better, be more transparent, and be honest and
accountable. They also felt that students were frequently disempowered by not knowing policies and
processes, and that by training students in policies and processes, and applying policies fairly and
consistently (including policies on student discipline), any lack of trust and suspicion could be dealt with.
Training, they argued, was critical for student leaders to be able to participate and play their roles.
In order to capacitate and support SRC and student leadership, SAS plays the role of facilitator, capacity
developer and mentor. SAS also has a brokering role between students and the university leadership. This
intermediary position is precarious; it is also a huge opportunity for building trust, modelling accountability
and changing the student political culture for the better. Accessibility is a modality that is seen as part of the
accountability equation. The student leaders felt it was crucial that both SAS professionals as well as
university leadership be accessible to student leaders through regular formal as well as informal meetings.
Some student leaders accused university authorities and university officials of not owning up to and taking
responsibility for their errors. Correspondingly, student leaders also needed to be better at accounting to
their constituencies and communicating with SAS professionals and university leadership. The failure of
those in authority to be accountable creates a sense of impunity, which means that they think they are
exempt from responsibility and – if need be – from sanctions. Impunity is a sign of institutional decay and
breeds corruption.
Finally, accountability starts at setting the agenda and making decisions; it is not confined to reporting on
implementation. Consensual, collective decision-making processes are difficult to facilitate, but they are
important for the acceptability of decisions. An authority-based style of decision-making and lack of

communication creates a sense of exclusion, disrespect and distrust. Exclusionary policy formulation and
decision-making results in students rejecting policies when they have been excluded from the policy
formulation process. It is a basic democratic principle that anyone affected by a decision, must have a say
in making the decision.
The following quotations – one from a SAS professional at a world café session and the other from a
student activist – both emphasise that including students in policy formulation processes is a proactive
step to prevent and resolve student challenges before they escalate to violence.
The policy states what you should not do. To force matters, you resort to a mass
protest. Not that there is no policy, the issue is its enforcement where there will be
disagreements between students and the management on the policy stance.
Students know the residence rules and regulations; one being that no squatting and
sharing of rooms is allowed. When we try to enforce that, students will resort to
mass protest. It’s there on the policy but compliance is not happening. Remember
that with policy there may be a problem, and if it is management who put in place
the policy without consulting the students or the student leadership. We can avoid
such through conversation because once a person wants to fight, that person has
reached his or her level of tolerance. From the onset we need to agree on how we’re
going to operate and stick to our agreement; if all parties understand it and stick to
it, I think it will be easier for us to avoid violence or conflict.
(Uni-3 SAS Professional)
In the quote that follows, a student activist points out that the university management treats perpetrators of
violence differently, and that management is more lenient towards perpetrators of gender-based violence
(GBV) than student activists who were involved in protests.
There are two forms of perpetrators of violence in the university’s eyes. Those that
the university wants to protect and those that the university is watching. For
instance, the universities protect lots of men who are perpetrators of gender-
based violence, whereas it is responsive towards perpetrators of protest violence.
They know exactly what to do. We just passed the policy right now, the sexual
misconduct policy that stipulates exactly what the university should do with
regard to perpetrators, but they’re non-compliant with that policy. It is not a policy
information, or a capacity issue, but it’s an issue of interest, which is the
recommendation I wanted to make. The university does not have the interest.

The quotes indicate that the lack of open conversations about policies at the universities and the weakness
of established institutional mechanisms and processes (irrespective of who holds a position) give way to
inconsistency and impunity, as seen in some students ignoring policy directives and some SAS officials and
university officials applying policies and processes inconsistently.
The excerpt below illustrates the need for the university authorities to revise the training that is offered to
the student leaders.
Our leadership training offered in the university does not equip us with the
knowledge of the crucial operations of the university. It’s always administrative
things: how to type a report, make an order if the air-conditioner is broken in the
office, get your telephone code. It’s never about the pertinent things, like the
structure of the university, the individuals that make up the council of the university,
the procedures to follow to effect changes in the university. The training is on
operational issues that do not equip us with the necessary skills to effect change
on campus. By the time you understand the system, your tenure is over, there’s a
campaign here coming up. There isn’t enough time to understand what’s going on.
I feel like these platforms, your REC [Residence Executive Committee] training,
your SRC training, I do think they’ve been useful PR [public relations].
This quote points to the need for the SAS professionals to advocate on behalf of students.
In the quote below the student activist suggests that a SAS division should identify trustworthy staff
members – SAS professionals, academics, managers or support staff – to mediate conflict between
students and the university leadership.
We don’t have a group of staff members with the necessary mediation skills and
the students’ trust, who can engage on behalf of students and the management.
Students cannot negotiate with the police. We need to identify people that have a
good relationship with students, so they don’t just meet up with students when
there’s a protest. People that really have relationship with students and people
that have the necessary mediation skills. And I think that has been lacking in the
past, because I think some of the situations could have been prevented and one of
them is exactly Shimla Park.*
* Shimla Park here refers to a violent altercation between black #EndOutsourcing protestors on the one side,
and white rugby spectators on the other, at the UFS in February 2016. In response to the disruption of the
inter-varsity rugby game by protesting staff and students, spectators left the stands and attacked the
protestors to force them off the pitch. The incident radicalised the movement at the UFS and led to a week
of student protests, distruction of property on campus, and violent police intervention.

In the excerpt below a student activist shares their perception of the level of accessibility and transparency
of the university management.
Unfortunately, with our campus, people know that we have had so many problems
and many of those arise as a result of lack of communication, that’s the first thing.
Secondly, the hierarchies that are there, red tape or the bureaucracy and fortunately
units like SRCs and so on, have been there and were unable to offset the campus
hierarchy. If there were constant meetings of students and the leadership or
management, and other strategic forces on campus, probably we wouldn’t have a
lot of problems.
The following quotation illustrates how the university management is seen to be indifferent to student
issues because they opt to scapegoat instead of taking responsibility for their own failures. According to
student leaders, the perceived lack of communication and accountability of university authority may ruin an
SRC’s reputation, as they become falsely accused of being puppets of management and involved in
corruption. A student activist from Uni-3 told us the following story about buck-passing between NSFAS
and the Uni-3 management when it comes to financial aid payments to students.
NSFAS had a problem negotiating with the management or the leadership of

