Students drinking at a local bar in Stellenbosch captured on 19 March 2021.
PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
Stellenbosch University (SU) announced that the ban of alcohol consumption on campus will remain in effect until the start of 2022.
“We do not foresee that the residence rules pertaining to alcohol will change in 2021 as long as we deal with Covid regulations to curb the transmission of the virus. The formulation of rules taking into account the contributions of student communities will continue. We do not foresee new rules being implemented in 2021,” said Pieter Kloppers, head of Student Communities at SU, in a statement on 10 March 2021.
This comes a year after SU announced a temporary ban on the consumption of alcohol on all university premises.
“The aim is to come up with appropriate amendments to the residence rules that form the guidelines of student communities at SU,” said Professor Arnold Schoonwinkel, the vice-rector of Learning and Teaching, in a written statement on the alcohol policy released in February 2020.
Shortly after the 2020 announcement, student leaders were instructed to use and adjust a suggested policy curated by the Prim Committee to suit their own respective communities. This would then be used to create a new policy for campus, according to Leoné Wilkinson, chairperson of SU Prim Committee.
“Some houses are looking at allocating specific areas where you can consume alcohol, others are looking at specific times,” said Wilkinson when asked about the process residences used to create a new policy.
Most residences compiled and sent in proposals for a new alcohol policy in 2020, according to Daniel Hugo, prim of Eendrag Men’s Residence. “…we are not working on [an alcohol policy] at the moment because we already submitted ours,” said Hugo.
However, the university extended the ban. “We were simply told about the extension during a Prim Committee meeting where it could be explained to us, and I kind of appreciate that method because it meant that all residences were getting the exact same set of information,” said Hugo.
A student leader, who wishes to remain anonymous, alleged that students were still consuming alcohol on SU premises due to a lack of enforcement of the ban by the university.
“I feel the ban isn’t viable for students,” said this student leader when asked about the process of creating a new policy.