It was clear from their response that none of them had seen it coming.
Many of the University of Botswana academics present expressed shock, rage disappointment and betrayal.
For many of them, it was an act of blasphemy that one of their own could see nothing wrong discussing with the outsiders what topics have traditionally been regarded as internal.
But despite the outrage, Professor John Holm will not apologise for the hurt and irritation he has caused his colleagues at University of Botswana.
To the contrary, he insists that university lecturers have to change their off-campus life-styles if the University of Botswana is to become a world class university it wants to be.
“I look at myself as a foreigner and it is us foreigners who raise nasty issues.”
And gauging by the flurry of hostile comments his article has aroused, it is probably an understatement to say Professor Holm has “raised nasty issues”.
As it turns out, the “nasty issues” he has raised are those factors he has identified as stifling the development of tertiary education, using the University of Botswana as a case study.
Even as he says his intention was to provoke a public debate, it is unlikely that the firestorm that is shaping up within the academic halls at the University of Botswana is anywhere near what Professor Holm had hoped to achieve.
His colleagues at the University of Botswana, where he spent close to four years building an international program office, read everything sinister to an explosive article the American professor published in a leading academic journal in the United States.
Among other things, the article bemoans the amount of time professors spend at their cattle posts and not inside the classroom.
“I am not saying Batswana should become westerners. I am not condemning the cattle posts. In fact, I mention the cattle post only once in my piece. I am not saying do not consult. I am not saying all Batswana academics are falling short, but there are many. And I am not the only one saying these things. Put side by side with its peers, the University of Botswana is not looking very good,” was how Professor Holm prefaced a presentation that was meant to give him a platform to clarify an article he wrote highlighting many ills affecting the University of Botswana.
A former deputy Vice Chancellor, Brian Mokopakgosi, said he agreed with some of Holm’s views, but feared that making them public would unintentionally harm University of Botswana’s international reputation, especially in the eyes of partners and potential financiers.
Elegant, soft spoken but unapologetic, professor Holm does not rule out an international backlash against the University of Botswana, but insists that “if they [international partners] behave negatively they would not have been prompted by me”.
Another senior staffer, Dr David Sebudubudu, has welcomed Professor Holm’s article, saying it has provided the University of Botswana with an opportunity for introspection.
“Being emotional does not help,” Sebudubudu told his enraged colleagues, a majority of whom are going as far as to question Professor Holm’s motives.
Agreeing with Holm’s analysis that university of Botswana lecturers spend inordinate lengths of time away from their core duties, Dr. Sebudubudu said it has become a culture that on Fridays many lecturers do not go to the lecture halls.
“Friday afternoon, classes are empty. It is also true that conferences take a lot of teaching time,” he said.
In his hard hitting article, Holm had said family events and visits were so frequent that they often trumped professional responsibilities “and seem like an almost monthly occurrence”.
“Many, if not most, African academics dedicate surprisingly little time to teaching, advising students, conducting research, writing scholarly articles and serving as administrators.
“Often they are away from their universities for a combined period that equals as much as half or more of the academic year, drawn off the campus by family, part time jobs, community activities and academic conferences.”
It was when he estimated that lecturers could be spending as long as half the entire academic calendar year away from their core duties that his colleagues demanded him to provide them with scientific research details that led him to such a stark conclusion.
But still Professor Holm stood his ground.
“I was in hundreds of meetings, talking to students. I have been a participant observer,” he said.
He reminded his colleagues that the worst thing to do in order to stop a public debate was to produce an academic thesis.
His intension, he kept emphasizing, was to provoke a public debate.
“I could say a lot,” he said effectively implying that angry as his colleagues were they should at least be somewhat grateful given that he has held back a lot of really negative things about the state of affairs at Botswana’s highest institute of learning.
“University of Botswana has produced five or six PhD students over the last few years. To produce a PhD you need to be in a lab with students. And I don’t see that happening here,” said Professor Holm.
“Many academics are also involved in business. They are landlords, own retail shops, run transportation businesses, operate commercial ranches, and more. On several occasions in Botswana, a colleague sent regrets that he could not attend a meeting because he was managing the repair of a borehole at his cattle post.”
Holm emphasizes the importance of the university’s Strategic Plan, but doubts very much if the blueprint can be realised unless there is a dramatic mindset change.
Moonlighting is one area that pains him.
“Many African university faculty and staff members, even in the humanities, are frequently hired to be consultants for governments, international aid organisations, the news media and corporations. Those jobs usually last for a short time but require intense labour. During short work periods, professors have time for only a quick stop at the university to lecture,” writes Holm.
Another area of concern that comes out for particular mention is conference attending, which, according to Holm, also consumes considerable amounts of time that could otherwise be meaningfully spent inside classrooms or in research.
“Professors do not have much opportunity to interact with students, with each other or with visiting colleagues. With such demands on faculty business and staff time, the central business of the university ÔÇô teaching and learning ÔÇô has become secondary. The effect on a university is profound. Many faculty members do not want to take administrative positions because it would take time away from consulting, personal business and family concerns; junior faculty members shape their careers without input experienced colleagues; and most seriously, absenteeism hurts student learning.”
This has not stopped Dr. Onalenna Selolwane to ask Holm to produce more scientific evidence to back up his piece.
Selolwane who said she has been a lecturer at the University of Botswana for 25 years views Holm’s views as not only stereotyping but also demeaning of Botswana professors.