Uni-3. Had it not been because of that disjuncture, probably the [student] strike
would not have happened because this was about money. And NSFAS said that
‘No, it is your university that is not disclosing how we give out money’, and
students did not know either. And the management kept on saying, ‘No, you guys
did not teach us the process of managing NSFAS’s money.’ So, you had all these
conflicts coming together and students ultimately saying ‘No, the problem is with
your staff members, your management, because you are probably corrupt, you are
embezzling our funds’ and so on.
The above theme concentrates on instilling and improving accountability between students and university
authorities, with the key roles played by SAS professionals as enablers, facilitators, trainers, mediators and
so forth. The accounts and suggestions given by student activists and SAS practitioners are at a tactical
level; they can serve as conversation points to discuss what needs to happen institutionally, in governance
and in SAS to prevent violence on the university campuses. The argument is that a lack of accountability
(which correlates to a lack of communication and transparency) breeds distrust and a sense of impunity.
Improved, continuous training and engagement and the consistent treatment of wrongdoers, including the
perpetrators of violence, were suggested as potential solutions which can work when there is engagement
between the students and the university authorities.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 1
ACCOUNTABILITY
1.1 SAS should teach and train students about policies, and apply policies fairly
and consistently, including policies on student discipline.
1.2 Guard against impunity! A fair system involves rewards for good performance
and requires sanctions for wrongdoing.
1.3 Familiarise students with past, present and future policy development;
engage and train students to participate equally in decision-making
processes.
1.4 Accountability must be part of the full cycle of decision-making, from agenda-
setting to implementation. It is a fundamental quality of governance and
management.
1.5 A university must have a fully fledged student judicial system in place and
there must be impartiality and consistency in the treatment of perpetrators of
violence and other wrongdoers.
1.6 SAS must take up their key role as intermediary between the university
leadership and student leaders. It must play a brokering role between
students and the university leadership.
1.7 University leadership and SAS must be accessible and transparent in their
dealings with students through regular formal and informal meetings.
1.8 All must own up and take responsibility for their errors. Accountability is an
integral part of the governance and transformation principle of democratisation.
Prevent and Process
THEME 2
Engagement vs. detachment
The meaning of the word 'engagement' ranges from its use to describe the formal agreement between two
loved ones to get married to a much vaguer arrangement to do something together at some point in time.
To engage can refer to quite an intense process; but it can also be used as a ‘cop-out’ word in order to not
fully commit to a specific course of action. Often in student life, engagement refers to a rather nondescript
process where two or more parties get together to try to deal with issues. As much as it is a vague word,
any engagement process can only be successful when all parties involved agree to the process, interact
willingly and are open and vulnerable to each other.
A lack of engagement creates a sense of detachment. Student activists proposed that university authorities
ought to create platforms for student–university authority cooperation and that the authorities must be
accessible and ready to engage with students. Such engagement must not only be on the terms and
modalities of the university. Sometimes, the terms of engagement and modalities must be adjusted to suit
the students.

Following from the theme of engagement, a Uni-2 student activist shared that the university management
seemed indifferent to student issues, hence cooperation was hampered:
Usually, management doesn’t want to interfere with the problems of the students
and that is where the problem is because once you are part and parcel of the
whole process, maybe when there are spaces for us to interact, it will be easy to
solve [matters] instead of pitting [us] against one another, you know, pitting one
body against another. The body of management against students and if we were
united in that fashion then it will be easy to resolve problems on campus.
In the excerpt below the student activist describes the nature of interaction between themselves and the
university management. One can conclude that student activists wish to have open and relaxed engagements
with the university authorities.
The hierarchy of a university environment requires that the student leaders are a
bridge between management and the student populace. [That is the] difficulty
with this institution and others that have had similar crises. There’s inconsistency,
there’s that lack of professionalism. When you raise an official challenge, you’ll get
a verbal response to an official challenge. For instance, you submit a letter and you
get an official response verbally; you are responded to on the go.
You go tomorrow, the same person tells you a different response to yesterday’s, so
now it becomes problematic because as a bridge in between management and the
students, once you get a response you go and report back [to students]. So, when
you or someone else comes back with a different response to the one that you’ve
received, it creates inconsistencies. Therefore, protests are a way for students to say
‘we have lost faith in your leadership and we’re taking matters into our own hands,
and going to go to the streets’. Out of fear of being unpopular and of students leading
themselves, you end up supporting their cause and leading them because you want
to show that I have not eaten with management. Should you condemn their initiative
to go to the streets you are accused immediately of having pocketed a brown
envelope or drinking tea with management, which are popular phrases that indicate
that you are no longer for us but you are fighting for a different cause.
The statements above reveal that the student activists were discontent with the nature and level of
engagement at their campuses. The authorities were seen as reactive to their issues and also tended not to
follow the official lines of communication.

The role of SAS is to contribute to student academic success and wellbeing, and part of that is to ensure
student integration, persistence and engagement. Student engagement is closely correlated with both
academic success and wellbeing (Schreiber et al., 2014; Tinto, 2014). Co-curricular student engagement
has an enormous amount of positive backwash into students’ citizenship competences (Luescher-
Mamashela, 2015). Thus, ways of engaging students in general and student leaders in particular, as well as
creating platforms and modalities for enhanced engagement between student leaders and university
leadership, are key in SAS contributions to the prevention of violence on campus and to student
development, learning and success (Luescher-Mamashela et al., 2015).
ENGAGEMENT
2.1 SAS should provide multiple platforms for engagement and cooperation
between management and student leaders.
2.2 There must be a reciprocal adherence to using official channels of
communication, especially on matters that may be contentious.
2.3 Official governance structures and committees should operate in ways that
encourage engagement and engaged decision-making and not as subtle
means of control.
Power shared is not power lost

Yolokazi Mfuto,
University of Fort Hare (UFH)

Prevent and Process
THEME 3
Responsiveness vs. indifference
To be responsive means to have the ability to adjust to external influences and change. In dialogic
communication, voicing seeks responding. In politics, responsiveness is a key quality of good governance;
it requires that institutions have systems and processes to resolve the issues of their constituencies
expeditiously and amicably. When the university management is responsive to the issues that students
voice, the opportunities for misunderstandings that may lead to violent protests are minimised.
Students are a key constituency and stakeholder in higher education and in every university; they have the
coercive power of mass action if their voice falls on deaf ears. The politically realist case provides a powerful
justification for the inclusion of students in formal decision-making and the creation of a governance system
that is responsive to legitimate student concerns (Luescher-Mamashela, 2013). Over and above that, there
are many more good reasons for sincere engagement and responsiveness.
Sometimes, responsiveness requires asking the right questions first, engaging in debate and making sure
everyone is on board. This quote by a student leader from Uni-3 indicates what seem to be unanswered
questions:
I think honestly speaking, sometimes we do have a lack of resources, but in other

instances, we lack prioritisation of our resources. For example, the university
prioritises the next four biggest projects of around R500 million, namely, the staff
recreational centre, the university church, a new auditorium that could graduate
about 3 500 seated students. In terms of development and the master plan of the
university, we agree that these projects should be there, but if you ask yourself,
‘Should they be prioritised before we get more lecture halls?’ Because you can’t
say you want to graduate 3 500 students, where [do they go] before they go to that
graduation? You can’t say you are prioritising a staff recreational centre with
exercising equipment when you don’t have one for students. You can’t say you are
prioritising a church when you have not identified which of the 20 churches or
denominations that exist within the universities is going to run that.
As mentioned above, preventing violence requires accountability, transparency, communication and

engagement. Similarly, in the quote below a Uni-2 student activist shares a whole range of concerns about
changes that happen on campus without students knowing the reasons for the changes.

