Residents say new Telephone Duty or ‘TD’ rules threaten the safety of hostels

Many residents of North-West University (NWU) hostels on the Potchefstroom campus view the newly implemented non-mandatory Telephone Duty (TD) rules as a major safety risk and a possible threat to their student life.

A snap survey done by threestreamsmedia tested the waters on TD by sharing a questionnaire on various residence WhatsApp groups. The results showed that 92% of the 88 participants felt that not having TD is a safety risk. A total of 81.8% want TD to be compulsory and 88.6% want first years to sit TD.

TD rules were revisited and revised towards the end of the first semester of 2022. As a result, the NWU on-campus residence tradition ‘TD’, is now non-compulsory for first years. Telephone Duty is a long-standing tradition in all on-campus Potchefstroom residences. First-year students provided a reception service by answering hostel phone calls and calling residents to the foyer if they have visitors.

Now TD has evolved to first-year students sitting TD to monitor and control access to the residence. The need to revisit the TD emerged from a media release by the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Council (EFFSC) EFFSC NWU Potchefstroom campus published on the party’s Facebook page on 14 June 2022.

The media release states, “we have observed our students in hostels being subjected to time-consuming telephone responsibilities, we will not let this continue.” It goes on to say that Professor Daryl Balia had previously said TD is not required, or compulsory, for any student.

But, said Louis Jacobs, spokesperson of the NWU: “TD stopped years ago when phone booths and landlines weren’t used so often anymore. It rather became a form of access control”.

Jacobs said political entities on campus made complaints about forcing students to sit TD even though it’s voluntary and students receive reward points or participation marks for sitting TD. “The higher your points, the more benefits you could get, such as getting to choose better rooms during room allocations,” he added.

TD not longer in the residence rule document

Marli du Toit, a former Potchefstroom Campus Student Campus Council (PCSCC) Residence Officer 2021/2022 said, there is a document that outlines and governs all three NWU campuses. “Each campus still has its own internal campus residence rules.” At the end of last year (2021) there was a new campus residence rule document for all three campuses that was published. “The changes were made right before I stepped into office,” Du Toit said.

In this new document there is no longer any mention of TD and no new rules around TD. Du Toit said the goal of TD is for safety and to control access in residences and that, “if a residence does not have TD or does not have enough members to sit TD, the [front door of the] residence cannot be opened, so then the doors have to be locked.

Then, only the residents can have access with their student cards through the turnstiles [that also provides access to the hostel]”. To try and persuade students to do TD during her term, Du Toit implemented the participation marks as a reward for doing TD.

According to Du Toit, residences have to lock earlier because students do not do TD. “Our residence now locks at 10pm but our social events are still until 12pm. Sometimes you still have church until after 10pm and then when you get to your residence on a Sunday you can’t go in because your things [such as luggage] do not fit through the turnstile, so you have to take it in the next day.”

‘No way TD will become compulsory for first-years again’

“There is no way where it will become compulsory for first-years [again]. I can’t see any realistic way for it to happen. I can’t imagine it ever being compulsory for a specific group again,” said Du Toit.

The current Potchefstroom SCC Residence Officer, Anneri du Preez indicated that the Potchefstroom campus residences are still implementing the participation marks system linked to TD. Du Preez also said that the only problems they are now faced with are that in some residences the students do not participate adequately to enable TD – which requires approximately one hour per week from each year in a residence.

Bianca Lombaard, a second-year student and resident of Wanda hostel, said that this year people can choose to do TD, “In my first year (2021) we were still forced [to do it]”.

Lombaard said that the cancellation of TD has influenced the residence in a big way. “About a week ago in our hostel, a first-year student didn’t do TD and everything was stolen from our lobby because of the tradition on campus that [residents] of mens’ hostels steal things”. Lombaard disagrees that doing TD is time-consuming and said “students can choose their times to do TD and can carry on with academic work whilst doing TD. TD is important for the safety of the hostel”.

Alison Nienaber, an honours student and resident at Kasteel ladies hostel, said TD [as a] compulsory [activity] was lifted at the beginning of the second semester [in 2022] but the residence didn’t inform the residents. Residents just saw that first-years were no longer doing TD.

“It puts the residence more at risk. The residence was closing its doors earlier at night which was a problem for students who had to work on group assignments at night. Usually, students would meet and [do academic] work at the residence, but that was no longer possible,” said Nienaber.

The top three suggestions from the questionnaire were to give participation marks to students who sit TD, and ask for volunteers in the hostels. The last suggestion was to hire a security guard to be stationed at the hostel entrance.

The EFFSC Potchefstroom Campus did not comment on further enquiries about the matter. –By Ingerése Keuzenkamp, Amanda Viljoen, Amber Viljoen, Petra van Graan and Khaliphile Sithole.