Makerere University Freshers (first year students) for the academic year 2023/24 had their general orientation on Monday August 21st, 2023 at the Institutions’ freedom square.
The freshers that had had their heads up high had to bow them down slightly by the end of their first university orientation session.
This year’s general orientation was one of its kind. It was one that I would not wish for even students from that school in Wakiso that I hate with passion.
Imagine having a sleepless night only to be made to sit in the scorching sun for hours. This is the kind of nasty experience Makerere freshers for the 2023/24 academic year had to go through.
For freshmen that had long bragged about being admitted at Makerere, going as far as denigrating their counterparts admitted elsewhere, it was dishonourable indeed.
That orientation experience is symbolic of the tough times that await the freshmen. Whether it was done on purpose or not, this kind of reception was undeserved.
If there is a lesson I understood to the dot during my childhood is to hide my bad manners from visitors – especially on their first day of visit.
The ill-treatment Makerere University accords its students of late is unbecoming and the university seems to be unapologetically okay with it.
Things at Makerere University are slowly falling apart and before we know it students will be having lectures under trees.
The other day I watched videos of students from Livingstone hall matching in protest to the vice chancellor’s office because they had gone weeks without water. This protest forced the administration to react and in a few days water was back at the hall.
Before this, I had seen the university’s guild president being thrown on a police patrol like a potato sack when he was arrested during a protest for allowances of government sponsored students.
Such stories are only representative of the many wrongs at the university that need to be rectified by management.
Someone on X (formerly twitter) called this shoddy orientation ‘bad public relations’ for the university and I concur with them.
Makerere was in the past referred to as the Harvard of Africa, however, there is need to rebrand to fit in the institution’s current setting. I am not sure if the current administrators still care about Makerere’s reputation otherwise they ought to maintain the institution’s historical image.
When pictures of freshers sunbathing surfaced on social media, I thought the institution’s public relations team would be quick to give us an explanation but I was wrong.
Makerere owes us an apology for this ugly freshers’ orientation and we are impatiently waiting for it. In the meantime, we apologize (on behalf of management) to all freshmen for this nasty orientation.