A lot of violence occurs out of miscommunication. For instance, people don’t know
what the progress is with the shuttle. People don’t understand why, in the red
square, they’ve just built that stuff there. No one knows why that is now a medical
residence and why that decision was taken. No one knows why there are black
fences around the chemistry building now. No one knows why certain things
happen when they happen. They just see changes made to the space, they see
decisions being made, no one understands what happens, whether there was a
consultation because there are only student leaders involved and we can’t like go
to each student and tell them, hey, this is what happened.
These statements by student activists point out that students could not make sense of how decisions were
taken. The university authorities apparently took decisions but who were they responsive to? The needs of
students?
The #FeesMustFall student movement centred on a discussion of social justice and transformation. ‘What
does this mean in practice?’ asked a student activist at Uni-2.
Is substituting a white director of Student Affairs for an African change? The

university management thinks that transformation is to move the black person in
and remove the white person. The SAS management is not prepared to engage nor
to be student-centred. Hence, someone said something to me, that this system
will frustrate you. Yes, we can have 10 000 black deans, but now they’re dancing
to a particular tune. And if that tune is that of the white person, whatever issue
there is, nothing is going to change. All that they need to do is to dance and they
will dance using your black moves, but at the end of the day, it’s not for you.
At the world café event a SAS professional from Uni-3 highlighted some of the proposed roles that SAS can
undertake to be responsive to the needs of students and to work towards the transformation of their
campuses.

The proposed Living and Learning programme aimed to bridge a lot of gaps. For
instance, we have got a programme called Thoho-ya-nzie on campus where
students who don’t have the means can go there and get free food and any other
assistance. Often, you would find that a protest arises from people saying ‘we are
hungry of not being provided with the means to have food’. We also have other
campus-based programmes, other than the above-mentioned one but students
are not utilising them because there’s no one bridging that gap between the
students who live in the residences or even the students who are living outside
campus. Had we been able to implement the programme, the information from the
management or the Student Affairs that does not reach the students would have
been a bit bridged by the peer-educators responsible for the Living and Learning
programmes. We might have even been able to extend it perhaps to off-campus
residences, particularly to the accredited residences. However, the fact is that
there’s a lack of adequate resources to implement the programme.
The quote above indicates a huge disjuncture: a programme designed to respond to a dire student need –
food security – was not implemented because the resources were not made available. Sometimes SAS is
confronted with the reality that university management does not understand the severity of a situation and
thus will not make available the resources required for a programme to be implemented. Conversely,
students will perceive their institution as unaware of their challenges and dire realities. Thus, at times,
responsiveness will require that students and SAS work together to ensure an intervention that prevents
student discontent and violence.
RESPONSIVENESS
3.1 The SAS maxim of ‘student centredness’ must mean to know, understand,
prioritise and advocate for students’ needs.
3.2 To prevent discontent and student enragement, address student grievances
timeously.
3.3 Address transformation issues (including gender and GBV, race and language/
ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, disability, as well as equity, social justice
and democratisation).
3.4 At times SAS must champion student issues in relevant structures and
support students in dealing with third parties (without taking the place of
student representatives).

Prevent and Process
THEME 4
Care
Care is an innate need for human beings, and it signals interest in the wellbeing of another. SAS services
are aimed at facilitating and promoting overall student functioning; hence, their services are invested in the
duty of care or ethic of care.
Belton (2014) shares that the duty of care is a relationship-based obligation to consistently exercise a level
of reasonable care to avoid injury to an individual or their property. This ethic upholds fairness and justice
and commitment for those SAS professionals to work with. Importantly, care does not mean blanket
acceptance of behaviours but is an acknowledgement of the feelings and desires of another person.
Essentially, the duty of care means presence and attending to the students when the need arises. The
quotations that follow expand on how student activists frame care on the part of the authorities, which they
expressed as the need for the authorities to understand and address inequalities, to be aware of the
consequences of police intervention in student protest and to develop and consistently apply internal
disciplinary processes (for students’ safety and security).
The quotations depict how the university may potentially cause harm to students when its practices are
oblivious to the realities of students. Hence the need for SAS professionals to be at the forefront of
introducing harm-reduction efforts.
Schreiber and Luescher (2016) attest that the new mandate of universities is to uphold social justice, as per
the national imperatives, a task that the SAS professionals can fulfil. In the quote below a student activist
comments on the different manifestations of inequality at universities and possible solutions for them.
Until structural violence is dealt with, and how is that dealt with, [I] think that in
the years on working on the research on food and security on campus, that has
been the biggest problem, is there acknowledgement that those issues even exist
to start with? So, issues around race and its politics, inequality, and gender-based
violence on campus; the actual acknowledgement of structural violence issues is
the fastest they can stop. The question is, is the management ready to acknowledge
the presence of those issues? Secondly, after acknowledging these, we can move
to speak on how to address them. From my perspective and studies [we need] to
address issues around structural violence. You can’t address issues of structural
violence for people. It has to be by people, with people. Therefore, a council seating
comprising of four, five people making several ad hoc teams will not, is not, going
[to] address [the issue]. If there is no consultation, if students themselves don’t
take agency of the problem and sit at the table to decide on the courses of action;
I think that in another two to three years we’re all going to come back to this table
and discuss this again.

In the quote above the student activist feels that there seems to be reluctance on the part of the university
management to acknowledge and address student issues as they stem from structural violence issues.
Moreover, as the affected party, students are also not afforded the opportunity to participate in discussions
to find solutions.
The persistent inequalities at universities often spark protests, which the police may be tasked to stop.
This involvement of police officers in the resolution of university protests has several consequences for
student activists and other students at university campuses. The picture above, shows a waste container
in which students hide when the police officers chase them. he quotation that follows reveals the costs
of being a student leader, especially an SRC president. Consequences include arrest because student
leaders are deemed to be the nucleus of the protests. If arrested and charged by the law, the university
can suspend the student activists, leading to them having a criminal record and not completing
their studies.
There are always people that university deems as the leaders of the movement.
And I can [reflect] about the issue at the University of North-West [UNW] because
my friend was president there. He was not present in one protest because he was
then in the SRC, which organised the protest. He must take the fall for every
student of the university and gets suspended. Thrown into the dungeons without
a degree or anything and forced to go to Joburg to hustle for a job.
The Uni-2 activist statement shows that, in its effort to curb violent protests, the university management
permits private security officers on its premises to raid the suspected student residences to look for the
alleged protest leaders. Residence raids create insecurity for the students and hamper the development of
trust between the authorities and the student populace.
In some instances, it seems that the university management does little to protect students. For instance,
during the 2015/16 protests, universities hired private security companies to man student protests. However,
their terms of reference went beyond the protests as the university allowed the said companies access to
student residences, an action that confirms the power of the management to victimise students as captured
in the quote below:
Private securities are paid, they don’t just say that, ‘yes, we know that we must go
raid House Tswelopele and go straight there’. They never jumped the walls, because
they had access cards, which they can only [have] got on campus.

In the extract below, a student activist juxtaposes how the university deals with activists and perpetrators
of other violent crimes:
The university will exercise resources to remove particular people from campus
and suspend them, when they think that person is violent and disruptive, but won’t
do the same thing if this is a student who sexually assaults, or has allegedly
sexually assaulted someone. My concern is that [there] have been instances
where they’ve wrongly removed students during investigation processes, even
those students who are arrested, allegedly for arson, there was never evidence
that connected them to the arson incident that night.
The activists’ inputs point to a university that is indifferent, punitive and inconsistent when handling student
misdemeanours. The punitive measures meted out to student activists seem harsher because alleged
perpetrators of GBV are less likely to be sanctioned with arrest and/or suspension.
The quotes in this section highlight the need for SAS professionals to advocate on behalf of students to
promote social justice. Therefore, the SAS division ought to develop and apply internal disciplinary
processes for students, instead of instituting punitive measures.
In managing violence and its consequences, I’m thinking that the starting point is
policy. If students can be trained and we have regular conversations on policies so
that all of us can be guided by this or operate in terms of the policies of the
university, I think it would be possible, especially for the student and the
management or staff to manage violent protests. But, I’m not sure about the police
because I think they have their terms of doing their job. Because it’s like the
university hands over any crisis to the police, it seems as if the police have to act
in their own way. But, for us, I think a starting point is a policy.
This quote implies that universities tend to rely on the police to deal with protests, instead of their own
processes. The involvement of the police results in punitive measures instituted against students. However,
the transition from punitive to benevolent action requires that the SAS professionals develop such policies
with students and apply them where necessary.

