Page 6 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 2

OND
ERSTEPOORT 100
recommend for appointment in a vacancy.
The university authorities had to ratify the
decision and the Department, through
the Public Service Commission, then had
to make the appointment. According to
the original agreement all teaching staff
was derived from the Institute’s research
staff. This resulted in the inability to
appoint suitable candidates for the clinical
disciplines. Another problem was that all
staff members were part-time appointments
and as civil servants had to take part in
routine duties, leading to complaints of excessive workloads. As early as 1939 representations were made that the solution of the problem was separation between Faculty and State Veterinary Services at Onderstepoort.
In 1942 the situation improved. For the first time notices regarding vacancies were sent to all state veterinarians. The Faculty selected the applicants, which the Minister could
Students assisting in a gyneacological procedure on a cow
The period since 1940 was therefore very different from the first 2 decades since the inauguration of the Faculty.
The fact that the Faculty was subject to control by the UP on the one hand, and by the Institute and Department of Agriculture on the other, became increasingly problematic.
66 The appointment of staff became a bone of contention, for example. In practice the Director of
the Institute, who was also the Dean,
advised the Faculty who he intended to
approve or reject, but he was not allowed to make alternative appointments. In 1949 the Faculty, of which Gilles de Kock was the third Dean, appointed a committee under the chair- manship of P.J.J. Fourie to take up the matter again and to make recommendations about a future dispensation. The committee again expressed the opinion that the existing
organizational setup did not benefit veterinary education and recommended conversion to full faculty status under the sole control of the University, which should also take full responsibility for salaries and other expenses. The report was unanimously accepted by the Faculty and submitted to the Senate and Council of the UP in the form of a memorandum requesting full status as an ‘independent academic unit’.
Although the Senate and Council reacted sympathetically and started negotiations with the Department of Agriculture, the matter was not resolved until the end of
1957, mainly because of the involvement of so many role players. Any drastic reorganization would also affect the various Faculties of Agriculture countrywide, which were also the responsibility of the Department. During this period Fourie, who succeeded J.I. Quin as Dean, played an important role in the ongoing negotiations. Quin had sadly passed away in 1950 within months of taking office.
“The committee expressed the opinion that the existing organizational set-up did not benefit veterinary education and recommended conversion to full faculty status under the sole control of the University...”
PART 2
Faculty of Veterinary Science: General History
1908-2008
Years