Not even the torrential rains that visited Tamale, the Northern Regional Capital, the host of the Tamale Campus of the University for Development Studies, UDS, and seat of the Central Administration Block of the University on Friday, July 28, 2023, could stop members of Convocation from attending their very first meeting with Prof. Seidu Al-hassan since he assumed office as Vice-Chancellor on September 1, 2022.

The venue was the Multipurpose Auditorium on the Tamale Campus. By the time the clock hit 9:00 am, the advertised time for the commencement of the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor and his Management team made up of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Felix Kofi Abagale, the Registrar, Mr. Nurudeen Issah Abubakar, the Director of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Hardi Shaibu, the Director of Internal Audit, Mr. Abukari Abdulai, the Director of Works and Physical Development, Ing. Kwame Debrah, and the University Librarian, Mr. Edwin Thompson had already arrived at the venue.

The well attended meeting also had in attendance, executives of the various Unions within the University Community, including UTAG, GAUA, FUSSAG, TEWU-TUC, TEWU-GH, and SSAUG-UDS.

The Registrar, Mr. Nurudeen Issah Abubakar set the ball rolling. In his opening remarks, he said the meeting was organised in order to give Prof Seidu Al-hassan the opportunity to reiterate his vision for the University with members of Convocation and also listen to their comments, criticisms and suggestions as to how to achieve the vision.

When the Vice-chancellor was invited to speak, he chose to use the power of a PowerPoint presentation to put across his message. And he did so in his eloquent best, touching on issues affecting Academic Affairs, Human Resource, Physical Development, Finance, ICT, External Relations and Affiliations, Students’ Affairs, the UDS Guest House Ltd, Sports and Plans for the future.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members of convocation his preparedness to lead them to continue to be the platform that encourages rich intellectual discourse free of acrimony and mediocrity to formulate ideas that could accelerate the development of the university. He informed members that during his familiarization tour of the university he noticed the general passion, excellence and zeal with which members and the entire staff exhibited in contributing to the development of UDS.

Prof. Seidu Al-hassan was optimistic of Management’s plan to develop actionable plans to pursue the strategic plans for UDS. He said there would be external engagement to solicit funding opportunities.

Prof. Seidu said he had already started an aggressive infrastructure drive to augment teaching and learning activities on the various campuses. He said if all members of the University Community, particularly, members of convocation carry out their duties with a touch of excellence, his vision of drawing on the energies of hard work, creativity and innovation to take UDS onto the global stage would soon become a reality.

After his address, some members of convocation expressed their views regarding how best they could contribute to the success of the University and also how their needs could be met. Genrally, the interactive session focused on sanitation on the various campuses, security, the lack of facilities for teaching and learning among others.

Story by:
Abdul Hayi Moomen (UDS Media)