CARE
4.1 SAS must develop evidence-based understandings of student life and
inequalities, and address these inequalities.
4.2 Be aware of the consequences of police intervention in student protests; it
may stop an immediate problem, but it plants the seeds of future violence
and the development of a contentious and violent student political culture.
4.3 Develop and apply internal disciplinary processes consistently and fairly for
students.
4.4 Monitor, evaluate and be transparent about the operations (and operational
transgressions) of security services on campus.
A black body – a price for

the realisation of social
justice "here". Do we
even deserve justice? or
maybe just ice!
Tshepang Mahlatsi, UFS

4.
WHAT ROLES
CAN STUDENT AFFAIRS
PRACTITIONERS PLAY TO
PROMOTE AND RESTORE
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL
WELLBEING OF STUDENTS IN
THE AFTERMATH OF VIOLENCE
AND AGGRESSION ON CAMPUS?

This section engages with the question of student wellbeing in a variety of ways. It covers four themes:
(1) student counselling, including student perceptions of counselling; (2) the argument for developing
students’ skills to be critically constructive and self-reflective; (3) objective wellbeing and the importance
for students to have a sense of political efficacy; and (4), related to that, the need for collective evaluations
of student actions and promoting innovative ways of voice. Overall, the argument in this section is that SAS
professionals can play a key role in promoting and restoring student wellbeing through what Vincent Tinto
(2014: 6) called ‘an intentional, structured and coherent set of policies and actions that coordinate the work
of many programmes and people across campus’.
Wellbeing
THEME 1
Counselling
As noted, in positive psychology, wellbeing refers to a sense of personal wholeness, irrespective of the
challenges that one faces; it comprises the experience of contentment, psychological functioning and the
ability to manage stress. Wellbeing does not mean being problem-free, but it is a state of being appreciative
and content with life despite the challenges experienced. Within the university context, wellbeing can be
promoted through the provision of mental health and counselling services that may enhance students’
ability to manage stress (Davis, 2021).
SAS are established to identify and meet the different needs of students. As noted in the global SAS
handbook published in 2020:
There is increasing evidence that HE also must address the basic needs of students
by providing a comprehensive set of out-of-classroom student services and
programmes […]. These efforts should be designed to enable and empower students
to focus more intensely on their studies and personal growth, both cognitively and
emotionally. They also should result in enhanced student learning outcomes and,
consequentially, higher retention and throughput (graduation) rates.
(Ludeman & Schreiber, 2020: 10)
Among the traditional SAS professional services offered are student-focused counselling, which provides
preventative and remedial interventions by means of different modalities (Andrews & Munro, 2020: 273):
• Promote mental and physical health and general wellbeing;

• Consult with university/college staff as they undertake the very important work
of helping students make the most of their university experience;
• Engage with strategies and initiatives that encourage students to participate
fully in campus life and to competently prepare for life beyond the university.

In conversations at world café sessions with student activists from the #FeesMustFall era and SAS
practitioners, including student counselling professionals, a number of themes emerged related to the
question of how SAS can promote and restore student wellbeing in the aftermath of exposure to violence.
They include: promoting awareness of SAS on campus; expanding mental health services; harnessing
institutional resources; including academics as mediators, and providing tutors to help students deal with
the aftermath of protests.
Promoting awareness of SAS on campus and presenting a positive image of counselling is important. The
quotation below shows how a student activist perceives student counselling services, arguing that in their
community and among the student community, ‘therapy’ may be seen as something ‘foreign’. Such
perceptions may shape whether and how students make use of the available services in the SAS division.
It is therefore important for SAS to address such perceptions.
If you look at our communities, I’m drawing from where I come from. The issue of
therapy is a difficult situation; it’s a tough one. It’s not something that we are
concerned about. The same applies to the student community. That thing is a
taboo. When you talk about how best can we do some sort of debriefing after
violent protests, you’ll find people saying, ‘I’m not crazy. I’m moving on. Other
events are coming, I needed to participate in those. Life goes on.’ Just like that. So,
those things as well we need to look into them.
‘Counselling’ with the hope

to locate and ‘cancel’ pain,
make us feel again!
Tshepang Mahlatsi, UFS

Counselling as a service may be stigmatised or viewed as a ‘Western’ or ‘white’ thing. The stigma attached
to counselling may result in continuous, lingering mental health issues for students. Meanwhile, there are
many ways in which counselling is practised in different cultures, from peer counselling to counselling by
elders, to the holistic counselling that religious leaders and traditional healers can provide. Breaking out of
a stereotyped professional counselling idea and creating counselling services that meet students at their
point of need is key to student-centred mental health services.
An effective SAS provision requires that there is a good relationship between SAS practitioners and
students. The excerpt that follows highlights the negative attitude of a student towards SAS, which implies
that students don’t trust the professional support provided by SAS.
No simple student is going to believe Student Affairs when they say: ‘Hey,
we’re championing an initiative that’s going to help you.’ […] Student Affairs
[…] is so ineffective, because no one trusts Student Affairs unless you’re a
bit naïve.
It is clear that perceptions of SAS amongst students need to be shaped on an ongoing basis with
accountability, ongoing engagement and effective communication (see previous sections). Building a strong
relationship with students is an ongoing process, and sometimes there will be students that cannot be won
over. The quote below illustrates of the role of SAS. SAS may be able to mediate but should never be
thought of as representing student interests.
I think, Student Affairs is worse. It’s worse. Those people are management
themselves because they tell you straight, this is not possible because, you then
assume in your dreams, that okay, we have the dean representing us in the council.
In the extract below, a SAS professional points out the student information gap that may exist on campus,
whereby students are unaware of the SAS provisions on offer.
We have got a programme called Thoho-ya-nzie on campus where students who

don’t have the means to provide food for themselves get free food or any other
assistance. However, you would find that there is a protest where people say, ‘We
are hungry and are not provided with the means to have food.’

Students are not utilising the different services because there’s no one bridging
that gap between the students who live in the residences or those living outside.
Had we been able to implement the programme, the peer-educators through the living
and learning programmes would have bridged the information gap that the management
and student affairs cannot close. And we might have even been able to extend it
perhaps to even off-campus residences, particularly to the accredited residences.
(Uni-3 SA Professional)
The SAS professional points out problems with communicating about services as well as challenges of
scope and the implementation of the programme. It is argued that the involvement of peer-educators could
have helped bridge the information gaps and promoted the uptake of services.
In the passage below, a student activist proposes ways to promote SAS to the student body.
Student Affairs receives students, admitted by the Student Administration.

