Risk management and control: Human resources risks in a merged academic institution

This paper measured the mood of College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) academics following the merger between University of South Africa (UNISA), Vista University Distance Education Campus (VUDEC) and Technikon SA (TSA). The formulated statements, potential human resources related risks with association to the statements were articulated. The results obtained from the survey indicated that had the risk assessment been undertaken in CSET, the risk of losing/ retaining critical skills, corporate memory, and the inability to attract these critical skills to CSET could have been higher on the risk dashboard following the post-merger of UNISA, VUDEC and TSA.

Implementing an Outcome-Based Assessment Portfolio

This case study examines the introduction of an ePortfolio requirement as a means of assessing student learning and program effectiveness. The Communication and Performance Studies major at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, began piloting the use of an assessment ePortfolio in the spring of 2003 and has since fully implemented it as a program requirement. Although the potential of ePortfolios is still being realized, research suggests the benefit of involving students in program assessment. Case studies are helpful to further define and articulate the emerging literature on assessment ePortfolios. Using qualitative research methods, strengths and weaknesses of this ePortfolio implementation are identified, and areas of improvement are discussed.

The Company You Keep: Subversive Thoughts on the Impact of the Playwright and the Performer

This article explores the much-debated question of the political impact or potential of theatre from a new angle. Accepting frankly the limitations of a medium which seldom reaches more than four per cent of the population, Temple Hauptfleisch looks instead at the contingent ways in which influence works – creating ‘images’ of authors, performers, venues, companies, and even of specific occasions which work upon audiences and non-audiences alike. The ideas explored in this article were first proposed in a paper read at a colloquium on ‘The Semiotics of Political Transition’, held at the Port Elizabeth Campus of Vista University in August, 1992: although most of the author's examples are thus from the theatre world of South Africa, the major thrust of his argument holds equally well for any contemporary westernized, media-dominated society. Temple Hauptfleisch is Associate Professor of Drama and Head of Theatre Research at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is co-editor of the South African Theatre Journal and has published widely on the history and theory of South African theatre.