Chapter Presidents and Secretaries of UDS Alumni Association have had their maiden “face to face” meeting in Cape Coast in the Central Region on 28th January, 2023.  The meeting, which was in line with the provision in Article 10 of the Alumni Constitution which states that “The Council shall meet once a year, and such meetings may rotate from Chapter to Chapter” saw in attendance, all the Chapter Presidents and Secretaries, as well as the National President, the National Vice President, the General Secretary, the Deputy General Secretary the National Financial Secretary and the Deputy National Financial Secretary.

The meeting had, as part of its agenda, plans to continue its efforts in engaging with alumni and empowering current students to contribute towards the growth of the University. The other primary purpose of the meeting was to strengthen the existing network of alumni and to engage with stakeholders towards building partnerships aimed at enhancing the skills of students.

The National President of the UDS Alumni Association, Prof. Terry Ansah informed the council members that the National Executive Committee of the Association held a number of meetings in the year 2022. These included the quarterly meetings as well as emergency meetings to consider some major issues of interest to the Association. He said some of these issues were included the role of the alumni in the appointment of the 5th vice chancellor, a mentoring program between alumni and current students, a quarterly national event of the alumni dubbed ‘developer speaks”, an online application of academic documents, the introduction of a cashless dues payment system, the alumni constitution, an office complex for the alumni, a donation made to the UDS endowment fund, a visit to the regent of the Nanumba traditional area and Home coming event of the Association.

On the challenges being faced by the association, Prof. Terry Ansah revealed that the Alumni currently depends solely on the dues received from graduating students each year to finance its activities. “We receive, fifty Ghana Cedis (GHS. 50.00) as dues and sixty Ghana cedis (GHS. 60.00) as payment for subsidized souvenir. However, the rising cost of production of the souvenirs has made the subsidy unsustainable. The University management is unwilling to accept our proposal for increment but rather suggested we drop some of the items and make them for sale to graduands. In line with this, the NEC is considering dropping the cloth from the list of items given to graduands and make them available for sale”.

The national President of the Alumni Association also intimated that currently, the office used by the Alumni at the Central Administration is too small in terms of space. He said the University is in the process of appointing a senior member to occupy the office of Alumni Relation Officer who will also require some decent office space for operation. As a result, he charged all members to think of ways to find some additional office space to serve members effectively. 

He also disclosed that the Association still doesn’t have the full complement of its chapter Executives. He therefore entreated all chapter Presidents to furnish the NEC with the list so as to enable the NEC to be able to assign roles when the need arises.

On what the Alumni Association plans to do in 2023, Prof. Ansah disclosed that the NEC will continue to work closely with the IT Directorate to find a lasting solution to the difficulty faced by members in the application of Academic documents.  He said the NEC will also be conducting a trace study to track where members are currently working and also measure the impact made by the University to the Development of Ghana. He added that the Association will partner the University in providing some infrastructure support to make teaching, learning and research in the University an exciting event. 

Story by:
Abdul Hayi Moomen (University Relations)