Therefore, immediately [on] admission, Student Administration must send students
information details [about] the services that the university offers such as: a
cafeteria and their operation times; student counselling and that when you are
struggling with an assignment, you can consult, we have tutors. Students don’t
know anything; what they want is an acceptance letter. Student Affairs seems to
wait for you to break some rule and that is when they will bring you some huge
document telling you that according to law of 1987, here and here to urinate next
to gate is wrong, it’s an offence.
The passage above points out the importance of orientation or gateway programmes. In a conception of
student life as a life cycle of multiple stages and transitions, the role of SAS in a student’s life starts even
before admission and does not end upon graduation. As we wrote elsewhere:
Transition support for students with various identities and the intersectionality of
their identities with other factors such as coming from disadvantaged backgrounds,
being first-generation students, and living with a range of visible and non-visible
disabilities, is particularly important. Transition programmes and services include
orientation programmes, mentoring and related support initiatives (like peer
support), tutoring, academic advising, supplemental instruction and career
guidance, to mention but a few (Smith, 2021). Transition support addresses equity

issues and provides students the opportunities needed to succeed. This is the role
that student affairs plays to directly impact on student development and success,
levelling the playing ground for students from varied backgrounds, and helping to
advance towards students’ goals and aspirations. In the process, it contributes to
the achievement of targets set at national and institutional levels for expected
throughput and success rates.
(Schreiber et al., 2021a: vi-vii)
To enhance the visibility and accessibility of SAS is particularly important for students who carry the burden
of many intersecting identities that potentially disadvantage them in the university environment.
COUNSELLING
5.1 The limited resources available to SAS do not mean that SAS should ‘hide’
and only help the ‘lucky ones’ who stumble across its services. SAS should
promote awareness of services on offer and publicise the relevance of SAS
on campus among students and staff. SAS should justify requests for better
resourcing from the extent and quality of their service provision.
5.2 Student Affairs mental health services must expand beyond the Western
model of psychological counselling and accommodate various innovative
forms and modalities, including traditional-indigenous forms of counselling
provision.
5.3 Building a strong image of SAS as a partner and provider of student-centred
services is an ongoing process that requires accountability and openness,
continuous engagement and communication.
5.4 A theory of change model to promote student mental wellbeing should
involve a multi-stage, multi-transition life cycle model of SAS provision
throughout student life, from pre-admission to post-graduation, and consider
how to serve the most vulnerable students first.

Wellbeing
THEME 2
Developing self-reflective and critical thinking
The SAS uses its different programmes to promote holistic student development. Driving this holistic
approach is the need for the university to contribute to the creation of critically constructive, active citizens
with a variety of communication, leadership and diversity skills, along with the need to enhance student
engagement and contribute to student academic, psycho-social and cultural development. Hull (2009)
shares that SAS ought to establish environments that value and actively promote self- and group-
responsibility, accountability and a sense of belonging among all students. This section looks at the
challenges that the SAS professionals encounter in their programmatic offerings.
The quote below is a reflection of a student leader on their own agency in creating unhealthy campus
conditions. The student uses the issue of residences infested with cockroaches to reflect on the responsibility
of Student Affairs and that of students.
I sometimes ask myself like how can I be always going to management saying that
we are not fumigating cockroaches [as frequently as it should be done], whilst I’m
also partly liable [for the cockroach infestation in my residence] because a room
was meant to house one individual and the ventilation system was for an individual.
Then I bring in five people in that room.
Under such circumstances, the possibilities of the room being cleaned [only] once
a year are high or at times we leave pap in the sink then the cockroaches find a
breeding zone. Had it not been for our actions cockroaches will be nowhere.
Often, we stand up and say management did not fumigate the rooms. To which
management will say: ‘You do your part! Because if you are not squatting and were
disposing of the rubbish properly then our residences would be clean’ – especially
where male students are, as they are more at fault.
The excerpt above shows that at times students tend to place responsibility for no actions or wrongful
actions on management, rather than reflecting on their own actions and the consequences thereof. Learning
to take responsibility and being accountable for one’s actions is part of becoming an adult.
A Student Affairs professional from Uni-3 told a very illustrative story about taking responsibility and the
need for students to grow up and see the consequences of their actions:

I had a conversation with one old man in passing the other day. He was telling me
that his University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)-based son was reporting on the
brutality of the police. He was saying their approach and conduct is apartheid-
informed. So, this dad asked his son whether he threw the soft, democratic stones
at the police, or [was] it stones that had the potential to injure those police and the
people who are around.
My point is that there are two sides to the story and both parties need to be seen
to be managing these situations.
However, it starts with us as officials, who are trained to be there for students
when they need a listening ear because some of these issues can be solved
through giving information before students [begin] revolting because often they
are not well-informed about what is happening.
The quotes show how important it is to be intentional and systematic about student development and
support. Students may fail (or refuse) to see the bigger picture. Critical self-reflective thinking is a skill that
cannot be assumed but must be part of the skills and competences of a graduate.
The quotation below brings the issue back into the SAS court by noting the importance of SAS practitioners
seeing the campus environment and student life from the students’ lived experience. Students experience
many challenges and have little help to turn to. Although some of these challenges are material and not
directly emotional, they still affect students’ overall wellbeing. Other challenges, like GBV among students
on campus, may be far more severe.
If counsellors would go further than to just come to work and understand that we
have a dire situation where students are raped on campus, cannot afford their fees
and [that] we need [to counsel] students after every conflict. The counselling
sections should actually break these boundaries [and] come up with a solution.
The above quote calls for a visible, active and empathetic SAS which strives to remedy the challenges that
students face.

Most of the serious challenges that students experience during their university life require a coordinated
approach that involves several Student Affairs functions, not only counselling services, and may include
others as well, such as academic support and security services on campus, or external bodies such as
NSFAS and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Intervening on behalf of students and
developing prevention and remedial programmes to curb student challenges are key to building trust
between students and SAS and enhancing students’ sense of belonging.
MINDFULNESS
6.1 In order for SAS to be effective, it requires an intentional, structured and
coherent set of policies, services and interventions.
6.2 SAS should nurture students’ self-responsibility by developing student
competences of self-reflective and critical thinking.
6.3 Acknowledging and addressing student challenges that affect their mental
health benefits the students as well as the student–SAS relationship to build
mutual understanding and trust.
Wellbeing
THEME 3
Objective wellbeing and the importance for students to have
a sense of political efficacy
Objective wellbeing is a quantitative approach that uses quality of life indicators. This measure includes
variables such as material resources (food, shelter and money) and social attributes (political voice and
social networks and connections) (Western & Tomaszewski, 2016). Psychological wellbeing is not only a
matter of personal psychology; wellbeing has, of course, material and social dimensions. This theme deals
with the matter of student voice.
In the quotation below, a student activist expresses their gratitude to others who joined in a protest to
change the university’s sexual harassment policy. This shows how important a show of solidarity is for
students who are affected by a certain problem. An institution is probably already in governance trouble
if a request for change in the sexual harassment policy requires protest action. SAS can seize such
opportunities to support progressive policy change and help broker policy-making processes to
de-escalate a matter. For students, being able to voice their grievances and see change happen gives a
sense of political efficacy and self-mastery, which in turn impacts positively on their wellbeing.

We were creating pressure on the university to address flaws in the implementation
of the sexual harassment policy, and I was happy. I was happy at the ability and
willingness of others to join you in something that affirms that people can come
together and do something when there’s a need. It doesn’t always have to be just
you doing something and thinking that you are alone. There are people who are
also willing to see the change just as much as you. And you should always be
grateful to them for their sacrifices.
These people sacrificed time to engage in the sexual harassment policy protest.
So, it affirms to you that you as a person, that you can’t always be thinking that
people are not willing to go the extra mile to make the space better for others,
because they will.
The extent of adversity a student sometimes has to endure is overwhelming. The quotation below shows
pressures from all sides: funding, academic, parents. In the midst of it all, what is required to cope is good
advice, support from multiple sides and solidarity.
My parents are unemployed, I don’t have [funding for] fees, and everything that
they’ve done was for us to get a qualification. My mother will always say: ‘khawu
nyamezele mtanam’ [endure my child]. I thought to myself that this woman does
not understand what is going on here, but it comes from a good place.
I was doing my final year; I failed everything. Literally, I was doing five modules;
I passed my June exam. In my fourth year, I failed all four. I lost my funding which
was a lot, but she just kept saying, ‘Push!’ I was very uncomfortable. I was not
enjoying myself at this place at all. I wanted to leave, but in the process, I was like,
‘you know what; it’s fine, let me just finish’.
In a personal context like this, it is easy to break and want to give it all up. Students need to have access
to safe spaces – spaces where it is clear what rules and guidelines apply for being and for holding difficult
conversations without having to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome or othered. At the same time, students
must also have spaces to be able to step off the politically correct into the provocative; brave spaces where
they are allowed to vent issues and explore difficult questions authentically (Arao & Clemens, 2013). It is
important to seize opportunities to allow students to vent their issues.
At a world café workshop, a Uni-1 academic shared how interventions with students in their department
helped somewhat lessen the negative emotions associated with the #FeesMustFall protests by having
debriefing sessions.

The #FeesMustFall was a big struggle for students and to come out of that mode
was challenging. It’s like there’s a lot of adrenalin and it’s a hyped-up mode and
it’s difficult to stop the momentum. Students were angry; there was a lot of anger;
anger at why this has happened. The anger can be expressed internally […],
which is your depression. I mean, you know it well, and then maybe a bit of
negotiating and then coming to acceptance.
What I would say is that it’s not a straight line but if you can start to move through
those processes and not get stuck in a phase. I had long discussions with some of
the leaders, because a lot of the leaders were based in our department [Political
Sciences] and there was a lot of one-on-one debriefing. But it wasn’t only me; it
was my colleagues as well. We had a lot of informal debriefs and chats and
discussions with students. We did this because we realised that students might be
stuck in a hyped-up or depressed state for five years.
(Uni-1 Academic)
OBJECTIVE WELLBEING
7.1 The starting point is to acknowledge students’ personal situation alongside
the power of collective student action.
7.2 Student Affairs can contribute to wellbeing by creating safe spaces and
brave spaces where students can speak their voices.
7.3 It is important for SAS to seize opportunities to allow students to vent their
issues and to debrief after emotionally charged experiences such as protests.
Wellbeing
THEME 4
The need for collective evaluations of student actions and promoting
innovative ways of voice
Life satisfaction is a cognitive function that is evaluative in nature and attained through a process of
comparing one’s aspirations with one’s achievements. As a result, life satisfaction is a personal exercise.
Basically, life satisfaction is attained when there is a balance between ability and challenge, which leads to
a feeling of competence (San Martin, Perles & María Canto, 2010).

The quotes below reveal student activists’ feelings of satisfaction regarding their efforts as activists. They
highlight the sense of accomplishment that an activist feels from engaging in protest activities; the feeling
that it was more effective than other forms of engagement.
I was feeling really happy that night, that we were actually doing something. You
know, you always have dialogues and meetings and email threads and requests,
but you just don’t feel like you’re actually doing anything about an issue. This night
we were actually creating pressure on the university to address flaws in the
implementation of the sexual harassment policy. I really felt that we were doing
something. I was really happy about that.
Creating moments for students to have this sense of accomplishment is crucial. If this sense only comes
from engaging in disruptive protests, the campus is en route to a student political culture of protesting.
Dialogues and meetings must result in tangible results, otherwise they undermine formal processes.
The quote below highlights how modifying protest tactics (e.g. by having an art installation) may create
more impact and have greater longevity than other forms of protesting. Art seems to be the best medium
of communication outside of literal protest. A student activist said the following with reference to the picture
'Are you free?':
This is a permanent installation at our student centre, which the university didn’t
want for a long time. It had to be put in through the back door. As student artists
we’re trying our best to mould the space permanently. Because if the space exists
as a function of violence, then we’re only going to get rid of that violence by
changing the space in itself, not just the occupants.
And then finally, the question in itself, ‘Are you free?’, it sort of feels very relieving
to be able to ask those kinds of questions to create that kind of conversation, to
actively conscientise sort of, it’s very comforting for me. Like, it’s the one thing
that makes me feel like we might have a better world one day, [and] that we were
actively involved in changing it. There’s nothing for me that comforts me outside
of the fact that I know that there is still a chance that people’s minds can become
conscious [of what needs to be changed].
The student activist input reveals that they felt that by being part of the movement, they were part of
something so much bigger than themselves but at the same time actualising their self.

Students need to have a sense of being able to mould their space, and change their inherited environment
into something that resembles their own. Creating space for protest art gives way to the realisation of
protest modalities that have multiple positive effects, including critical thinking and non-disruptive protest.
Are you free?

Tshiamo Malatji, UFS
INNOVATION
8.1 Students’ actions could be subjected to SAS for student peer assessment:
Were the actions well-conceived? Did they unfold in an appropriate manner?
Did they result in positive outcomes for the student community, the wider
university community and society at large?
8.2 SAS should actively promote non-violent, innovative forms of stimulating
debate to promote awareness of issues afflicting students, the university and
society at large.

5.
KEY DISCUSSION
POINTS

Key discussion points
Across eight themes, this manual has developed a set of discussion points which can serve as pointers for
engagement and training during SAS staff and student development events, and as a resource for SAS
practitioners in student leadership training. Many of the discussion points actually relate to questions of
student governance and representation, student leadership development and the roles that specific SAS
functions can play in preventing violence and promoting and restoring student wellbeing.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 1: ACCOUNTABILITY

1.1 SAS should teach and train students about policies, and apply policies fairly
and consistently, including policies on student discipline.
1.2 Guard against impunity! A fair system involves rewards for good performance
and requires sanctions for wrongdoing.
1.3 Familiarise students with past, present and future policy development; engage
and train students to participate equally in decision-making processes.
1.4 Accountability must be part of the full cycle of decision-making, from agenda-
setting to implementation. It is a fundamental quality of governance and
management.
1.5 A university must have a fully fledged student judicial system in place and
there must be impartiality and consistency in the treatment of perpetrators of
violence and other wrongdoers.
1.6 SAS must take up their key role as intermediary between the university
leadership and student leaders. It must play a brokering role between students
and the university leadership.
1.7 University leadership and SAS must be accessible and transparent in their
dealings with students through regular formal and informal meetings.
1.8 All must own up and take responsibility for their errors. Accountability is an
integral part of the governance and transformation principle of democratisation.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 2: ENGAGEMENT

2.1 SAS should provide multiple platforms for engagement and cooperation
between management and student leaders.
2.2 There must be a reciprocal adherence to using official channels of
communication, especially on matters that may be contentious.
2.3 Official governance structures and committees should operate in ways that
encourage engagement and engaged decision-making and not as subtle
means of control.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 3: RESPONSIVENESS
3.1 The SAS maxim of ‘student centredness’ must mean to know, understand,
prioritise and advocate for students’ needs.
3.2 To prevent discontent and student enragement, address student grievances
timeously.
3.3 Address transformation issues (including gender and GBV, race and language/
ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, disability, as well as equity, social justice
and democratisation).
3.4 At times SAS must champion student issues in relevant structures and support
students in dealing with third parties (without taking the place of student
representatives).
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 4: CARE

4.1 SAS must develop evidence-based understandings of student life and
inequalities, and address these inequalities.
4.2 Be aware of the consequences of police intervention in student protests; it
may stop an immediate problem, but it plants the seeds of future violence
and the development of a contentious and violent student political culture.
4.3 Develop and apply internal disciplinary processes consistently and fairly for
students.
4.4 Monitor, evaluate and be transparent about the operations (and operational
transgressions) of security services on campus.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 5: COUNSELLING

5.1 The limited resources available to SAS do not mean that SAS should ‘hide’
and only help the ‘lucky ones’ who stumble across its services. SAS should
promote awareness of services on offer and publicise the relevance of SAS
on campus among students and staff. SAS should justify requests for better
resourcing from the extent and quality of their service provision.
5.2 Student Affairs mental health services must expand beyond the Western
model of psychological counselling and accommodate various innovative
forms and modalities, including traditional-indigenous forms of counselling
provision.
5.3 Building a strong image of SAS as a partner and provider of student-centred
services is an ongoing process that requires accountability and openness,
continuous engagement and communication.
5.4 A theory of change model to promote student mental wellbeing should
involve a multi-stage, multi-transition life cycle model of SAS provision
throughout student life, from pre-admission to post-graduation, and consider
how to serve the most vulnerable students first.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 6: MINDFULNESS
6.1 In order for SAS to be effective, it requires an intentional, structured and
coherent set of policies, services and interventions.
6.2 SAS should nurture students’ self-responsibility by developing student
competences of self-reflective and critical thinking.
6.3 Acknowledging and addressing student challenges that affect their mental
health benefits the students as well as the student–SAS relationship to build
mutual understanding and trust.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 7: OBJECTIVE WELLBEING

7.1 The starting point is to acknowledge students’ personal situation alongside
the power of collective student action.
7.2 Student Affairs can contribute to wellbeing by creating safe spaces and
brave spaces where students can speak their voices.
7.3 It is important for SAS to seize opportunities to allow students to vent their
issues and to debrief after emotionally charged experiences such as protests.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 8: INNOVATION

8.1 Students’ actions could be subjected to SAS for student peer assessment:
Were the actions well-conceived? Did they unfold in an appropriate manner?
Did they result in positive outcomes for the student community, the wider
university community and society at large?
8.2 SAS should actively promote non-violent, innovative forms of stimulating
debate to promote awareness of issues afflicting students, the university and
society at large.

6.
POSTSCRIPT:
THE RESEARCH
PROJECT

Photovoice research team
UFH, 2020
This manual and the themes and discussion points it raises emanate from research done with student
activists and staff members at three higher education institutions. Participatory action research methods in
order to gain insight into the life worlds of participants and ensure that the process of research would be
engaging, close-up and empowering to participants.
Case studies
Our investigation employed the world café research method to work with participants based at three public
universities in South Africa:
• University of the Western Cape (Uni-1), Cape Town

• University of the Free State (Uni-2), Bloemfontein
• University of Venda (Uni-3), Thohoyandou.
Common amongst these institutions is that they often experience violent protests, especially at the
beginning of the academic year but without getting much, if any, public attention. Owing to campus-specific
conditions and the Covid-19 pandemic, world café events could only be held on these three university
campuses (of the five case institutions that were part of the overall V&W project).
World café method
The world café is an inclusive, dialogical and solution-driven research method that promotes social change
through mutual understanding and learning (Löhr et al., 2020). The world café method allowed student
activists and university authorities (academics, SAS personnel and administrators) to discuss and explore
the means to reduce violent protests. The task of the research team was to create a conducive environment

that allowed for the honest and open expression of feelings and thoughts. Nine university staff members
across the three universities - four from Uni-3, two from Uni-2 and three from Uni-1 - and about 22 students
participated in the world café sessions. The attendance of SAS practitioners and other university staff was
not as high as had been hoped, but this was somewhat remedied by the quality of interaction.
The small number of university staff members prevented strict adherence to the world café principles as the
participants did not move tables nor did they have a designated table host. Despite these shortcomings,
the participants shared insightful information about the two research questions:
• What roles can SAS professionals play in preventing violence?

The world café sessions were conceived as a campus-based capstone to the Rapid Photovoice Sessions
(RPV) that formed the core of the V&W project (see Luescher et al., 2021a). We termed our methodology
RPV because we compressed the duration for introductions, training, data collection, discussion and
reflection on exhibitions to three days instead of months as done in some studies. During the three days,
the team conducted various sessions.
• The first day started with a session lasting for about two hours and covered an introduction to the
project, the research team and activists, and ground rules, before an hour-long photography training
session.
• This was followed by a discussion of: activists’ personal involvement in the student movement;
their experiences of violence as part of being involved in the student movement, whether as
observer/witness, victim or perpetrator; and how they managed their experiences and memory of
the violence. Part of the discussion included exploring how the student activists learned to cope
with the reality or memories of the violence.
Photovoice exhibition
team
US, 2020

• The first day bridged the research questions and the RPV methodology, as participants were
expected to take pictures depicting the violence experienced and the resources used to cope with
the aftermath of violence.
• The second day started with a debriefing of the photo-taking exercise before commencing with the
labelling of the pictures. These pictures were then displayed on the wall for all of us to absorb the
work in front of us.
• The third day was dedicated to exploring solutions to the problem of violence and wellbeing on
campus. The world café method provided a way of working through the impressions students and
staff had from the photo exhibition. The world café session involved both the student activists and
the university staff members (academics and SAS professionals) and was carefully facilitated by
the researchers.
Ethics and trustworthiness
The research delved into several sensitive topics with potentially negative consequences for the student
activists. Therefore, the research team took the utmost care to facilitate sessions well and ensure that
students (and staff) would find themselves in a safe but brave space. Our project’s ethical prescripts were
ratified at institutional levels and the personal levels of participants. The Human Sciences Research
Council's (HSRC) nationally accredited research ethics committee approved our proposal, with all methods
and instruments presented in great detail. Research permissions were also sought and received from all
university sites and in one case, additional research ethics clearance had to be obtained. Upon institutional
approval, student activists interested in participating in the study received an information pack with an
ethics statement. On day one of our workshop, we took the activists through the ethical principles,
workshopped all aspects of the research and its methodology with them, and made them aware of issues
such as the possibility of stigmatisation and self-incrimination. In addition, the student activists had to give
consent to use their pictures and those of third parties. Further, student activists were also trained in the
ethics of taking photographs.
Similarly, ahead of world café sessions, invited SAS practitioners, academics and management staff were
all provided with the information to be able to give their informed consent for participating. The ethical
process was further supported by the presence of a psychologist and a social worker in the research team,
who could offer psycho-social support when needed.
Research team
Prof. Thierry M. Luescher, principal investigator – HSRC and University of the Free State
Dr Keamogetse G. Morwe, co-principal investigator – University of Venda
Dr Angelina Wilson Fadiji, project manager – formerly HSRC; currently senior lecturer, University of
Pretoria
Ms Kulani Mlambo, NRF master’s scholar – University of Venda
Ms Tshireletso S. Letsoalo, NRF master’s scholar – University of Pretoria
Mr Antonio Erasmus, graphic designer and photographer – HSRC
The SAS professionals who participated in the world café events at Uni-1, Uni-2 and Uni-3 did so
anonymously.

In addition to the research team and the SAS professionals, the following students (who permitted us to
disclose their identities) participated in the research project and the world café sessions:
Uni-1: Azania Simthandile Tyhali, Sphelele Khumalo, Ncedisa Bemnyama, Asandiswa Bomvana,
Siyasanga Ndwayi
Uni-2: Tshepang Mahlatsi, Tshiamo Malatji, Thabo Twala, Sonwabile Dwaba, Kamohelo Maphike,
Anonymous, Xola Zatu
Uni-3: Bob Sandile Masango, Abednego Sam Mandhlazi, Anonymous, Blessing Mavhuru, Frans
Sello Mokwele, Conry H. Chabalala, Tshepo Raseala, Anyway Mikioni, Mulaedza Mashapha,
Dimakatso Ngobeni
Photovoice session
UWC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding acknowledgement
This project was funded by the National Research Foundation grant no. 118522 and the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation grant no. 1802-05403.
Reviewer acknowledgement
We would like to thank the two SAS experts who acted as reviewers of an earlier draft of this manual for
their critical and helpful advice to improve it.
Photo acknowledgements
Page Title of photo Submission Photographer/ Copyright

no. Copyright permission
Front #FeesMustFall Antonio Erasmus HSRC HSRC
cover (HSRC)
viii PEOPLE, NOT Anonymous participant Anonymous participant Consent
STONES!! (UFS Photovoice) form
x Betrayal of hope Xola Zatu Xola Zatu Consent
(UFS) form
3 Workers and students Kamohelo Maphike Lihlumelo Toyana Contract
unite (UFS Photovoice) with HSRC
5 Shackville, UCT Thierry Luescher Wandile Kasibe Contract
(HSRC) with HSRC
7 The battle of Liberty Siyasanga Ndwayi Ashraf Hendricks Contract
(UWC Photovoice) with HSRC

Page Title of photo Submission Photographer/ Copyright
no. Copyright permission
10 Walking for a Sphelele Khumalo Unidentified friend / Consent
just cause (UWC Photovoice) public realm form
12 The state of Izwelethu Siyasanga Ndwayi Wandile Kasibe Contract
(UWC Photovoice) with HSRC
13 Spaces of strength Asandiswa Bomvana Unidentified friend / Consent
(UWC Photovoice) Asandiswa Bomvana form
21 Power shared is not Yolokazi Mfuto Unidentified friend / Consent
power lost (UFH Photovoice) public realm form
28 A price for the Tshepang Mahlatsi Unidentified friend Consent
realisation of social (UFS Photovoice) form
justice ‘here’. Do we
even deserve justice?
or maybe just ice!
31 ‘Counselling’ with the Tshepang Mahlatsi Tshepang Mahlatsi Consent
hope to locate and (UFS Photovoice) form
‘cancel’ pain, make us
feel again!
41 Are you free? Tshiamo Malatji Tshiamo Malatji Consent
(UFS Photovoice) form
47 Photovoice research Thierry Luescher Thierry Luescher HSRC
team, UFH 2020 (HSRC)
48 Photovoice exhibition, Thierry Luescher Thierry Luescher HSRC
Stellenbosch 2021 (HSRC)
50 Photovoice session, Thierry Luescher Thierry Luescher HSRC
UWC 2019 (HSRC)
Back Section 29(1)(b), Thierry Luescher Wandile Kasibe Contract
cover Parliament 2015 (HSRC) with HSRC

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr Keamogetse G Morwe
B Soc Sc (Social Work), M Soc Sc (Social Work) North West,
PhD (Legal and Social Sciences) Málaga & Free State
Dr Thierry M Luescher
BA (Political Studies, History) Cape Town,
PG Dip. (Higher Education Studies) Free State,
PhD. (Political Studies) Cape Town
Dr Angelina Wilson Fadiji

BA (Psychology) Ghana, M Phil (Health Promotion) Bergen,
PhD (Psychology) Stellenbosch

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NOTES

This book is a powerful and unique read for higher education leadership;
everyone, not only here in SA but also up continent and beyond, who seeks
to create a context for higher education living and learning that is conducive
to the development of engaged, responsive and responsible citizens.
Dr Birgit Schreiber, Student Affairs and Higher Education Specialist
This manual for SAS professionals has significant global appeal and applicability.
The lessons learned, presented in such an accessible way, makes this manual
easy to read with obvious prompts for meaningful discussion and action.
Dr Brett Perozzi, Vice President for Student Affairs, Weber State University, USA.
9 781928 332879

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Morwe Luescher Wilson-Fadiji 2022 Restoring Wellbeing SAS Manual

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RESTORING

Keamogetse G Morwe, Thierry M Luescher and Angelina Wilson Fadiji

A manual for Student Affairs and Services professionals

Keamogetse G Morwe, Thierry M Luescher and Angelina Wilson Fadiji

© 2022 KG Morwe, TM Luescher and A Wilson Fadiji

Produced, designed and typeset by COMPRESS.dsl | 800548 | www.compressdsl.com

Printed and bound in South Africa.

B Agric, B Agric (Hons), M Agric Fort Hare

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests iii

What we need: we need grown-ups. We need political leaders to be

Interview of Prof. Thuli Madonsela with Steven Grootes on

We would like to dedicate this manual to

Prof. Thuli Madonsela

Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Professor of Law,

vi Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests vii

Brett Perozzi, Ph.D.,

Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo

viii Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Opening the debate on student activism,

The 2015/2016 #FeesMustFall-related protests took this annual affair to a

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests ix

x Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests xi

Dr Teboho Moja is a Clinical Professor of Higher Education at New York University

xii Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 1

2 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Workers and students unite

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 3

Violence manifests in different ways and is experienced and

4 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 5

(Chikane, 2018: 200)

(Uni-2 Student Activist)

6 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

The battle of liberty

Restoring wellbeing for learning

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 7

8 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 9

UWC: Walking for a

10 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

• What roles can the SAS professionals play in preventing violence?

Student Affairs and violence

By promoting student engagement; enabling living and learning contexts

(Schreiber et al., 2021: 3)

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 11

(Luescher et al., 2020: 2)

The state of Izwelethu

12 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

The research questions

• What roles can the SAS professionals play in preventing violence?

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 13

14 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

Prevent and Process

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 15

(Uni-3 SAS Professional)

(Uni-2 Student Activist)

16 Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests

(Uni-2 Student Activist)

Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests 17

(Uni-3 Student Activist)

NSFAS had a problem negotiating with the management or the leadership of